The Enigma Cypher Machine
The machine that made the germans crack!
What is the Enigma Machine
It was a device that looked like a typewriter that the Germans used to create coded messages. They truly believed that the codes were unbreakable but once the allies got their hands on some examples and some code books they got craking on developing machines to decode German transmissions.
What was it used for
The germans used the enigma machine to cypher and uncypher messages.
How did it work
The Enigma machine was actually fairly simple. The central active encryption element of the machine was a collection of rotors, situated in a row. These are essentially wheels which have letters inscribed on their outside edge.
Around the edges of the two faces of each rotor were arranged a set of pins or contacts: If the device was designed to encrypt only letters (no numbers, punctuation, etc.) then there would be 26 of these pins, one for each of A-Z.
Around the edges of the two faces of each rotor were arranged a set of pins or contacts: If the device was designed to encrypt only letters (no numbers, punctuation, etc.) then there would be 26 of these pins, one for each of A-Z.