I’ve just been contacted by the owner of the Blitz Ciphers, with five more scans of Blitz Cipher pages we hadn’t previously seen.
These continue the original set’s apparent theme of mystifying geometrical shapes combined with unhelpful-looking annotations in a 50-odd symbol cipher alphabet: feel free to bang your head against the walls of these strange diagrams, Voynich researcher style, if you like.
Me, I’m much more interested in the prosaic-looking text-only pages #7 and #8, particularly page #7 (ignoring the tiny annotation in a second hand). My Plan A is therefore to transcribe these two pages carefully (even though there’s a fair bit of what looks like water damage, most seems legible with only light amount of image enhancement) and then throw various cryptological / statistical tests at them to see what emerges.
#7: 
My hunch? Just as I noted before, this still looks to me like a homophonic cipher with possibly a few nulls, in broadly the same vein as the Copiale Cipher. As such, I’m guessing the plaintext will be a well-known European language, particularly English or German.
But what my nose isn’t sniffing here is anything that would sit in a mainstream Masonic tradition: these, such as the (now comprehensively cracked) Action Line Cryptogram, would probably be dominated by text describing candidates knocking at doors to be initiated via faux-historical rituals than a set of curiously arcane geometric diagrams.
…unless you know better? 🙂
Just scanning over this image, and the colon (:) jumps out to me. I suspect it it used as a word spacing symbol, which would dramatically increase the chance of cracking this. I’m already getting sucked in by this, so if I find something else, I’ll be back.
John: I’ll be putting my transcription of the two new text-heavy pages up very shortly (maybe even tomorrow), which is where the proper fun begins. There’s indeed something very fishy about the ‘:’ character. 🙂
Nick: I’ve not cross-compared all the symbols against prior displays, but I do note that sheet #7 appears to be in violation to the others, where I’d guess right-to-left reading rather than left-to-right. Would it be possible that image was accidentally flipped (thus relevant to eventual transcription)?
John: The colon was mentioned in earlier post as significant, particularly the triple “:::” observation.
Dennis: I don’t have it with me right now, but as I recall the scan is rotated 180 degrees. 🙂
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Nick, have you had the opportunity to follow-up my suggestions (over the past two years) to compare the drawings & ciphered instructions with the finished project (tiled Turkish bath house) built for Colonel (Brigadier General?) North? Which Mansion eventually evolved into a school for women to-be-teachers. Which school eventually was damaged by the Blitz? Which damaged structure eventually evolved into the “North” Campus of Greenwich University?
I guess you weren’t able to access the University’s archives which were/are stored on the Isle of Dogs?
Were you able to find any more info on Cutler Architectural Design and Engineering (which drawings & specifications) are once again appearing herein?
beady-eyed as ever — bd
🙂
Somewhere on the WWW I found a postcard photo of the interior of North’s bath-house. I found the design of the tiles to be spectacularly spooky. Particularly so because North’s mansion and bath-house was situated quite close to the home of some of Sir Thomas More’s relatives’ historic homes
BTW: I also found where Sir Thomas More’s skull was/is interred.
bdid1dr
😉
Another name for one of the Greenwich University Campuses is “Avery Hill”. The Mansion and its greenhouse eventually evolved into the “School of Architecture and Design”, Library, and Winter Garden.
Since you are much closer to the campus, I’m hoping you’ll do a walkabout and photo tour for your many guests and fans.
At one point, a couple of years ago, I was able to take a video tour of the Mansion’s Main Library – beautiful!
beady-eyed as ever!
😉
The sets of colons may be indicating repetitions of a particular set of instructions (number of angles, or sides — walls or roof of a sextangular or octaganal building) and, perhaps the material being used (glass, wood, tile).
The Winter Garden is a huge glass-domed ‘park’ which contains many specimens of tropical trees and succulents and cacti. It even has a ‘fountain’ in its center. Fountains were integral centerpieces for ‘Turkish’ baths.
Lead would have been used for glazing.
😉
I re-visited (online) Greenwich U’s magnificent glass-domed Winter Garden. The dome reveals a whole lot mathematical/geometrical instructions for its being able to accommodate huge botanical specimens (full-grown tropical and/or desert trees) as well as water features.
So, I’m hoping someone will be able to read and translate the pages and drawings which you have been pondering and presenting to us. It is most likely an architectural engineer would be most helpful.
Greenwich U may have a storage unit for each of their various Architectural Engineering Departments.
While exploring (online) the Winter Garden, I was able to read some of the visitors comments.
Several women wrote of their experiences with the School for Teachers before and during the Blitz. I’m hoping they will follow up with further discussion of their post-Blitz experiences.
😉
We had a lovely potluck Thanksgiving dinner at our local tavern/restaurant. We contributed a xi-ca-ma-tl and xo-co-tl and co-lo-ix slaw ( jicama//apple’cabbage slaw). All three ingredients were available at our local grocery store. The jicama plant appears in B-408.
As far as I know, Thanksgiving holiday has it origins with the first English immigrants to Jamestown (Plymouth?) here in what is now the United States. The Dutch weren’t too far behind (The first settlers of New Amsterdam and Long Island were Dutch.)
Nick: were you ever able to find out more about the ‘disappearance’ of Henry Hudson and his 16 year old son? The mutineers put the Hudson father and son into a dinghy with no food or water.
A sad but very good book: “Island at the Center of the World”, by Russell Shorto.
The celebratory season fast approaches; I’m hoping for peaceful events this year.
beady-eyed wonderer
The text reminds me of a font on Microsoft word. I’ll try and compare. You never know what might come up.