Comments on: Polybius http://www.murky.org/blg/polybius/ Tending to Geekiness Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:45:52 -0600 hourly 1 By: elise http://www.murky.org/blg/polybius/#comment-5 elise Mon, 06 Sep 2004 11:02:00 +0000 http://www.murky.org/blg/?p=83#comment-5 Vice Admiral James Stockdale was shot down over Vietnam and spent 8 years in a prisoner of war camp, and 4 years in solitary. While in solitary he devised a method of communicating with other prisoners in solitary by transliterating letters into numbers based on the grid you've shown here. Except that instead of torch lights, the prisoners used knocks on the walls. 2 rapid knocks followed by 1 was "f". This I learned from his book, In Love and War. <a href="http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/BIOS/stockdale.html" rel="nofollow">http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/BIOS/stockdale.html</a> (edit by Murk) (I've found the book at amazon UK and Amazon US here: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1557507848/thebeginneguidet" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1557507848/thebeginneguidet</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060153180/beginnersguide.2" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060153180/beginnersguide.2</a> Thanks, I love the fact that he's 'James Bond' Stockdale! I've slightly edited the URL as it gave a 404 error - Murk) Vice Admiral James Stockdale was shot down over Vietnam and spent 8 years in a prisoner of war camp, and 4 years in solitary. While in solitary he devised a method of communicating with other prisoners in solitary by transliterating letters into numbers based on the grid you’ve shown here. Except that instead of torch lights, the prisoners used knocks on the walls. 2 rapid knocks followed by 1 was “f”.

This I learned from his book, In Love and War.
http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/BIOS/stockdale.html

(edit by Murk)

(I’ve found the book at amazon UK and Amazon US here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1557507848/thebeginneguidet
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060153180/beginnersguide.2

Thanks, I love the fact that he’s ‘James Bond’ Stockdale!
I’ve slightly edited the URL as it gave a 404 error – Murk)

]]>