Lewis Carroll's Nyctography: A Substitution Cipher for Writing in the Dark
Nyctography: A substituton cypher by Lewis Carroll
I created Nyctography in 1891 to capture fleeting thoughts during the night without the discomfort of lighting a lamp. Using a device called the Nyctograph, I developed a unique alphabet of dots and strokes within square grids. This system allowed me to write quickly in total darkness and transcribe my notes the following day, turning a simple card with holes into a practical tool for recording ideas instantly.
Think of the number of lonely hours a blind man often spends doing nothing, when he would gladly record his thoughts, and you will realise what a blessing you can confer on him by giving him a small indelible memorandum-book.
- suprjami
This reminds me that as a child I taught myself Tolkien's runes from The Hobbit, which is mostly another substitution of the modern English alphabet:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirth#Runes_from_The_Hobbit
I got to the point I could read and write without a reference. Not as fast as English but not slow either.
Many years later I found a notebook with many pages of things I'd written but had since lost the ability to read again.
- dickiedyce
An excellent excuse to pull out the 3-D printer.