Read further · read 85.5% · key from adjacent plaintext · partial

Rufus King’s despatch code, 1797–1803, and his No. 29 on Sweden

Rufus King, United States minister in London, put parts of his despatches in a numerical code in which the = 769. On most copies a State Department clerk wrote the plain words over the numbers. Andrew Beling rebuilt 764 of its about 1,600 groups from those words, froze the key and tested it once on a despatch kept aside: 0.946 of covered groups against 0.165 for the best shuffled key. The key then opens a coded paragraph on Sweden in No. 29 of 13 April 1797, which has no decipherment on the film; ten of its words rest on context alone.

Date
1797–1803
Read now
85.5% of the cipher tokens give sense
Write-up
king1797.html
Files
targets/king1797
Open gaps
code groups openneeds the archive

Hand this page to your AI agent

Give your agent (Claude, ChatGPT or any assistant that can open web pages) this address and ask it to do the task on the page:

https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/king1797.html

Or copy the block below into the chat. It is the whole task: the reading, every open gap, what has been tried, the steps, and how to report back.

TASK: take a partial decipherment further: Rufus King’s despatch code, 1797–1803, and his No. 29 on Sweden
This page: https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/king1797.html

You are helping a public research project finish reading historical cipher letters. This one is read in part:
the key works, but some pieces are still open. Your job is to close one or more of the open gaps below.

THE READING
  Write-up:   https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/king1797.html (read it first: how the text was read, the key, the reading)
  Date:       1797–1803
  Outcome:    key from adjacent plaintext · partial
  Read now:   85.5% of the deciphered cipher tokens give sense (pieces below may be untouched)
  Files:      https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/tree/main/targets/king1797 (NOTES.md, key, transcription, reading, scripts)

OPEN GAPS (from NOTES.md, "## Remaining gaps")
  1. [open-codes: doable now] No. 29: the eight grade-I values (717, 389, 1279, 1074, 1490, 507, 1440, 269), behind nine words, and the 769 written where "and" is needed (ten marked words in all) - blocker: open-codes; none occurs under a clerk's word in the 72 transcribed frames, No. 59 or the print checks (retry, 11 Nov 2026); a clear copy (King's letterbook at N-YHS, the Pickering Papers) or an occurrence in the coded frames not yet transcribed would settle them
  2. [needs-physical-access: needs a new source] Adams Papers reel 392, King to Pickering 13 Apr 1797 (Weber's WE025 attribution) - blocker: needs-physical-access; MHS microfilm, would show whether it is a copy of No. 29

ALREADY TRIED (from NOTES.md, "## Escalation")
  [x] siblings: the 48 interlined despatch copies on rolls 4-8 are the key source (72 frames transcribed)
  [x] clear-pages: No. 59's clear triplicate is used as the test truth; No. 29 has no clear copy on 0092-0104; its clear pages (0093-0096) are transcribed in `reading_no29.md`
  [x] print: King, *Life* vols. 2-3 (No. 30, 1801 items) used as checks; No. 29 not found in *Life* 2, ASP FR 1-2 or Founders Online
  [x] key-rebuild: done (key.tsv), tested once on a held-out despatch
  [x] known-keys: Weber's nine 1600/1700 tables tested on 40 values from 004-0249, none fits (not this code); on integration, Codes 10 and 16 and the WE028 sheet compared number by number, no value shared
  [x] retry: 11 Nov 2026, on integration: the eight context-only groups searched in the corpus, No. 59 and the bare items (no occurrence under a clear word); frame 0092 read a second time against the transcription (all 119 groups stand)

STEPS
0. Set up. If you can run a shell, fork and clone the repository and work inside it:
     git clone https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver.git
   Then read, in this order: CONTRIBUTING.md (how a contribution is sent and credited); README.md, sections
   "Repository layout" and "Conventions" (how readings are measured and named); targets/king1797/NOTES.md in full, and the
   key, transcription and reading files it names; lang/README.md (shared language models).
   Work in targets/king1797/. Add your findings to NOTES.md under a dated heading without rewriting what is there, and
   update the "## Remaining gaps" line of every gap you close. Keep WORKLOG.md there: one dated line per step
   (hypothesis, value tried, solver run, crib, control), failures included. Do not edit docs/ (the site is generated).
   If you cannot run a shell, fetch the files from the links above and keep your work in files you send with the issue.
1. Pick a gap. Start with the ones marked "doable now" (open-codes, not-attempted, left-open): the images and the key
   are online, so they need only work. A gap marked "needs a new source" (no-key-material, too-short, illegible,
   needs-physical-access) can be closed only by something new: a key
   or a deciphered sibling found elsewhere, a better image, a printed edition or calendar, a photograph from the archive.
   For those, search for that material first, and say where you looked even when you find nothing.
2. Start from the existing key and transcription in the folder. Do not rebuild the key from scratch, and do not
   re-read parts that are already read unless you find an error in them.
3. For a code group or sign value: list every place the group occurs, show how each reads with the value you propose,
   and say what still does not fit. For a passage: re-read it at the image and give the folio and line. For a missing
   letter or leaf: say where it is held and how it can be reached.
4. Measure again. Apply the key to the whole text, write the reading file, and count the share of cipher tokens that
   give sense (not an estimate). The reading is "complete" only when (1) at least 95% of its cipher tokens give sense;
   (2) no gap is left untried; (3) every letter in it is covered; (4) what stays open is scattered code groups or names,
   or pieces blocked from outside. Otherwise it stays "partial": say which gaps are still open and why.
5. Be honest. Mark every uncertain word with [?], leave unread groups as their numbers or signs, and never fill a gap
   with a plausible guess. A gap retried and still open, with what was ruled out, is worth reporting.

REPORT BACK
With a clone: open a pull request with your changes to targets/king1797/. Say in the description which gaps you worked on,
  the share read before and after, and how you want to be credited (name, initials or handle, and a link).
Without one: open an issue: https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/issues/new?template=further-reading.yml&title=Further+reading%3A+king1797&page=king1797.html
  Give the write-up, the gap you worked on (its line in Remaining gaps, or the code group, folio and line), what you
  propose, the evidence (every occurrence, the images or sources), the share read before and after, your step log,
  and the tools and AI model you used.
If you cannot open issues or pull requests, write this report for your human to send. Credit goes to the person who sends it.

Open gaps

gold can be done now: the images and the key are online, it needs only work. grey needs a new source first: a key, a better scan, an edition or the archive.

Already tried

Send a result

One closed gap counts: a code group valued, a passage re-read, a key or clear copy found elsewhere. It is credited to you on the write-up.

Open a further-reading issueOther kinds of reportHow credit works← All partial readings