A secret decoder ring (or secret decoder) is a device which allows one to decode a simple substitution cipher - or to encrypt a message by working in the opposite direction.
As inexpensive toys, they have been often used as promotional items by retailers, radio and television programs from the 1930s through to the current day. Decoders, whether badges or rings, are a fun way for children to tap into a common fascination with encryption, ciphers, and secret codes, and are used to send hidden messages back and forth to one another.
Read more about Secret Decoder Ring: History, Messages, Current Producer
Famous quotes containing the words secret and/or ring:
“Consciousness never deceives.... We learn the influence of our will from experience alone. And experience only teaches us, how one event constantly follows another; without instructing us in the secret connexion, which binds them together, and renders them inseparable.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“I saw Eternity the other night,
Like a great ring of pure and endless light,”
—Henry Vaughan (1622–1695)