Checking machine
The checking machine was a comparatively simple but important electromechanical device that was used by the British code breakers in Bletchley Park (BP) during the Second World War to read the radio messages encrypted with the German key machine Enigma to decipher .
The checking machine served in addition to the Turing bomb to find the true key setting of the Enigma used by the Germans . Due to the principle behind the Turing bomb, there were a number of false stops ( false hits), i.e. possible key candidates for which all the conditions derived from the Crib used (presumed text passage) were met, but the real key was not found. These therefore had to be "checked" (checked). The checking machine was used for this .
It simulated the original current flow of an Enigma with its three rotating rollers and the reversing roller and also had a differently arranged but functionally identical keyboard for input and a lamp field for display. On the other hand, a plug board and an indexing device were dispensed with here. If necessary, the rollers were adjusted by hand and turned further.
Similar to the replica Turing bomb , a replica of a checking machine was completed in 2006 as part of a replica project carried out at the original location for more than ten years from 1995 under the direction of the British engineer John Harper .
literature
- Friedrich L. Bauer : Deciphered secrets - methods and maxims of cryptology . Springer, Berlin 2000 (3rd edition), ISBN 3-540-67931-6 .
Web links
- Photo of a checking machine.Retrieved September 2, 2016.
- Checking the Stops . Retrieved September 2, 2016.
- Bomb Rebuild Project by John Harper (English). Retrieved September 2, 2016.
Individual evidence
- ^ Gordon Welchman: The Hut Six Story - Breaking the Enigma Codes . Allen Lane, London 1982; Cleobury Mortimer M&M, Baldwin Shropshire 2000, p. 11. ISBN 0-947712-34-8
- ↑ Reconstructing the Bombe.Retrieved September 2, 2016.
