Riverbank Laboratories

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Riverbank Laboratories
National Register of Historic Places
Historic District
Riverbank Laboratories near Chicago (2007 photo)

The Riverbank Laboratories near Chicago (Photo 2007)

Riverbank Laboratories (Illinois)
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
location Geneva , Illinois , United States
Coordinates 41 ° 52 '16.6 "  N , 88 ° 18' 50.9"  W Coordinates: 41 ° 52 '16.6 "  N , 88 ° 18' 50.9"  W.
surface 3.5  acres (1.4  ha )
Built 1912
Architectural style Bungalow / Arts and Crafts
NRHP number 03001204
Data
The NRHP added November 28, 2003
Declared as  HD November 28, 2003

The Riverbank Laboratories (short: Riverbank Labs or just Riverbank ), today Riverbank Acoustical Laboratories (RAL) ( German  "Riverbank Acoustics Laboratory" ), was originally in 1916 by the successful American businessman George Fabyan (1867-1936) as his private Research institute founded in the middle of the Riverbank Estate , an approximately 120  hectare property located directly on the Fox River in the north of the American state of Illinois .

They were included in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) ( German  "National Directory of Historic Places" ) in 2003 (see also: List of entries in the National Register of Historic Places in Kane County ).

history

Another view of the Riverbank Laboratories (photo 2003)

Fabyan was a very successful businessman who made a fortune from the textile trade inherited from his father. He set up his private think tank for the purpose of researching various scientific and also pseudo-scientific questions that interested him. This included very different areas such as acoustics , chemistry , genetics , cryptanalysis and literary studies .

Fabyan hired the young William Friedman (1891-1969), an immigrant from the Russian Empire , and in 1916 also the 24-year-old Elizebeth Smith (1892-1980) (see photo under web links ). Both married a short time later and became the most famous cryptologist couple in American history. After the United States entered the First World War , the laboratory began to work intensively and successfully with cryptanalysis and deciphered encrypted messages from the Central Powers and Mexico from autumn 1917 . American officers were also trained in cryptology here. The Riverbank Laboratories , founded by George Fabyan, are now considered the birthplace of American cryptology. The Riverbank publications known among cryptologists are based on the work of Riverbank Laboratories .

As early as 1913, Fabian had hired the American physicist Wallace Clement Sabine (1868–1919), a pioneer in the field of room acoustics . He ran the Riverbank acoustics laboratory. After his early death at the age of only 50, his cousin Paul Sabine (1879–1958), also an expert in room acoustics, took over the management and in the following years expanded it into one of the leading acoustics laboratories in the United States. There he developed acoustic test procedures and standards. After he retired in 1947, the laboratory was taken over by the Armor Research Foundation (ARF) , now the Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute (IITRI) .

Fonts (selection)

  • William F. Friedman: The index of coincidence and its applications in cryptology. Riverbank Laboratories - Department of Ciphers, Geneva IL 1922 (Reprinted by Aegean Park Press, Laguna Hills CA 1987, ISBN 0-89412-137-5 [ A Cryptographic Series , 49]).

literature

  • Craig P. Bauer : Secret History - The Story of Cryptology . CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2013, ISBN 1-46656-186-6 .
  • Friedrich L. Bauer : Deciphered Secrets. Methods and maxims of cryptology. 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Springer, Berlin a. a. 2000, ISBN 3-540-67931-6 .
  • Rudolf Kippenhahn: Encrypted messages, secret writing, Enigma and chip card . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1999, p. 44. ISBN 3-499-60807-3 .
  • Fred B. Wrixon: Codes, Ciphers & Other Secret Languages ​​- From Egyptian Hieroglyphics to Computer Cryptology . Könemann, Cologne 2000. ISBN 3-8290-3888-7 .

Web links

Commons : Riverbank Laboratories  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedrich L. Bauer: Deciphered secrets. Methods and maxims of cryptology. 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Springer, Berlin et al. 2000, p. 32.
  2. ↑ Fred B. Wrixon: Codes, Ciphers & Other Secret Languages ​​- From Egyptian Hieroglyphics to Computer Cryptology . Könemann, Cologne 2000, pp. 595-596. ISBN 3-8290-3888-7 .
  3. ↑ Craig P. Bauer: Secret History - The Story of Cryptology . CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2013, ISBN 1-46656-186-6 . P. 294