Letters were assigned to represent digits. The values were taken from his Memoria Technica, which assigned two consonants to each digit, with vowels unassigned, so that any number could be read off as a word. For nyctography, one of the consonants was used for each digit. Most are the initials of the numerals, as follows. (In brackets are the other values of the Memoria Technica, which apart from leftover j for 3 have their own motivations.) 1 – b (first consonant) [also c] 2 – d (for duo and deux) [also w of 'two'] 3 – t (for 'three') [also j] 4 – f (for 'four') [also q of quatre] 5 – l (roman numeral 50) [also v of 'five'] 6 – s (for 'six') [also x of 'six'] 7 – m (final of septem) [also p of septem] 8 – h (for huit) [also k] 9 – n (for 'nine') [also g] 0 – z (for 'zero') [also r of 'zero'] See also Pigpen cipher Night writing References External links Alice's Adventures in Carroll's Own Square Alphabet — Lewis Carroll Society of North America Nyctograph Machine printer History of technology Works by Lewis Carroll Writing systems Writing systems introduced in the 1890s 1891 in England