Human Cannonball
by Benjamin L de Bivort, Jennifer Erickson
Answer: WAR MUSEUM
Each journal entry describes a particular WWI battle. Teams researched these and noted the battle names. They ordered the battles chronologically. Each journal entry also had some numbers, e.g., "…Perhaps 16 or 17 barrage lines between us and the blue line…" By indexing the numbers into the battle-names, teams got the message BY COALITION USE MEMBERSHIP OF [ GE RU SP AH IT ] OR [ GE UK IT RU AH ] IN CAPS TREATIES.
Battle Start Date | Battle Name | Indices | Message Fragment | Order In Puzzle |
---|---|---|---|---|
1914.12.16 | RAIDONSCARBOROUGHHARTLEPOOLANDWHITBY | 11,36,8,5,2,27,3,21,3,5,6,15,7,23 | BYCOALITIONUSE | 5 |
1914.12.20 | FIRSTBATTLEOFCHAMPAGNE | 17,11,17,6,11,3,4,15,2,18,12,13 | MEMBERSHIPOF | 9 |
1915.06.28 | BATTLEOFGULLYRAVINE | 9,6,14,10 | GERU | 2 |
1915.11.22 | BATTLEOFCTESIPHON | 12,14,2,15,13,3 | SPAHIT | 4 |
1916.02.21 | BATTLEOFVERDUN | 7,11 | OR | 3 |
1917.04.09 | BATTLEOFVIMYRIDGE | 16,17 | GE | 1 |
1917.04.21 | BATTLEOFISTABULAT | 14 | U | 8 |
1917.07.01 | KERENSKYOFFENSIVE | 1 | K | 7 |
1918.02.18 | OPERATIONFAUSTSCHLAG | 7,6,4,12,5,17,7,9,16,11,2,13,14,4,3,19,6,7,3,15 | ITRUAHINCAPSTREATIES | 6 |
How did an ultimatum from Austria-Hungary to Serbia blow up into a multi-nation "World War"? Nations were allied by several treaties. In each journal entry, the capital letters spelled out treaty names (CAPS TREATIES). For purposes of this puzzle, teams considered the nation-membership of treaties as five-bit binary, either using [Germany Russia Spain Austria-Hungary Italy] or [Germany UK Italy Russia Austria-Hungary] as the digits.
The binary spells the solution, WAR MUSEUM.
Battle Start Date | Ord. In Puz. | Treaty Date | Treaty | Coalition | Bits | # | Msg | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GE | RU | SP | AH | IT | ||||||||
1914.12.16 | 5 | 1887.05.21 | MEDITERRANEANAGREEMENTBETWEENITALYANDSPAIN ACCORDINGTOATOPIDTHIRTEENSIXTYFIVE* | Alliance | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 23 | W | |
1914.12.20 | 9 | 1902.06.30 | SECRETTREATYOFJUNETHIRTYNINETEENOHTWO BACKINGCLAIMSINTRIPOLITANIAANDMOROCCO | Alliance | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | A | |
1915.06.28 | 2 | 1879.10.07 | DUALALLIANCE | Alliance | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 18 | R | |
GE | UK | IT | RU | AH | ||||||||
1915.11.22 | 4 | 1887.03.24 | MEDITERRANEANAGREEMENTSASOFMARCHTWENTYFOUR | Entente | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 13 | M | |
1916.02.21 | 3 | 1882.05.20 | TRIPLEALLIANCE | Entente | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 21 | U | |
1917.04.09 | 1 | 1873.10.22 | LEAGUEOFTHETHREEEMPERORS | Entente | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 19 | S | |
1917.04.21 | 8 | 1901.02.09 | SECRETAGREEMENTCONCERNINGALBANIAOFFEBNINENINETEENOHONE | Entente | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | E | |
1917.07.01 | 7 | 1888.05.15 | TRIPLEALLIANCEASOFOCTEIGHTEENEIGHTEENEIGHTYTHREE | Entente | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 21 | U | |
1918.02.18 | 6 | 1887.12.16 | MEDITERRANEANAGREEMENTSASOFDECEMBERSIXTEEN | Entente | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 13 | M |
* MEDITERRANEAN AGREEMENT BETWEEN ITALY AND SPAIN ACCORDING TO ATOP ID THIRTEENSIXTYFIVE. Here, "ATOP" is the Alliance Treaty Obligations and Provisions Project. In their database, the item with ID 1365 had members Spain, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Germany. Leeds, Brett Ashley, Jeffrey M. Ritter, Sara McLaughlin Mitchell, and Andrew G. Long. 2002. Alliance Treaty Obligations and Provisions, 1815-1944. International Interactions 28: 237-260.