TO THE

KINGS

Most Excellent MAJESTY.

Sir,

Scire meum nihil est, nisi me scire hoc sciat alter, saith the Poet, and I most justly in order to Your Majesty, whose satisfaction is my happiness, and whom to serve is my onely aime, placing therein my Summum bonum in this world: Be therefore pleased to cast Your gracious Eye over this Summary Collection, and then to pick and choose. I confess, I made it but for the superficial satisfaction of a friends curiosity, according as it is set downe; and if it might now serve to give aime to Your Majesty how to make use of my poor Endeavours, it would crowne my thoughts, who am neither covetous nor ambitious, but of deserving Your Majesties favour upon my own cost and charges; yet, according to the old English Proverb, It is a poor Dog not worth whistleing after. Let but Your Majesty approve, and I will effectually perform to the height of my Undertaking: Vouchsafe but to command, and with my Life and Fortune I shall chearfully obey, and maugre envy, ignorance and malice, ever appear

Your Majesty’s

Passionately-devoted, or

otherwise dis-interested

Subject and Servant,

WORCESTER.

To the Right Honourable

The Lords Spiritual and Temporal;

And to the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of the Honourable House of Commons; now assembled in Parliament.

My Lords and Gentlemen,
Be not startled if I address to all, and every of you, this Century of Summary Heads of wonderful things, even after the Dedication of them to His most Excellent Majesty, since it is with His most gracious and particular consent, as well as indeed no wayes derogating from my duty to His Sacred Self, but rather in further order unto it, since your Lordships, who are His great Council, and you Gentlemen His whole Kingdoms Representatives (most worthily welcome unto Him) may fitly receive into your wise and serious considerations what doth or may publickly concern both His Majesty and His tenderly-beloved People.

Pardon me if I say (my Lords and Gentlemen) that it is joyntly your parts to digest to His hand these ensuing particulars, fitting them to His palate, and ordering how to reduce them into practice in a way useful and beneficial both to His Majesty and His Kingdom.

Neither do I esteem it less proper for me to present them to you in order to His Majesty’s service, then it is to give into the hands of a faithful and provident Steward whatsoever dainties and provisions are intended for the Masters diet; the knowing and faithful Steward being best able to make use thereof to his Masters contentment and greatest profit, keeping for the morrow whatever should be overplus or needless for the present day, or at least to save something else in lieu thereof. In a word, (my Lords and Gentlemen) I humbly conceive this Simile not improper, since you are His Majesty’s provident Stewards, into whose hands I commit my self, with all properties fit to obey you; that is to say, with a heart harbouring no ambition, but an endless aim to serve my King and Countrey: And if my endeavours prove effectual, (as I am confident they will) His Majesty shall not onely become rich, but His People likewise, as Treasurers unto Him; and His Pierless Majesty, our King, shall become both belov’d at home, and fear’d abroad; deeming the riches of a King to consist in the plenty enjoyed by His People.

And the way to render him to be feared abroad, is to content his People at home, who then with heart and hand are ready to assist him; and whatsoever God blesseth me with to contribute towards the increase of His Revenues in any considerable way, I desire it may be imployed to the use of His People; that is, for the taking off such Taxes or Burthens from them as they chiefly groane under, and by a Temporary necessity onely imposed on them; which being thus supplied will certainly best content the King, and satisfie His People; which, I dare say, is the continual Tend of all your indefatigable pains, and the perfect demonstrations of your Zele to His Majesty, and an evidence that the Kingdoms Trust is justly and deservedly reposed in you. And if ever Parliament acquitted themselves thereof, it is this of yours, composed of most deserving and qualified Persons; qualified, I say, with your affection to your Prince, and with a tenderness to His People; with a bountiful heart towards Him, yet a frugality in their behalfs.

