Historical one-way hash functions

[Leichter, Jerry]

So, you want to be able to prove in the future that you have some piece of
information today - without revealing that piece of information.  We all
know how to do that:  Widely publish today the one-way hash of the
information.

Well ... it turns out this idea is old.  Very old.  In the 17th century,
scientists were very concerned about establishing priority; but they
also often wanted to delay publication so that they could continue to
work on the implications of their ideas without giving anyone else the
opportunity to do it.  Thus, in 1678, Robert Hooke published an idea he
had first developed in 1660.  Even then, he only published the
following:  ceiiinosssttuu.  Two years later, he revealed that this was
an anagram of the Latin phrase "Ut tensio sic uis" - "as the tension so
the power" - what we today call Hooke's Law of elastic deformation.

(This story appears in Henry Petroski's "The Evolution of Useful
Things".)
 							-- Jerry

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