[SIGCIS-Members] "Secret German WW2 code machine found on eBay"

[Brian Randell]

Hi:

>From BBC News:

A historic machine used to swap top secret messages between Hitler and his generals has been found languishing in a shed in Essex.

Volunteers from The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park used eBay to track down the keyboard of the Lorenz machine.

It was advertised as a telegram machine and was for sale for £9.50.

The museum, in Buckinghamshire, is now asking people to search for the motor, another key piece of the equipment.

<snip>
Full story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36401663

The headline is misleading, but this article on BBC news about the Lorenz cipher machine that The National Museum of Computing has (on long term loan from the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum) and the teleprinter which was used with it, is otherwise good - and well-illustrated.

The Lorenz cipher machine is to be formally unveiled at TNMOC on Feb 3, and the whole sequence, from encipherment of messages using the Lorenz, their interception by the Y service, through to code-breaking at Bletchley Park using the Colossus, and then deciphering messages using Tunny (Bletchley Park’s electro-mechanical equivalent of the Lorenz machine), demonstrated. I plan to be there.

(The article mentions the museum’s interest in having a replica of the missing motor built - this seems a minor problem compared to building a replica Colossus! :-)

Cheers

Brian Randell



--
School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne,
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EMAIL = Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk<mailto:Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk>   PHONE = +44 191 208 7923
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