The 1941 model was subjected to computed tomography.
Enigma tomography was carried out by scientists from the University of Manchester. Thus, for the first time, they looked inside the most secret unit of the 20th century without breaking it.
Tomography - about 1,500 images - made it possible to make an animation that showed how the encryption process actually took place - how the "insides" of the encryption machine moved and interacted with each other.
Enigma is thrust into the tomograph.
Portable encryption machine Enigma vaguely resembles a typewriter - it has keys with letters. Inside there are rotating rotors that move relative to each other, while closing these or those contacts. The encryptor, pressing the keys, created different cryptographic combinations.
The output was a set of letters generated by the electrical and mechanical elements of the machine, which worked according to a specific code. It was possible to decipher the "report" with the help of another - a similar Enigma, having a code.
The entrails of Enigma on a tomograph scan.
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The Enigma rotors are the main encryption parts.
At first, the Germans had cars with three rotors. Poles managed to find codes for them back in 1938. Then Enigma was supplemented with a fourth rotor. Encryption has become incredibly secure. It seemed to the Germans that now no one would be able to pick up the codes. However, in 1941, the British succeeded in the cryptographic center Bletchley Park (Bletchley Park). The main contribution to the hack was made by mathematician Alan Turing. Thanks to him and other World War II hackers, the Allies read all the secret dispatches of the Third Reich. This, according to some analysts, brought the victory over Germany closer by about 2 years.
A military encryption machine with four rotors, manufactured in 1941, and underwent computed tomography. The “transillumination” did not reveal any special secrets - scientists have figured out all of them long ago. But a visual demonstration - such that with all the pins, wires and contacts - the study provided. This have not happened before.
The trophy car was owned by cryptographer-enthusiast David Cripps (Enigma machine owner David Cripps). He handed it over for research.
VLADIMIR LAGOVSKY
