by Stella Wang

Thomas Jefferson is revered as a diplomat, politician, and thinker, but his role as an innovator is lesser-known. One of his many inventions includes the wheel cipher: America’s first cryptographic device. In this episode of One Time Pod, the story of the wheel cipher, and Étienne Bazeries’ invention of an extremely similar device 100 years later, is uncovered.

Narrator: Stella Wang

Thomas Jefferson: Zach Gruber

Étienne Bazeries: Cooper Scanlon

Works Cited

Kahn, D. (1973). The code breakers: The story of secret writing. New York: The Macmillan Company.

Wheel Cipher. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/wheel-cipher.

Candela, R. (1938). The military cipher of commandant bazeries. New York: Cardanus Press.

Cypher Wheels. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://people.smp.uq.edu.au/Infinity/Infinity%204/Cypher_wheels.html

Audio Sources

Retrieved from orangefreesounds.com

• Lounge House Chillout Background Music


• Magical Harp


• Tension Music


• Whistle Noise


• Mysterious Piano Theme

Retrieved from http://www.patrioticon.org/patriotic-soundfiles.htm

• Yankee Doodle

More information

http://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Bazeries_cylinder

https://www.staff.uni-mainz.de/pommeren/Cryptology/Classic/4_Cylinder/deViaris.html

Image: Jefferson Disk, Wikimedia Commons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_disk#/media/File:Jefferson’s_disk_cipher.jpg