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/mercier1761.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: La Touche and La Rivière to Berryer, Martinique, 12 June 1761
This page: https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/mercier1761.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/mercier1761.html (read it first: how the text was read, the key, the reading)
Date: 1761
Outcome: key from adjacent plaintext · partial
Read now: 92.2% of the deciphered cipher tokens give sense (pieces below may be untouched)
Files: https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/tree/main/targets/mercier1761 (NOTES.md, key, transcription, reading, scripts)
OPEN GAPS (from NOTES.md, "## Remaining gaps")
1. [no-key-material: needs a new source] About 40 single-use word codes (47 of 818 tokens): 408/451 ("ni en [408] ni [451] dans la colonie"), 339 and 75 ("en [339] une révolution … qui nous arrive en [75]"), 100 and 511 ("l'[100]ce[511] est à notre porte"), 183, 403, 154, 110, 138, 413, 459, 638, 82, 173, 199, 245, 223, 600, 267, 670, 161, 462, 317, 404, 195, 516, 180, 685, 232, 336, 44, 449, 264, 327, 439, 523, 345, 480 - blocker: no-key-material; each occurs once, in a context that admits several words, and the 1761 key is not online (sibling and context exhausted)
2. [no-key-material: needs a new source] C-grade values resting on one context (441, 273, 145, 463, 303, 642, 525, 193, 657, 409, 394, 581, 11, 60, 664, 430, 30, 515, 509, 85, 330, 527, 20, 146, 675, 88, 540, 392, 122) - blocker: no-key-material; no second occurrence in the two letters to confirm them
3. [no-key-material: needs a new source] Two encipherer slips, checked on the image: "à r-ro-i-s livres" (321 where t is meant) and "nous [16]frons" (offrons) - blocker: no-key-material; the groups are clear but wrong as written; read by sense, marked [?]
4. [needs-physical-access: needs a new source] The 1761 key itself, COL B 113/114, MAR/G/178 - blocker: needs-physical-access; not digitised
ALREADY TRIED (from NOTES.md, "## Escalation")
[x] siblings: the seven 1761 joint letters listed; C8 A 64 f° 4 opened (clear); inventory search of C8 A 62-65 found C8 A 63 f° 208 with interlinear decipherment, transcribed and aligned. Image-by-image sweep of C8 A 63 (831 images) and 64 (601) not done.
[x] clear-pages: the clear passages of the letter (images 1-5, P.S.) checked: the letter's own clear text, not a decipherment; the margin note says the decipherment went to Accaron and is not filed here.
[x] known-keys: 1765 Martinique key (C8 A 67 f° 178) tested and ruled out (614 = voisins, values to 800); no other colonial key of 1755-1765 online; MAR/G/178 (1758/1766/1771 keys) offline.
[x] print: web search on shelfmark, correspondents, date and "chiffre" + Martinique 1761; FranceArchives; nothing printed.
[x] key-rebuild: key rebuilt from the sibling's interlinear decipherment (~110 values) and extended from context in three rounds with kwic.py (89.1% valued, 81.5% sense measured); ciphertext-only annealing tried first and failed its control.
[x] retry: the three odd spots re-checked on the images (two encipherer slips, one confirmed); every open group dumped with kwic.py and retried in context; 22 values added; re-measured 93.0% valued, 86.7% sense; a final pass added attaqué/mille/voi and C-grade values: 94.3% valued, 92.2% sense. Single-occurrence word codes remain, not filled to avoid guesses.
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/mercier1761/NOTES.md in full, and the
key, transcription and reading files it names; lang/README.md (shared language models).
Work in targets/mercier1761/. 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/mercier1761/. 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+mercier1761&page=mercier1761.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.
- no key known About 40 single-use word codes (47 of 818 tokens): 408/451 ("ni en [408] ni [451] dans la colonie"), 339 and 75 ("en [339] une révolution … qui nous arrive en [75]"), 100 and 511 ("l'[100]ce[511] est à notre porte"), 183, 403, 154, 110, 138, 413, 459, 638, 82, 173, 199, 245, 223, 600, 267, 670, 161, 462, 317, 404, 195, 516, 180, 685, 232, 336, 44, 449, 264, 327, 439, 523, 345, 480 - blocker: no-key-material; each occurs once, in a context that admits several words, and the 1761 key is not online (sibling and context exhausted)
- no key known C-grade values resting on one context (441, 273, 145, 463, 303, 642, 525, 193, 657, 409, 394, 581, 11, 60, 664, 430, 30, 515, 509, 85, 330, 527, 20, 146, 675, 88, 540, 392, 122) - blocker: no-key-material; no second occurrence in the two letters to confirm them
- no key known Two encipherer slips, checked on the image: "à r-ro-i-s livres" (321 where t is meant) and "nous [16]frons" (offrons) - blocker: no-key-material; the groups are clear but wrong as written; read by sense, marked [?]
- needs the archive The 1761 key itself, COL B 113/114, MAR/G/178 - blocker: needs-physical-access; not digitised
Already tried
- ☑ siblings the seven 1761 joint letters listed; C8 A 64 f° 4 opened (clear); inventory search of C8 A 62-65 found C8 A 63 f° 208 with interlinear decipherment, transcribed and aligned. Image-by-image sweep of C8 A 63 (831 images) and 64 (601) not done.
- ☑ clear-pages the clear passages of the letter (images 1-5, P.S.) checked: the letter's own clear text, not a decipherment; the margin note says the decipherment went to Accaron and is not filed here.
- ☑ known-keys 1765 Martinique key (C8 A 67 f° 178) tested and ruled out (614 = voisins, values to 800); no other colonial key of 1755-1765 online; MAR/G/178 (1758/1766/1771 keys) offline.
- ☑ print web search on shelfmark, correspondents, date and "chiffre" + Martinique 1761; FranceArchives; nothing printed.
- ☑ key-rebuild key rebuilt from the sibling's interlinear decipherment (~110 values) and extended from context in three rounds with kwic.py (89.1% valued, 81.5% sense measured); ciphertext-only annealing tried first and failed its control.
- ☑ retry the three odd spots re-checked on the images (two encipherer slips, one confirmed); every open group dumped with kwic.py and retried in context; 22 values added; re-measured 93.0% valued, 86.7% sense; a final pass added attaqué/mille/voi and C-grade values: 94.3% valued, 92.2% sense. Single-occurrence word codes remain, not filled to avoid guesses.
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.