TheCodeBreakers
fellow of the Royal Society and to be knighted. He was nominally
professor of experimental
philosophy at King's College, London, but was so excessively shy that
he hardly ever actually lectured.
Another of his inventions was a cipher for secrecy in telegraphy,
which, however, carries the name of his friend Lyon Playfair, first Baron
Playfair of St. Andrews. A scientist and public figure of Victorian
England, Playfair was at one time or another deputy speaker of the
House of Commons, postmaster general, and president of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science.
Playfair demonstrated what he called "Wheatstone's newly-discovered
symmetrical cipher" at a dinner in January, 1854, given by the president
of the governing council, Lord Granville. One of the guests was Queen
Victoria's husband, Prince Albert; another was the Home Secretary and
future Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston. Playfair explained the system to
annaabi.ee 
