The invention of the one-time pad is generally credited to Gilbert S. Vernam and Joseph O. Mauborgne. We show that it was invented about 35 years earlier by a Sacramento banker named Frank Miller. We provide a tentative identification of which Frank Miller it was, and speculate on whether or not Mauborgne might have known of Miller's work, especially via his colleague Parker Hitt.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Steven M. Bellovin (2011) studied this question.