Vigenère cipher was misattributed to Vigenère. David Kahn, in his book, "The Codebreakers" lamented the misattribution by saying that history had "ignored this important contribution and instead named a regressive and elementary cipher for him [Vigenère] though he had nothing to do with it". The Vigenère cipher gained a reputation for being exceptionally strong. Noted author and mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) called the Vigenère cipher unbreakable in his 1868 piece "The Alphabet Cipher" in a children's magazine. In 1917, "Scientific American" described the Vigenère cipher as "impossible of translation". That reputation was not deserved. Charles Babbage is known to have
Edwin Dodgson priest in 1874, and served his first curacy at Odd Rode in the Diocese of Chester. Following this he served as curate at Helmsley (1875-1877), and at All Saints, Shrewsbury (1877-1879). His subsequent ministry was one of self-sacrifice and dedication, marred by ill health and depression. Dodgson was appointed as Principal of the (UMCA) Kiungani School in Zanzibar in 1879, where he served under Bishop Edward Steere. However, as his brother Charles noted, "the ague was too much for him there". In 1880 he was appointed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) as missionary and school