The story
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I don’t know whether this is allowed, but I have worked out the Identity of Ellen, she was the mistress of Dickens! Hence why they are referred to as “friends” but Ellen gets jealous in Chapter 3 part A.
Good find! Always worth doing a little research on the characters. You never know what it might yield! Keep up the good work, harry
Can’t believe this corner of the forums isn’t being regularly updated! Right now, our most mysterious characters are Molinaro and Rokesmith – we don’t know their identities or motives. Rokesmith is the alias of the main character (John Harmon) from Dickens’ novel ‘Our Mutual Friend’, which is also the title of chapter 2A. I wonder if this is merely a convenient choice of alias for a Dickens-related CC or if “Rokesmith”‘s motives link to Harmon’s in any way.
Clara is also not in many historical records and remains fairly identity-less. This could be due to the fact that she was merely a secretary, but even her correspondence with actress Ellen Ternan isn’t noted on, despite them seeming to be close friends. If anyone can find any clues on Clara or Molinaro, it’d be great if you could share them here!
Do we have a good idea on when the story is set?
I think from context it’s in the few years after the end of the American civil war, though I’m not sure if I’ve missed a given year or not.
Charles Dickens visited America twice, once in 1842 and again in 1867-68, however General Dodge was still a Colonel in 1861, so the story must be from around 1867-68 during Charles Dickens’s second visit.
Very good! Harry
Molinaro = Miller?
I think so, they’re pretty similar
With challenge 10B in sight, I thought it might be useful to have a summary of the story so far (excluding events from challenge 9 as it’s still live) Obviously this doesn’t include every possible detail, but I hope it does serve useful for anyone who hasn’t read every single plaintext or is just here for the final few challenges but would still like to keep up with the story!
Context: mid 19th century and key people involved are the two Charles’ (Dickens and Babbage), General Grenville Dodge, and some British and American politics figures.
After arriving in New York, Dickens receives and burns a letter traced back to General Grenville Dodge about a confidential project. We find that Babbage and Dodge supported by Lord Derby and Fredrick Douglass are collaborating on a new tech system connected to the telegraph network and analysis of communication. The project is hoped to use to protect newly freed people of the American south and counter the growing threat of the Ku Klux Klan. But there are of course safety and ethical concerns and requires approval from the US president following the Civil War
Dodge integrates Babbage’s prototype machine into American telegraph offices. The intercepted telegrams reveal that a businessman known as Miller (using the alias Molinaro) and another figure signing as R or Rokesmith may be attempting to steal/sell the tech for their own purposes. Fearing that, Babbage needs to use more secure ciphers (which also explains the later of modified Playfair) and Dickens preps for a private meeting with the President to argue for copyright reform. Babbage also secretly ships cipher engines to the US in prep for deployment.
So Babbage has control of the machines and engineers, Dodge’s got the telegraph offices, and Dickens is about to meet the president, however, none of these people seem to be getting along too well…
There are still some big unanswered questions like who exactly ‘Rokesmith’ is and what Miller’s end goal really is, and whether this system can be used ethically without harming the innocent.
Hopefully this post also gives a bit of motivation to look forward to cracking Challenge 10 and finding out how it all unfold!! Good luck everyone!
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