Go on therefore chearfully (my Lords and Gentlemen) and not onely our gracious King, but the King of Kings, will reward you, the Prayers of the People will attend you, and His Majesty will with thankful arms embrace you. And be pleased to make use of me and my endeavours to enrich them, not my self; such being my onely request unto you, spare me not in what your Wisdoms shall find me useful, who do esteem my self not onely by the Act of the Water-commanding Engine (which so chearfully you have past) sufficiently rewarded, but likewise with courage enabled to do ten times more for the future; and my Debts being paid, and a competency to live according to my Birth and Quality setled, the rest shall I dedicate to the service of our King and Countrey by your disposals: and esteem me not the more, or rather any more, by what is past, but what’s to come; professing really from my heart, that my Intentions are to out-go the six or seven hundred thousand pounds already sacrificed, if countenanced and encouraged by you, ingenuously confessing that the melancholy which hath lately seized upon me (the cause whereof none of you but may easily guess) hath, I dare say, retarded more advantages to the public service than modesty will permit me to utter: And now revived by your promising favours, I shall infallibly be enabled thereunto in the Experiments extant, and comprised under these heads practicable with my directions by the unparallel’d Workman both for trust and skill, Caspar Kaltoff’s hand, who hath been these five-and-thirty years as in a school under me imployed, and still at my disposal, in a place by my great expences made fit for publick service, yet lately like to be taken from me, and consequently from the service of King and Kingdom, without the least regard of above ten thousand pounds expended by me, and through my Zele to the Common good; my Zele, I say, a field large enough for you (my Lords and Gentlemen) to work upon.

The Treasures buried under these heads, both for War, Peace, and Pleasure, being inexhaustible; I beseech you pardon me if I say so; it seems a Vanity, but comprehends a Truth; since no good Spring but becomes the more plentiful by how much more it is drawn, and the Spinner to weave his web is never stinted but further inforc’d. The more then that you shall be pleased to make use of my Inventions, the more Inventive shall you ever find me, one Invention begetting still another, and more and more improving my ability to serve my King and you; and as to my heartiness therein there needs no addition, nor to my readiness a spur. And therefore (my Lords and Gentlemen) be pleased to begin, and desist not from commanding me till I flag in my obedience and endeavours to serve my King and Country.

Yet abstracting from any Interest of my own, but as a Fellow-Subject and Compatriot will I ever labour in the Vineyard, most heartily and readily obeying the least summons from you, by putting faithfully in execution, what your Judgments shall think fit to pitch upon amongst this Century of Experiences, perhaps dearly purchased by me, but now frankly and gratis offered to you. Since my heart (methinks) cannot be satisfied in serving my King and Country, if it should cost them any thing; As I confess when I had the honour to be neare so obliging a Master as His late Majesty of happy memory, who never refused me his Ear to any reasonable motion: And as for unreasonable ones, or such as were not fitting for him to grant, I would rather to have dyed a thousand deaths, then ever to have made any one unto him.

Yet whatever I was so happy as to obtain for any deserving Person, my Pains, Breath and Interest imployed therein satisfied me not, unless I likewise satisfied the Fees; but that was in my Golden Age.

And even now, though my ability and means are shortened, the world knows why my heart remains still the same; and be you pleased (my Lords and Gentlemen) to rest most assured, that the very complacency that I shall take in the executing your Commands shall be unto me a sufficient and an abundantly-satisfactory reward.

Vouchsafe therefore to dispose freely of me, and whatever lieth in my power to perform; first, in order to His Majesty’s service; secondly, for the good and advantage of the Kingdom; thirdly, to all your satisfactions, for particular profit and pleasure to your individual selves, professing that in all and each of the three respects I will ever demean my self as it best becomes,

My Lords and Gentlemen,

Your most passionately-bent Fellow-Subject in His Majesty’s service, Compatriot for the publick good and advantage, and a most humble Servant to all and every of you,

WORCESTER.

A CENTURY

OF THE

Names and Scantlings of

Inventions by me already

practised.

