Abstract Kids decoder rings in cereal boxes, the puzzles in the comic pages of the daily newspapers and high-tech encryption all have something in common, they are all variations of cryptography. The paper shows how, ever since the early days of civilization, people have been trying to encode massages to keep secrets from falling into the hands of the wrong person. Today the science and math of cryptography go way beyond switching letters around according to a certain pattern, but if a person remembers that the basic idea is the same, cryptography can be a fascinating endeavor into math, science, and even into language itself. This paper reviews the history of cryptography and the many things encryption has been used for in the past. It then looks at how encryption is used in modern times and for what purposes. The paper explains cryptography from a mathematical point of view, following the development of encryption and cryptography mathematically. Finally, it looks at the future of this science.
From the Paper "One of the most important developments came in the form of the Wheel Cipher. The Wheel Cipher was created by Thomas Jefferson, possibly with the help of Dr. Robert Patterson, a mathematician at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1913, Captain Parket Hitt reinvented the Wheel Cipher in strip form. This lead to the creation M-138 -A, used in World War II. Just a few years later in 1916, Major Joseph O. Mauborgne ut Hitt's strip cipher back into the wheel form, strengthened the alphabet construction, and produced the device that would lead to the M-94 cipher device. These devices, along with encryption courtesy of the Navajo people, helped the allies defeat Germany, Japan, and Italy in World War II."
