The Enigma Machine

[the_dealer]

Ok, so recently, a mathematician from Cambridge came and showed some of the more... mathematically adept people the Enigma machine.

Basically, it was a machine used in WWII, by the Germans, to code and decode each other's messages.

It works by some wiring.. stuff.. well, anyway. There are approximately 14 in the world, of which approx. 13 are in museums. We got to use the only working one


I was wondering - have any of you ever seen one, or used it?
Have you ever considered doing code-breaking, or something like that?

 

[Dave.]

never even heard of it before, sounds really interesting though, what was the machine actually like?

 

[the_dealer]

Well, I had expected it to be a big machine, with pipes pumping steam out of it.

It turned out to be similar to a typewriter, actually. Let me find you a picture.

See how there are two keyboards?
Well, when you type, the 2nd keyboard lights up, and it gives you the letter which is used in substitute for the letter you want.

Now. You'd think this is easy to crack, then, right? Wrong.
Inside, there are wires which link pairs of letters. However, these wires change every time you press a button, and there are 3 cogs that turn.


So, the owner of the machine simply writes out what letters light up, and then sends it to the partner's machine.
They also send a separate message with the settings for the cogs. These cogs are similar to a clock.

There's one cog that changes every time you press it, and then every 10 or so, the next one changes, and the 3rd one changes every 10 or so of the 2nd cog, resulting in thousands of possible settings.

Then the person simply types in the letters given to him, in the code, and since the letters are paired, it gives you the real message.


The only flaw with this, is that it never pairs with itself, and that is how they solved it. Incidentally, the guy who invented the machine to crack that code, founded the basis for current day computers.

 

[Dave.]

Wow, that is so interesting thanks for posting this im gonna look into it more, it looks so simple but complicated lol

 

[kill dank]

Fascinating to see how that works. And amazing that we can do things like that in fractions of a second with today's technology.

 

[the_dealer]

Yeah, but that was only made possible due to research from the past.
We have only improved on the basics laid down by the real geniuses.

 

[Zerkerfist]

My history teacher in grade 12 was the first person who I have ever heard mention the machine. He was quite fascinated with it.. thats so cool that you got to actually use one and see it up close

 

[the_dealer]

Yeah
One thing people forget is that it wasn't solely fighting etc.
It was also quite strategic.

 

[OneFatMoFo]

It seems to me that the machine solves the code only when you know the password.

so basically it just a message decrypter bot (when you have the crypt key)

 

[JohnK]

It's nice to see how far technology has developed. Thanks for the share.

 

[the_dealer]

It seems to me that the machine solves the code only when you know the password.

so basically it just a message decrypter bot (when you have the crypt key)

What happened was the Germans would send one message, via. Morse Code, with the actual message, which they would record. They would then send another message on a separate channel, via Morse Code again, to decrease the chance of interception.

Also, our own machine used for sending messages was a clone of the Enigma Machine, however we eliminated the flaw, so it could actually use the initially pressed letters.
This means they couldn't crack it, due to not realising that it could also use the letters originally input.