By David Ponce
Quick historical parenthetical. If you snoozed through history class, you should know that during WWII, the Germans thought they had created the ultimate encryption machine. The Enigma, as it was called, was supposed to make their communications completely unintelligible to the enemy, and its code was said to be unbreakable. Unfortunately for them, the Allies got their hands on a couple of Enigma units, and after months of prayers, headaches and hissy tantrums at its overwhelming complexity, a team of British code breakers at Bletchley Park got through. The rest of the story, while fun, in unimportant.
The point is, while this may not be new news, I just stumbled across the Enigma-E Cypher Machine Kit. That’s right, for ?119.99 (and an extra $100 for the lovely Paul Signorelli wooden case in the US) you can purchase an Enigma, all your own.
Enigma-E kit is an electronic simulation of a classic M3/M4 Enigma cypher machine. It comes complete with a 65 page instruction manual that details its construction and use. It even features an optional Morse-code output
While this is completely useless to most people out there, I bet there are a couple geeky historians/schooolteachers/freaky recreationists that might get a kick out of something like this.
[…] Ahora, t? mismo te puedes construir una reproducci?n de la m?quina Enigma. Enigma-E es un website dedicado en cuerpo y alma a esta m?quina, vende kits (a un precio de 120 libras) para poder fabricarla t? mismo, y hasta una copia de las cajas de madera en las que se trasportaba. Imprescindible, si eres un enamorado de la Segunda Guerra Mundial o la Criptograf?a. @ OhGizmo! […]
Unfortunately for them, the Allies got their hands on a couple of Enigma units, and after months of prayers, headaches and hissy tantrums at its overwhelming complexity
Unfortunately for them, the Allies got their hands on a couple of Enigma units, and after months of prayers, headaches and hissy tantrums at its overwhelming complexity
Unfortunately for them, the Allies got their hands on a couple of Enigma units, and after months of prayers, headaches and hissy tantrums at its overwhelming complexity