Information about
Henry E. Langen
The following
information about Henry E. Langen (HELCRYPT), editor of the American
Cryptogram Association between 1952-1956, is brought with permission of
the American Cryptogram Association. The information is taken
from the April-May 1953 and July-August 1962 issues of The Cryptogram,
respectively. Many thanks to the American Cryptogram
Association for granting permission, and to Mike Cowan for notifying us
of the existence of these articles.
Biography
of Henry E. Langen (The Cryptogram, April-May 1953)
Obituary
(The Cryptogram, July-August 1962)
Quote
from Langen's log entitled "The Editor’s Notebook of the American Cryptogram Association 1952-1956"
In
their 1990 article in Cryptologia entitled "Chaocipher
enters
the computer age when its method is disclosed to Cryptologia
editors", Lou Kruh and Cipher
Deavour have the following to say:
An
overlooked, possibly valuable clue is in The Editor’s
Notebook of
the American Cryptogram Association 1952-1956 [ed. kept by Henry E.
Langen]. … According to Langen, “He
[ed. Byrne]
did explain that the machine is made up somewhat like a typewriter with
two revolving disks with the alphabets arranged along the periphery in
a complete disorder.” Langen commented
parenthetically
that “With only two disks used, I am a bit confused as to how
this can result in such utter chaotification of the plaintext
message.”
"Cryptography - Confidential": Langen's notes on Chaocipher
In David Kahn's library donated to the National Cryptologic Museum is a manuscript entitled "Cryptography - Confidential".
It is a collection of notes and letters from people who believed
they had devised unsolvable ciphers or cipher devices. One of the
entries is Langen's notes regarding everything related to John F. Byrne
and Chaocipher. It is reproduced here with the kind permission of
the National Cryptologic Museum.Miscellaneous
An on-line genealogical search found Langen's Social Security number of 148-09-6567.
Copyright
(c) 2009 Moshe Rubin
Created:
29 October 2010
Last updated: 7 April 2011
