ENIGMA

[Cobden]

13,300. And the reserve not met!

 

[Warden]

Strange thing is, not every war museum wants them. Recently I person I know tried to long term lone his machine to Bletchley Park, the home of allied code breaking and now a museum.

They replied, they already had several and it woudl push thier insurance up again, so thanks, but no thanks.

Mind you, that could be because they had one stolen a few years ago.

Harry

 

[reetpleat]

I suspect this is important enough to defeat the FLounge live eBay auction ban. What does grandad have in the closet? Oh, an original (apparently) Enigma machine!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Legendary-German-WWII-cipher-machine-ENIGMA-1938-circa_W0QQitemZ270142870851QQihZ017QQcategoryZ208QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Cool, eh?

bk

When I travel back in time to 1939, I am taking it with me. Do I give it to the allies, or sell it on the blck market to the highest bidder? Hmmmmmmm.

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

Wait, am I reading this incorrectly, or did that auction end at $100k and the same seller has ANOTHER ONE listed? Hm...

 

[BellyTank]

Someone posted about an eBay ENIGMA machine a couple of months back.

Want a repro?

B
T

 

[BellyTank]

Fascinating item.

The British began work on breaking Enigma, I believe, when a pair of commercial model machines were brought from Poland shortly after the war began.
***
Some additional books on this item, and its greater topic, that might be of interest that I have read:

Kahn, David, The Codebreakers, circa 1967. Excellent information, but the mathematics was nearly gibberish to me.

Budiansky, Stephen, Battle of Wits. Excellent information, but the mathematics was nearly gibberish to me.

Winterbotham, F.W., The Ultra Secret. This is the first book about Ultra. Prior to its publication, Ultra was highly classified. I believe publication date was 1974??

I have the Winterbotham book.
He was in the project and published his book as soon as the official secrets act allowed- 30 years on(I think).

B
T

 

[eniksleestack]

I suspect this is important enough to defeat the FLounge live eBay auction ban. What does grandad have in the closet? Oh, an original (apparently) Enigma machine!

bk

So my original post on this last night got deleted because...? [huh] Just curious, don't want to break any forum rules.

 

[cookie]

Fascinating item.

The British began work on breaking Enigma, I believe, when a pair of commercial model machines were brought from Poland shortly after the war began.
***
Some additional books on this item, and its greater topic, that might be of interest that I have read:

Kahn, David, The Codebreakers, circa 1967. Excellent information, but the mathematics was nearly gibberish to me.

Budiansky, Stephen, Battle of Wits. Excellent information, but the mathematics was nearly gibberish to me.

Winterbotham, F.W., The Ultra Secret. This is the first book about Ultra. Prior to its publication, Ultra was highly classified. I believe publication date was 1974??

Ultra was the logged intercepts of the Enigma stuff or was it the whole of the spy stuff that the Allies grabbed post war? I seem to remember reading that the Ultra intercepts disclosed a lot of the spies in Australia such as Petrov and other Russian spies

 

[Baron Kurtz]

So my original post on this last night got deleted because...? [huh] Just curious, don't want to break any forum rules.

Not sure. These weird and wonderful very very expensive items normally beat the ban . . .

bk

 

[Warden]

Taking us on a little tangent,

The home of the Allied Enigma code breaking is in the news.

More than 100 academics have signed a letter to The Times saying the code-cracking centre and crucible of the UK computer industry deserves better.

See BBC news story here

or video clip here


Harry

 

[cookie]

When I was on an army intelligence course, the little museum they had on site, had an original Enigma machine, and I remember being told how many computations this thing had (like millions!!). When the British captured the original machine off a German U-Boat and got the code books..etc, well, it was one of the major turning points of the war actually!

But not the sort of thing to have sitting on your desk at home. This is really best in a museum!

Did anyone see that recent American movie on Fox that was about this with Harvet Keitel and that other goose that was in White Men Don't Jump?

 

[Smithy]

Did anyone see that recent American movie on Fox that was about this with Harvet Keitel and that other goose that was in White Men Don't Jump?

Crumbs, not that awful U-571?

That caused a huge stir when it came out. The British government actually complained to the US about it. The bloke who directed it has since come out and said it was a mistake to make the thing.

 

[DeaconKC]

If you get a chance to read U-505 by Dan Gallery it tells of the capture of a German U boat. Fun book and the sub itself is still in Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry.

 

[JimInSoCalif]

I thought U-571 was a pretty good movie - for fiction. And it will certainly give your speakers a good workout.

However, I can certainly understand why the British would be upset as it was they who lost an officer and two men while retrieving an Enigma four rotor machine and, perhaps more importantly, a list of the rotor settings for the next month or two from a sinking German submarine.
A lot of credit should go to those brave men.

Cheers, Jim.

 

[Martinis at 8]

http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0014%2FRLEW

Ronald Lewin gave several fascinating lectures at my college about Ultra during the 70's.

M8

 

[Drew B]

The British movie

If, you are indeed interested in the 'enigma' story but can't be bothered reading those books, there is a great movie entitled "Enigma"... Excellent. It gives rough history to it and also has a great romance sub plot. Anybody seen it?

 

[Warden]

Yes I have the film on DVD, the plot I think is OK until the end, when it is just silly.

It was also a shame they did not use the 'real' Bletchley park for the filming, but on the positive I thought the sets and costumes where first rate and the way how the enigma code worked was explained in layman's language which is really good.

After the filming the U-boot mock up used in the film was stored at Bletchley Park, (Until the weather got hold of it and it collapsed.)

Now that was exciting to see.

Harry

 

[ethanedwards]

A lot of credit should go to those brave men.

Cheers, Jim.[/QUOTE]


One of them - Tom Williams - has a street named after him in his home town,
also my original home town, in Tamworth, Staffordshire. But I wonder how many know the significance? (The Apple computer logo
is also a tribute to Alan Turing, who allegedly committed suicide by biting into an apple, laced with cyanide.)

 

[Drew B]

Macintosh... History???

wow, you learn something new everyday. The film isn't superbly accurate but its still brilliant i think.

 

[Eyemo]

Did a photoshoot of a mansion house in Wales yesterday.. the owners Mum and Dad both worked there...

Warden, I did a phototshoot for Armchair General magazine 18months on Alan Turin.. The Film set U-Boat was in a very sorry state then.. Has it completely collapsed now?.. Real real Shame that. It could have been an excellent display piece if it was looked after better... :eusa_doh: