A Cryptographic Audit of Sir Francis Bacon’s Word Cipher (1623) · New Gorhambury
The Word Cipher Outreach Set
A reader’s index — a keystone, then nine documents in order
Part of the New Gorhambury Project — view the Visual Project Summary at the Landing page, gorhambury.org →
Click any row below to open that document. (Each links to its published page on this website.)
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The Claim: Two Bacon Ciphers Point to the Same Play →
What it is — the single claim this whole collection supports: two different ciphers, both invented by Francis Bacon, independently point to the same Shakespearean play, Troilus & Cressida.
Where it fits — read this first; every numbered page below is evidence for it.
1
The Whole Project on One Page →
What it is — the entire project on a single poster: what the cipher is, how much is proven, and what remains open.
Where it fits — your orientation; everything below expands one corner of this sheet.
2
How the Cipher Worked: the 1895 Instructions →
What it is — the clearest surviving eyewitness description of the cipher method — P. J. Sherman’s 1895 account — with each moving part marked in its own colour.
Where it fits — the starting evidence: what people who watched the method in use said it was. Next, see it actually done.
3
One Hidden Message, Found and Solved →
What it is — the one known case where both a hidden message and its answer key survive — every fragment located in its carrier article, every join mapped. Its author, J. B. Millett, was a first-hand witness in Dr. Owen’s Detroit workshop who worked the cipher himself.
Where it fits — evidence the method works on real material, before you learn its vocabulary.
4
The Evidence So Far, and the Words You Need →
What it is — the seven terms the method uses, each defined, and the strongest evidence to date: the one known case solved in both directions.
Where it fits — the vocabulary you need for the full method on the next page.
5
The Complete Method, Step by Step →
What it is — the complete method as a step-by-step algorithm, each step marked by how far it has been proven, with the hard numbers.
Where it fits — the technical spine of the audit; the next page runs it for real.
6
The Method Applied to the First Folio →
What it is — the method executed on the First Folio itself, from entry word to result, every step shown.
Where it fits — the demonstration; on the next page you can run it yourself.
7
Try It Yourself: the Word Cipher Decoder →
What it is — a live application: choose any of the 36 First Folio plays and watch the machine decode it — open doors show their matching passage, locked doors show exactly where the books stop.
Where it fits — your own hands on the method; the locked doors explain why the next page exists.
8
The Missing Piece: Scanning the Cipher Wheel →
What it is — the purpose-built camera rig designed to photograph Dr. Owen’s Cipher Wheel gently and completely — CAD models, parts list, and a motion animation.
Where it fits — the one step that would finish the audit; everything before it shows why.
Research by Walter H. Wilkinson · gorhambury.org