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.)
★
The Claim — Two Ciphers, One Play →
Two ciphers Bacon is said to have invented — one working on letters, one on words — independently point at the same play. If the method works, this is what it shows.
1
How It WorksAll on One Sheet →
The whole method on a single poster: what it claims, how much is proven, and what is still open.
2
How It WorksNamed — Sherman’s Eye-Witness Account, 1895 →
A man who watched the Cipher Wheel being worked, writing down its parts: guide words, key words, concordants. Every term used on this site is his.
3
How It WorksProved — Millett’s One Checkable Decoding, 1895 →
Millett hid a statement inside his own published article and printed the answer separately — the only case where both the hiding place and the solution survive in print.
4
How It WorksDefined — the Seven Terms →
Each of the seven words the method depends on, given a plain definition — and one claimed clue tested against the real Folio, including where it fails.
5
How It WorksStep by Step — the Eleven-Step Model →
Sherman’s named parts put in working order: eleven steps, each marked with how far it has actually been proven.
6
How It Workson the First Folio Itself →
Those eleven steps run on the Folio itself, entry word to result, nothing skipped.
7
How It Worksin Your Hands — the Decoder →
Pick any of the 36 plays and run it. Open doors show the matching passage; locked doors show exactly where the printed books stop.
8
Where It Stops — the Wheel That Must Be Scanned →
The camera rig built to photograph Dr. Owen’s Cipher Wheel: CAD models, parts list, motion study. Everything above explains why it is needed.
Send this to someone
Pass this page on by link, by email, or by pointing a phone camera at the code.
Point a phone camera at this code to open the Outreach Set. It stays visible when the page is printed.
Research by Walter H. Wilkinson · gorhambury.org