Enigma
The decoding machine of the war
How does Enigma work?
The Enigma machine was a simple cipher machine. It had several components: a plug board, a light board, a keyboard, a set of rotors, and a reflector (half rotor). The original machine looked a lot like a typewriter. The machine has several variable settings that affect the operation of the machine. The user must select three rotors from a set of rotors to be used in the machine. A rotor contains one-to-one mappings of all the letters. Some Enigma machines had more than 3 rotors which just added to the number of possible encryption combinations.
An Enigma machine
This image points out its features
Typing
This shows how it works, if you press one letter another will light up
Enigma Rotors
Using the roters makes it harder to work out the codes because each day they will be rarified in a different combination