[^*_*^* The numerals refer to variations in the reading, afforded by the Harleian MS.; except when marked P, to distinguish the unauthorised and other alterations made by Mr. Partington, in his edition of 1825.]

I.

Several sorts of Seals, some shewing by scrues, others by gages, fastening or unfastening all the marks at once; others by additional points and imaginary places, proportionable to ordinary[1] Escocheons [2][3] and Seals at Arms, each way palpably and punctually setting down (yet private from all others, but the Owner, and by his assent) the day of the Moneth, the day of the Week, the Moneth of the Year, the Year of our Lord, the names of the Witnesses, and the individual place where anything was sealed, though in ten thousand several places, together with the very number of lines contained in a Contract, whereby falsification may be discovered, and manifestly proved, being upon good grounds suspected.

Upon any of these Seals a man may keep Accompts of Receipts and disbursments from one Farthing to an hundred millions, punctually shewing each pound, shilling, peny or farthing.

By these seals likewise any Letter, though written but in English, may be read and understood in eight several languages, and in English it self to clean contrary and different sense, unknown to any but the Correspondent, and not to be read or[4] understood by him neither, if opened before it arrive unto him; so that neither Threats, nor hopes of Reward, can make him reveal the secret, the Letter having been intercepted, and first opened by the Enemy.

[Seals abundantly-significant.] Under this title the present article is referred to in the “Index,” given by the Marquis, at the end of the first edition of his “Century,” while the articles themselves are only distinguished by consecutive numerals. Therefore, without deranging the original form of the “Century,” the designation of the several articles will appear throughout, as above, at the head of each comment.

The author, never having met with any attempt to elucidate the mechanical arrangement here suggested, communicated a plan that occurred to him in 1829, soon after reading the foregoing, which was as follows:—

A Cipher Seal. Amidst the variety of inventions for giving security to property, few improvements have been made in seals or signets. I shall proceed to describe a cipher seal, which, though not, perhaps, so “abundantly significant” as those described by the Marquis of Worcester, might, nevertheless, be applied to very important uses, inasmuch as the face of the seal may be varied at pleasure.

Fig. 1. A, the seal handle; B, the seal made moveable on the pivots at c c.

Fig. 2. Is a section of the seal. It consists of two metal plates, B B, and D D, having a number of corresponding holes drilled through them, as at a a a a, and b b b b, into which the ends of small rollers, a b, a b, are made to fit and turn exactly. When all the holes are supplied with rollers, the plates, B B, D D, are retained at a proper distance by a metal rim, soldered to the edges of the plates. The ends of the rollers being thus exposed, and ground level with the surface of each plate, are to have a groove cut in each, similar to a screw head; this is to be effected by cutting lines from end to end of the plate, as shown at e e, e e, Fig. 1. With a graver a small dot is next to be made, all to the right on one plate, and all to the left on the other; or, vice versa, of each line occupying the small circular end of each roller. It is now evident that, by using a small chisel-shaped steel instrument, or key, with which to turn the roller, the small dotted line on its end, may be so varied as to form any alphabetical arrangement.

The position of the dotted line admits of sufficient variety to take in 24 letters, distinct enough to the eye, without increasing the size of the seal. In this alphabet only three variations are supposed to be made from the horizontal and perpendicular, one very slight on either side, the other greater, and the third at an angle of 45°. It only requires a transposition of the letters to produce a correspondence which shall be private between two persons. The use of two faces to the seal is obvious, one serving to compose on, and the other, being a reverse, to make an impression on the wax. Were this not the case, a sentence would have to be written from right to left. Its use might be multiplied by making each cipher refer to an entire word or sentence; as, if a, stood for men; b, for horses; c, food; d, money; and so forth: a mode which it would be next to impossible for any third party to decipher.—See Mechanics’ Mag. vol. x.

2.

How ten thousand Persons may use these seals to all and every of the purposes aforesaid, and yet keep their secrets[5] from any but whom they please.

