Washington DC, 1917–1918

With the outbreak of World War One Manly was put in charge of the Code and Cipher section of the American Black Chamber (MI-8) in Washington, D.C. Edith initially remained in Chicago teaching and, in a project Manly had left with her, trying to decipher the Voynich manuscript. She joined Manly in late 1917 and MI-8 in early 1918. Working together, she and Manly then effected “perhaps the most important of the MI-8 solutions.” This they did by breaking a 424-letter cryptogram sewn into the clothes of German spy Lothar Witzke, a.k.a. Pablo Waberski. The cryptogram confirmed not only that Witzke was a spy, but that Germany still wanted to get Mexico into the war.