Cryptex

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The word cryptex is a neologism coined by the author Dan Brown for his 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code, denoting a portable vault used to hide secret messages. It is a combination of the words cryptology and codex; "an apt title for this device" since it uses "the science of cryptology to protect information written on the contained scroll or codex" (p. 199 of the novel) – although actually a "codex" is a term for early forms of what would now be called a "book", as opposed to a rolled "scroll". It is claimed in the novel that the original design came from the secret diaries of Leonardo da Vinci, but this is apparently not based on fact: The 2004 illustrated version of the novel fails to present any Leonardo sketch of such a device.

Following the model of "codex" which pluralises as "codices", "cryptex" might be thought to pluralise as "cryptices". However, Brown uses the plural form "cryptexes" in his novel.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the main part of Brown's novel, the characters (while pursued by various sinister agencies) are trying to access the secret to the Holy Grail by figuring out the passwords that will open two different cryptexes, one hidden within the other to provide extra security.

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Design and function

The (first) cryptex featured in the novel is described as a stone cylinder made up of "five doughnut-sized disks of marble [that] had been stacked and affixed to one another within a delicate brass framework"; end caps make it impossible to see inside the hollow cylinder. Each of the disks is carved with the entire alphabet, and since they can be rotated individually, the disks can be aligned to spell different five-letter words.

The cryptex works "much like a bicycle's combination lock", and if one arranges the disks to spell out the correct password, "the tumblers inside align, and the entire cylinder slides apart" (p. 200). In the inner compartment of the cryptex, secret information can be hidden, written on a scroll of thin papyrus wrapped around a fragile vial of vinegar as a security measure: if one does not know the password but tries to pry the cryptex open by force, the vial will break and the vinegar will dissolve the papyrus before it can be read.

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Would a cryptex work in real life?

It is not clear how effective vinegar would really be for dissolving the papyrus. While liquids certainly damage ancient documents, they would not necessarily render them instantly illegible. On the other hand, it would be possible to make specially prepared paper that would indeed dissolve in vinegar. For instance, if paper fibers (e.g., finely ground toilet paper) are added to a saturated solution of bicarbonate, and the resulting pulp is allowed to slowly dry on a flat surface, the result is a fragile sort of paper that will dissolve almost instantly in contact with vinegar: The vinegar reacts chemically with the bicarbonate, forming bubbles of carbon dioxide tearing the paper fibers apart.

However, even if the "self-destruct" mechanism could be made to work, a cryptex would provide poor security in the modern-day world. Modern scanning methods (e.g., ultrasound or X-rays) could be used to display the inner mechanisms of the cryptex, revealing how it must be aligned to open it. Another possibility, which never occurs to the characters of Brown's novel, would be simply to place the cryptex in a freezer so that the vinegar freezes to ice. (The freezing point of vinegar depends on the strength of the solution, but it is certainly less than or equal to –2°C.) Thereafter one could smash open the cryptex without risking that the vinegar would dissolve the papyrus hidden within.

A number of readers of the best-selling novel, wishing to construct a real cryptex, have tried to come up with the blueprints for one. According to the Tacoma News Tribune, Justin Kirk Nevins, an inventor from Tacoma, Washington, has designed a functional cryptex and, as of January 2005, had sold 65 of them, including five to Dan Brown. However, he dropped the "self-destruct" mechanism involving the vial of vinegar, since he "felt that the practicality of this feature is questionable". A similar device constructed entirely in wood is also available to purchase, first handcrafted by Carlos de la Huerga for his own daughter's 9th birthday in Wisconsin.

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