[Seals private and particular to each owner.] The present is one of those articles of a nature already noticed in the introduction, which can scarcely be classed as an independent invention; it is in fact little, if any, more than some intricate application of the foregoing, a mere step beyond the more obvious employment of such seals. We may consider the first as the instrument, and No. 2 as an ingenious table, by the aid of which to construct alphabets, words, or sentences.

3.

A Cypher and Character so contrived, that one line, without returns and[6] circumflexes, stands for each and every of the 24. Letters; and as ready to be made for the one letter as the other.

[An one-line Cypher.] A line to be continuous, and yet capable of signifying a series of letters, must be curved. A method of performing this occurred to the author some years ago, which affords a very simple key, being composed from the Circle and the Ellipsis, and can be, therefore, very readily kept in mind. The first affords only one figure, the second can be varied to one vertical and two inclined figures, and all can be again varied as to size, but for convenience only three gradations are recommended, as four or more would increase the difficulty of writing accurately. These varieties are shown in the annexed diagram—

where each is described three-fold, with a horizontal line through the centre. Each figure thus affords three varieties of size above, and three below the line, making six figures each, or twenty-four in all, as curvilinear signs for letters. These taken in rotation, may be extended as above, or in any arbitrary order, and each employed, as in short-hand, to signify letters, syllables, or words. In practice it is only requisite to bear in mind the three gradations of size, so as never to mistake the middle semicircle for the outer ones. This is to be avoided by invariably making the small figure as small as possible, and the greater figure as large as space will permit.

4.

This invention refined, and so abreviated that a point onely sheweth distinctly and significantly any of the 24. letters; and these very points to be made with two pens, so that no time will be lost, but as one finger riseth the other may make the following letter, never clogging the memory with several figures for words, and combination[7] of letters; which with ease, and void of confusion, are thus speedily and punctually, letter for letter, set down by naked and not multiplied points. And nothing can be less then a point, the Mathematical definition of[8] being Cujus pars nulla. And of a motion[9] no swifter imaginable then[1] Semiquavers or Releshes, yet applicable to this manner of writing.

[Reduced to a Point.] A man of the Marquis of Worcester’s ingenious cast of mind could readily have made up the entire “Century” out of these systems of alphabets and secret writing. He may have been acquainted with “Traicté des Chiffres, ou Secretes Manieres d’escrire, par Blaise de Vigenere, Bourbonnois.” 4to. Paris, 1586—now very scarce; but indeed there were many learned works on the subject, among which Trithemius’s “Libri Polygraphia VI,” 1600, was conspicuous. The long disuse of such methods of secretly conveying information, has reduced the cleverest of these systems of Cryptographia in public estimation. But, at the same time, these inventions were quite consistent with the early times in which the Marquis flourished. We shall see, in the next article, what probably illustrates this proposed use of a mere point or dot.

5.

A way by a Circular motion, either along a Rule or Ring-wise, to vary any Alphabet, even this of Points, so that the self-same Point individually placed, without the least additional mark or variation of place, shall stand for all the 24. letters, and not for the same letter twice in ten sheets writing; yet as easily and certainly read and known, as if it stood but for one and the self-same letter constantly signified.

[Varied significantly to all the 24. letters.] This and the former article may certainly be taken in connection with each other; and the cipher engraved in No. 3, would seem to anticipate the present proposal of “a circular motion along a rule.” The “ring-wise” method may have been no more than a substitution for the octagon or any other figure. We fortunately find among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, No. 2428, a probable clue to this particular method of writing, which we shall give entire. It forms the first portion of the small oblong folio volume containing the Manuscript Century at the end, with many intervening blank pages between them. It is as follows:—

“An explanation of the most exact and most compendious way of short writing. And an example given by way of Questions, and Resolves upon each significant point, proving how, and why, it stands for such and such a letter, in order Alphabetically placed in every page.

“A. Q. How is a point made to signifie an A. Resol. By being placed between the constant center of the square and the right side thereof in a streight line not touching it. [See diagram at the end].

