Waterloo Region Museum

Send a Coded Message

Have some fun and send a secret coded colourful message using the same hexadecimal computer code used in the glass walls of the Waterloo Region Museum. Messages can be decoded by the person who receives them!

Type a message in the box below, then click encode and send it along!

The colourful walls of the Waterloo Region Museum are unique. The pattern of colours is not random - it contains a computer encoded message. The 16 colours of the glass façade are translated into a hexadecimal code used in mathematics and computer programming. Various colour combinations represent the 26 letters in the English alphabet.

The words encoded on the colourful front wall of the museum are from a speech made by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier in 1905:  "We do not want, that any individuals should forget the land of their origin or their ancestors. Let them look to the past, but let them also look to the future; let them look to the land of their ancestors, but let them look also to the land of their children."

The use of an encoded message represents the high tech industries found in Waterloo Region, while the quilt-like nature of the glass wall represents textile traditions of Waterloo Region.

The glass panels at the front door of the museum also have an encoded message. Here the code spells out the names of the seven municipalities that make up Waterloo Region: Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich.

Click here to see a print out of the hexadecimal computer code used on the glass walls of the Waterloo Region Museum.