...CROSSED LINES CODE REVEALED
TOP LINE, THE DETAIL...
The microcode is shown in the image above is part of the top line in the area of the code page generally known as the 'crossed lines'. You can make out the very small numbers and a few letters in this sample section. It is actually that part of the top line that starts adjacent to the letter X which is centered just above the two lines at a point close to the commencement of both lines and overlaps them as you can see in the image below. You may need a magnifying glass to view the code properly.
THE CROSSED LINES:
The keen-eyed amongst you will notice that there is a faint grey background to the code characters. Part of the process of isolating these characters was to remove the upper layer of ink which left these characters visible with a light grey-tinged background to them. I believe that the grey background is not the residue of the dark ink overwriting that covered these characters but the outline of an indentation meaning that the microcode was written onto a page that was rested onto the back of the Rubaiyat and it was then covered in ink to conceal it. So the original code page had its code inked over. This is precisely the technique described in the 1943 SOE manual, link below, known as INK H. It is believed that this code was sent to Australian Military intelligence by SOE or MI6 in mid-1943 this information was found in MI5 deputy director Guy Liddel's diaries.
I am putting together a detailed document that describes in detail firstly the INK H Process and then the recovery process I have used here and will make that available when its completed, a week or two from now. The Ink H Process is described in this manual which you can access by clicking here:
Characters extracted: 1A53W565KCF5584432506280365121926V535832493528494286
Cipher Options included:
Hexadecimal (Base 16)
VIC Cipher
I am still working through this list but the ones that caught my attention were the VIC cipher plus I had some success with the HILL cipher in the past. As you will read the HILL cipher produced a a name well known to the Somerton Man community, ALF.
Back to the VIC Cipher! This was the cipher used in a very famous FBI case known as the Hollow Nickel Case. Here's a brief description of the case:
'14-year-old Jimmy Bozart was out collecting the weekly 35¢ subscription fees for the
Brooklyn Eagle newspaper along his delivery route when he received a handful of change
at 3403 Foster Avenue in East Flatbush. As he was walking down the stairs, he dropped
the coins and found that one nickel had split in half, with the front and rim of the
coin rolling a few feet away. Amazingly, when Jimmy found the thicker side of the coin,
a small piece of microfilm was still hidden inside it, but the shrunken sheet of numbers
was far too small to read.
After taking the coin home, Jimmy thought to tell a girl in his eighth-grade class about
the find and see if her police detective father would know anything about it. The coin
quickly made its way to the FBI Laboratory in Washington D.C., but the Hollow Nickel case would stay a mystery for the next four years.'
Here's a link to the full story:
https://agreatbigcity.com/history/June-22/the-hollow-nickel-case-in-1953
And here's the WIKI that describes the case in better detail and includes the name of the spy Rudolf Abel who was later to be swapped for U2 Pilot Gary Powers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Nickel_Case
The Hill Cipher was tried and it provided the name ALF, (Boxall?)here's the string:
| {3,5,7,4} (A=1) | 1O53L565ALF5584432506280365121926H535832493528494286 |