Slidex
Paper based encryption system, used in the American civil war
Slidex was a hand-held, paper-based encryption system used at a low, front line (platoon, troop and section) level in the British Army during the Second World War and later the Cold War period. It was replaced by the BATCO tactical code, which, in turn has been largely made obsolete by the Bowman secure voice radios.
01Design
Slidex used a series of vocabulary cards arranged in a grid of 12 rows and 17 columns. Each of the 204 resulting cells has a word or phrase, as well as a letter or number. The latter allowed the system to spell out words and transmit numbers.
The cards were stored in a folding case that had a pair of cursors to facilitate locating cells. Messages were encrypted and decrypted using code strips that could be placed in holder along the top and left side of the vocabulary card. Blank vocabulary cards were provided to allow units to create a word set for a specific mission.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Slidex”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- A Slidex and separate cards.jpg by Rolgiati, CC BY-SA 4.0
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