Edward Hebern

Edward Hugh Hebern (born April 23, 1869 in Streator , Illinois , † February 10, 1952 ) was an American cryptologist . He invented one of the first rotor cipher machines .

Life

As a toddler, Hebern moved to Bloomington, Illinois before living and working on a farm near the town of Odin when he was 14. He later worked as a carpenter . He died of a heart attack at the age of 82.

plant

Drawing from Hebern's patent specification

Replica of Hebern's electric rotor key machine , the Electric Code Machine

Edward Hebern invented one of the first rotor cipher machines in 1917 and applied for a patent in 1921. Without his knowing it, shortly before, in 1915, the two Dutch naval officers Theo A. van Hengel and RPC Spengler had the world's first key rotor machine in Batavia (then the capital of the Dutch East Indies , now Jakarta , capital of Indonesia ) invented. However, they were not allowed to apply for a patent for their invention. Hebern founded a company in California , Hebern Electric Code company , to market its Hebern Electric Code Machine . One of his collaborators was Agnes Meyer , who left the US Navy in Washington, DC in 1923 to work for him.

Hebern's rotor key machine (similar to the later German Enigma ) turned out to be less secure against unauthorized decipherment than initially assumed. The American cryptologist William F. Friedman was able to uncover cryptographic weaknesses of the "Hebern principle" after the method was offered to the US government. Hebern's company did not achieve great economic success, so that Agnes Meyer soon returned to Washington to continue working for the US Navy from 1924. Friedman subsequently developed a much more complicated and cryptographically significantly better rotor key machine, which was to play an important role in World War II and could never be broken . She became famous under the name SIGABA .

literature

Friedrich L. Bauer : Deciphered Secrets. Methods and maxims of cryptology. 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Springer, Berlin et al. 2000, ISBN 3-540-67931-6 .
Rudolf Kippenhahn : Encrypted messages, secret writing, Enigma and chip card . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1999. ISBN 3-499-60807-3

Web links

The Hebern Code Machine Description of his machines with photos by Edward Hebern. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
Hebern Electric Code Machine PDF; 120 kB (English). Retrieved December 22, 2016.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Patent US1510441 : Electric Coding Machine. Registered on March 31, 1921 , inventor: Edward H. Hebern. ‌
^ Karl de Leeuw and Jan Bergstra (eds.): The History of Information Security - A Comprehensive Handbook . Elsevier BV, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2007, p. 389. ISBN 978-0-444-51608-4
^ Karl de Leeuw: The Dutch Invention of the Rotor Machine, 1915-1923 . Cryptologia. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Taylor & Francis, Philadelphia PA 27.2003,1 (January), pp. 73-94. ISSN 0161-1194 .
^ Friedrich L. Bauer: An error in the history of rotor encryption devices . Cryptologia, July 1999.

personal data
SURNAME	Jack, Edward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hebern, Edward Hugh
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American cryptologist
DATE OF BIRTH	April 23, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH	Streator
DATE OF DEATH	February 10, 1952

[US1510441-1] Patent US1510441 : Electric Coding Machine. Registered on March 31, 1921 , inventor: Edward H. Hebern. ‌

[2] Karl de Leeuw and Jan Bergstra (eds.): The History of Information Security - A Comprehensive Handbook . Elsevier BV, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2007, p. 389. ISBN 978-0-444-51608-4

[3] Karl de Leeuw: The Dutch Invention of the Rotor Machine, 1915-1923 . Cryptologia. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Taylor & Francis, Philadelphia PA 27.2003,1 (January), pp. 73-94. ISSN 0161-1194 .

[4] Friedrich L. Bauer: An error in the history of rotor encryption devices . Cryptologia, July 1999.