Frank Miller

Franklin Miller (January 19, 1842 – February 13, 1925) was an American cryptographer, banker, and trustee of Stanford University. He invented the one-time pad in 1882, 35 years before the patent issued to Gilbert Vernam.

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1842, he graduated from Yale University and then joined the Union Army during the American Civil War, where he was wounded during the Second Battle of Bull Run. In 1882, Miller published a code-book with corresponding numbers for 14,000 terms and parts of sentences, encouraging users to use so-called shift-numbers (3-digit codes) for extra-encryption in case particularly sensitive information is being transmitted.