It is proved by drawing a line from the said center towards, and not to touch the right side line, and then you will finde the line placed under an A of the Alphabett in each page.

“B. Q. How is a point made to signifie a B. Res. By being placed between the center of the square, towards the right corner upper angle of the Octagon, or square devided in to eight Angles, not touching the line thereof.

It is proved by drawing an oblique line from the center, towards the right corner upper angle, yett not touching the line thereof, and then you will finde it to bee the line placed under a B, in the Alphabett of each page.

In like manner lett there be a Question, and a Proofe made of all the other Letters in order and you will finde—

“C. The C. to bee placed in a streight line from the center upwards, but not arriving to the upper side line of the square.

“D. The D. in an oblique line towards the left upper corner line but not touching it.

“E. The E. in a streight line between the center of the left side line, butt not touching it.

“F. The F. in an oblique line downwards, towards the left angle line, butt not touching it.

“G. The G. in a streight line downwards from the center, likewise towards the lower line of the square not touching it.

“H. The H. in an oblique line downwards towards the right angle line, butt not touching it.

“I. The I. in a streight line from the center to the midle of the right side line.

“K. The K. in an oblique line from the center to the right upper angle touching it.

“L. The L. in a streight line from the center upwards, and touching the upper line.

“M. The M. in an oblique line from the center towards the left upper corner line touching it.

“N. The N. in a streight line from the center to the midle of the left side line.

“O. The O. in an oblique line from the center downwards, towards the left corner touching the line thereof.

“P. The P. in a right line from the center downwards touching the lower side line.

“Q. The Q. in an oblique line downwards towards the right corner touching the line thereof.

“R. The R. in a streight line from the center to the outside, and furthest line of the right midle and opposite chequer touching it.

“S. The S. in an oblique line from the center, and passing the right upper corner line.

“T. The T. in a streight line from the center and passing the upper-side line of the square.

“V. The V. in an oblique line from the center upwards passing the left upper corner line.

“W. The W. in a streight line from the centre to the left outside and furthest line of the left midle and opposite chequer.

“X. The X. in an oblique line downwards passing the left lower corner line.

“Y. The Y. in a streight line downwards passing the lower side or bottome line.

“Z. The Z. in an oblique line downwards passing the right corner line of the square.

“The Chequers are five in number, which of either outside show the vowells, and each Chequer haveing two corners inwards of each side make tenn, those towards the preceding square may conteyne of the 24 letters, and the opposite corners as many Alphabetically, and the centers of the two upper Chequers square, and of the two lower shew the other 4 letters; The 20 in the Chequers are noted by a separation of a corner in the printed Alphabett, and the 4 by the midde points.

“It is for curiosity and secresy to bee deservedly observed that whether in squares or chequers single points only stand for letters, and they being varyed att pleasure, it is in any ones power to keepe his secrett from me or any other not made acquainted with the denominations by him given to the severall points, and accordingly by him marked in the 24 blank squares, and rowes of chequers placed under the Alphabett in his private explanation easily to be framed by him mutatis mutandis, only that is making the questions and resolves according to his points as they represent the letters to his owne fancy keept private from others without his consent.

“The points are to bee written, and reade as they precede, or as they are the one above the other, unlesse they have a sequell distinction made by takeing the penn of the paper thus ^✓ without further losse of tyme, and such as are soe marked, must be written and read as the others they being soe made, but for husbanding of paper, the word being soe conteyned in lesse roome, the e at the end of most words prolonging butt the sillable, and all needlesse and unsounding letters are to bee omitted; I will not trouble you with more rules leaving the rest to practice.”

The preceding description is written on small oblong pages, which measure 11¼ by 7¼ inches, the whole surface of the unwritten portions being covered with an engraved pattern, of which Fig. 1 is but a portion of the top left-hand corner, and therefore proceeds no further than letter h, which ends the application of that particular figure.