ENIGMA

[Baron Kurtz]

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

 

[DOUGLAS]

Wow, now thats something you don't see everyday

 

[up196]

McEnigma

Isn't that the device where you type one thing on the keyboard and a completely different message comes out the receiving end?

If so, I think they are still used to take orders at most of the fast-food places I've been to.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Wow, now thats something you don't see everyday

Yes. I'm of the opinion that at $100,000 they're shortchanging themselves . . .

bk

 

[Smithy]

Isn't that the device where you type one thing on the keyboard and a completely different message comes out the receiving end?

If so, I think they are still used to take orders at most of the fast-food places I've been to.

lol That's good!

 

[DOUGLAS]

Yes. I'm of the opinion that at $100,000 they're shortchanging themselves . . .

bk

Apparently it is priced to sell. I would think a military museum from any country would be very interested in a piece of history like this.

 

[Feraud]

Holy cow! That is amazing.
There is a great book called Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boats Codes, 1939-1943 by David Kahn.
I suggest this title if anyone is interested in reading about this amazing machine and the British men and women who broke the code.

Does anyone want to contribute and co-own an Enigma with me?

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Isn't that the device where you type one thing on the keyboard and a completely different message comes out the receiving end?

If so, I think they are still used to take orders at most of the fast-food places I've been to.

Yeah. It's called the Drive-Through Intercom. An ever-so-slightly updated version.


This is an amazing bit of WWII history! I wonder if the price they're asking is reasonable. It's probably rare enough.


Lee

 

[BegintheBeguine]

A museum should really have it. Although the proprietress of the Carriage Museum in Weirsdale, Florida bought an ancient Chinese wagon on eBay.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Maybe that Enigma is so cheap cuz it's hot.

 

[PADDY]

I remember using one...

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!

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

I was just reading about a WWII museum in the United States that bought a Douglas C-47 that was documented to have been used during the Normandy invasion and also on Market Garden. Years later the aircraft was flown for the filming of A Bridge Too Far.

They found the airplane on eBay Motors.

A real Enigma machine, particularly a pre-war version, must be about as rare and interesting a thing as anybody is likely to see. Wish I had the moolah.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

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!

PADDY, does this look like a real one? Or a fake? That is, does it seem to you to be like the one you remember?

pete

 

[Smithy]

I've just had a quick squizz in a book I have BK, which has a few B&W photos of one and the one on eBay looks similar (I know there were different types).

I've never heard of a fake Enigma machine, although that's not to say someone wouldn't go to the trouble of making one for making some money, but what trouble you would have to go to, with all the gearing wheels, etc.

If it is the real deal, then like you, I imagine $100K would be a steal.

 

[Harp]

The Enigma prewar commercial machine versions were offered
for corporate use by a German firm (naturlich) so some models are
probably still available.

 

[Mojave Jack]

Does anyone want to contribute and co-own an Enigma with me?

Sure! But won't we need two so we can send secret messages across the country?

Come to think of it, all we really need is a couple Little Orphan Annie decoder wheels. Might be cheaper.

 

[Feraud]

Sure! But won't we need two so we can send secret messages across the country?

Come to think of it, all we really need is a couple Little Orphan Annie decoder wheels. Might be cheaper.

haha, funny! One machine might be a problem.
The Annie decorder wheel is cheaper but the Enigma is way cooler!

 

[Naphtali]

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??

 

[ScionPI2005]

I think it's an Enigma as to how I would come up with the money to PAY for that...

 

[MrNewportCustom]

It's up to $13,100.00 as of the time I posted this.


Lee