I asked Chat GPT to teach me how the Jefferson Wheel worked. Here is the answer it gave me.

"Certainly, I'd be happy to explain how the Jefferson Wheel, also known as the Jefferson Disk Cipher, works.

The Jefferson Wheel is a simple yet effective method of encrypting messages. It consists of multiple concentric disks, each with letters of the alphabet arranged in a random order. To use it, one must align the disks so that the letters on the outer and inner disks match up.

To encrypt a message, you set the disks to a particular starting position, and then for each letter in your message, you locate the plaintext letter on the outer disk and read off the corresponding ciphertext letter from the inner disk. This process is repeated for each letter in the message, creating the encrypted text.

To decrypt the message, the recipient needs a Jefferson Wheel set to the same starting position. They align their Wheel accordingly and reverse the process, finding the ciphertext letter on the inner disk to reveal the original plaintext letter on the outer disk.

The key to the Jefferson Wheel's security lies in the randomness of the letter arrangement on the disks, making it challenging for anyone without the correct starting position to decipher the message. It's a clever and historical example of a polyalphabetic substitution cipher, which makes it a significant contribution to the history of cryptography."