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Enigma-Cracking Bombe Recreated

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the we-shall-never-surrender dept.

toxcspdrmn writes "Volunteers at Bletchley Park have recreated a working replica of the electromechanical bombe used to crack the Germans' Enigma encryption. The bombe was designed by Polish cryptologists and refined by Alan Turing and colleagues at Bletchley Park. The replica joins a recreated electronic Colossus — generally considered the first electronic computer. Impressive work when you consider that Winston Churchill ordered the originals to be completely destroyed at the end of WWII."

9 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Why? by neoshroom · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Anyone know why Churchill ordered it destroyed? I don't quite understand the purpose of doing so.

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    1. Re:Why? by igb · · Score: 5, Interesting
      I'm not sure it's entirely true, anyway. The claim's always made that the reason the British didn't reveal that they'd broken Enigma (in the way in which the Americans rapidly documented the breaks into Red and Purple as soon as the war was over) was that the British were selling Enigma to misguided European powers, advertising it as the German's finest, without revealing they'd broken into it. For this story to make sense, the British would have to have retained the ability to break into Enigma.

      It's always rumoured that Collossi were in service at Cheltenham into the sixties, attacking various Fish-style machine baudot-code ciphers. It doesn't seem unreasonable to suggest that a bombe or two were kept as well: with the use of the diagonal board, they were probably faster than an emulation in a computer would have been.

      ian

  2. Re:Marian Rejewski by Ilex · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually there is a memorial to the polish cryptologists at Bletchley Park so their contribution has been recognized.

    It was actually Marian Rejewski who designed the Cryptologic bomb. Bomba being the polish word for Bomb.

    Turing developed the Electro-Mechanical Bomb which was capable of cracking the more sophisticated versions of the Enigma code.

    It's well worth taking a trip to Bletchley Park if you get the opportunity.
    It's more than just code breaking. It covers the whole history of computing.

  3. tick tick tick by dmccarty · · Score: 3, Interesting
    From the article: The replica goes on general display at Bletchley Park on September 23.

    Hopefully they'll do more than just display it. I would love to hear the ticking sound of one running. (Incidentally, that's where the name "bombe" comes from.)

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  4. Re:Deserved honour, indeed. by Keebler71 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Indeed...

    Alan Turing's colleague Jack Good, however, said on the same television programme that if the security authorities had known about Alan Turing's homosexuality from the beginning, 'we might have lost the war.'

    --
    "It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
  5. Wasn't Conrad Zuse first? by Dhrakar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually, the title 'First Electronic Computer' is not as cut-n-dried as that. There is good evidence that the title should really go to the Z3 from Conrad Zuse. Other that Mauchly/Eckert his system is generally considered to be the best contender for first electronic computer.
    http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/zuse.html

  6. Not your fault by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    >But then again we did something similar to Babage and his difference engine.

    Babbage got suprisingly generous funding, but unfortunately he was ahead of his time in another way -- he practiced feature creep. He kept redesigning while the machine was being built, which is part of the reason he needed such generous funding.

  7. Re:Deserved honour, indeed. by gosand · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Turing's death is a warning about the dangers of discriminating against people because they are different. For all values of 'different'.

    I am currently reading "Alan Turing: The Enigma" (http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/), and while I am not much for biographies, it is pretty good so far. It is quite long and detailed, but I am anxious to get through it. The foreword is by one of my favorite authors, Douglas Hofstadter. Can't wait to get his new book in 2007.

    If you are a geek, read Godel Escher Bach, and The Mind's I. And if you really want to tackle something, try Metamagical Themas. It's like a good hot sauce - tasty, yet painful, leaving you wanting more. :)

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

  8. A true shame is the way Bletchley Park is treated by fantomas · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A true shame is the way the Bletchley Park Museum is treated by the UK government and heritage authorities - they got turned down from national heritage funding and the whole place is operating on a shoe string. There are great volunteers (some of whom worked there in the war) who will take you on guided tours. It's really an amazing place to visit. Go there!

    But they need financial help to keep the place running. Parts of the place really need financial investment - the Huts where the code breaking happened are barely standing. They've had to sell off some of the land around the house to developers (who are building a housing estate) to pay for the upkeep. Some of the volunteers were going round interviewing people who'd worked there during the war, they were so short of money that once they'd transcribed the interviews, they'd tape over the recordings and use the same tape again in the next interview to save money on buying new audio tapes.

    If you think the work carried out at Bletchley Park during the war was valuable, or fascinating, contribute to keeping the place running as a museum. Visit the place! Buy some cool stuff from the shop! send them a donation! Please.