‘Unsolvable’ Code Hidden in Antique Dress Pocket Is Finally Cracked

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has revealed a fascinating tale hidden within two mysterious messages found in a secret pocket. A decade ago, archaeologist and vintage dress enthusiast Sara Rivers Cofield stumbled upon a hidden pocket in an 1880s dress, unveiling two crumpled pieces of paper. What did she find written on those pieces of paper?

In a blog post in February 2014, Rivers Cofield shared the astonishing discovery of the dress and its intriguing content. The cryptic words, initially deemed among the 50 most "unsolvable" codes globally by NOAA, sparked widespread fascination. However, the tide turned last year when Wayne Chan, a research computer analyst at the University of Manitoba in Canada, unraveled the mystery. It turns out that these enigmatic words were once a covert language for transmitting local weather updates via telegraph-that's right, the secret codes were weather forecasts.

Cofield's blog about the bronze-colored dress set the internet abuzz. Some speculated ties to the Civil War, but the dress's age made that unlikely. A more plausible explanation that emerged was transmission.

The quest to decode the telegraphic messages led Wayne Chan on a thorough search through 170 different codebooks, initially yielding no success. However, his persistence paid off when he stumbled upon a book containing the U.S. Army Signal Corps' weather code.