2 Apr
2000
2 Apr
'00
4:48 p.m.
--- John Lewczyk <jlewczyk(a)his.com> wrote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_698000/698804.stm
An Enigma machine used by the Nazis to send coded messages during World War
Two, has been stolen from the code-cracking Station X at Bletchley Park,
Buckinghamshire. The machine, worth about £100,000, is one of only three in
the world. It was brought to the UK after the war.
I bet it was somebody on this list who grabbed it! Fess up! ;-)
The closest I've come is photographing the one at the Deutches Museum on
my recent trip to visit Hans.
-ethan
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2 Apr
2 Apr
5:26 p.m.
As for the BBC article saying it was only one of three in the world, this is
hard to believe. Thousands of Enigmas were built, and it's quite difficult
to believe that all but three have been destroyed.
The Computer Museum History Center <http://www.computerhistory.org>
has at least one, and I know that the NSA lobby also is reported to have one.
As the article points out, even Mick Jagger owns an Enigma machine, but of
a different type than the stolen machine.
I know about the 4-rotor and 3-rotor versions; what other types have there
been?
And, what is unique about the Bletchley Park Enigma that made it only one of
three in the world?
-Mike
On Sun, 2 Apr 2000, Ethan Dicks wrote:
--- John Lewczyk <jlewczyk(a)his.com> wrote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_698000/698804.stm
An Enigma machine used by the Nazis to send coded messages during World War
Two, has been stolen from the code-cracking Station X at Bletchley Park,
Buckinghamshire. The machine, worth about £100,000, is one of only three in
the world. It was brought to the UK after the war.
I bet it was somebody on this list who grabbed it! Fess up! ;-)
The closest I've come is photographing the one at the Deutches Museum on
my recent trip to visit Hans.
-ethan 
6:46 p.m.
New subject: One of only 3 "enigma machine" stolen; A piece of ENIAC was up for auction.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Cheponis" <mac(a)Wireless.Com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 2:56 PM
Subject: Re: One of only 3 "enigma machine" stolen; A piece of ENIAC was
up for auction.
And, what is unique about the Bletchley Park Enigma
that made it only
one of
three in the world?
Very likely that it's one that was built by the Poles just before WW2
after they collared one bound for the German Embassy long enough to
dismantle it and take pics etc. (they arranged to have it held up in
customs over a weekend IIRC). This then enabled them to produce some
for their own use, one of these eventually found it's way to England,
when first Poland, then France, where the operation moved to, were
overrun.]
That would fit, because only a very few of the Polish built Enigmas
survived, the rest were destroyed by the Poles to prevent the Germans
finding out they had (at least partly) penetrated it's secrets.
This particular machine might well be the one demonstrated on the BBC TV
series "The Secret War" in the final episode of the series titled "Still
Secret". If so, it was restored to full working order by the
teleprinter maintenance dept of the BBC especially for the program in
the mid 80's.
I'd predict it will probably be recovered in fairly short order. IMHO
it would be almost impossible to sell something like this for a fraction
of it's supposed value without getting nailed.
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Mark's College
Port Pirie,
South Australia
geoffrob(a)stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au
netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au
ICQ: 1970476
8:33 p.m.
New subject: One of only 3 "enigma machine" stolen; A piece of ENIAC was up for auction.
On Mon, 3 Apr 2000, Geoff Roberts wrote:
I'd predict it will probably be recovered in
fairly short order. IMHO
it would be almost impossible to sell something like this for a fraction
of it's supposed value without getting nailed.
That's assuming that the person who stole it was planning to sell it on
the open market. It is possible, it was stolen on commission and if so, it
may never be seen again (just hidden in some rich persons' collection).
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)kerberos.davies.net.au
| "If God had wanted soccer played in the
| air, the sky would be painted green"
9:07 p.m.
New subject: One of only 3 "enigma machine" stolen; A piece of ENIAC was up for auction.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Huw Davies" <cchd(a)kerberos.davies.net.au>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 6:03 PM
Subject: Re: One of only 3 "enigma machine" stolen; A piece of ENIAC was
up for auction.
That's assuming that the person who stole it was
planning to sell it
on
the open market. It is possible, it was stolen on
commission and if
so, it
may never be seen again (just hidden in some rich
persons'
collection).
Can't argue with that. Hopefully it was just a 'target of opportunity'.
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Mark's College
Port Pirie,
South Australia
geoffrob(a)stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au
netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au
ICQ: 1970476
6 Apr
6 Apr
7:42 a.m.
On Sun, Apr 02, 2000 at 10:26:28PM -0700, Mike Cheponis wrote:
As for the BBC article saying it was only one of three
in the world, this is
hard to believe. Thousands of Enigmas were built, and it's quite difficult
to believe that all but three have been destroyed.
The Computer Museum History Center <http://www.computerhistory.org>
has at least one, and I know that the NSA lobby also is reported to have one.
As the article points out, even Mick Jagger owns an Enigma machine, but of
a different type than the stolen machine.
I know about the 4-rotor and 3-rotor versions; what other types have there
been?
And, what is unique about the Bletchley Park Enigma that made it only one of
three in the world?
-Mike
According to information linked to by the Wired article on this subject,
the missing machine was an "Abwehr" (sp?) variant, with no patch panel,
and extra symbols on the keys:
http://home.cern.ch/~frode/crypto/BPAbwehr/press.html
More details on the machine are located here:
http://www.eclipse.net/~dhamer/Abwehr_theft.htm
And yes, there may be a few more around, but this one was one of three
Abwehr models _known_ to exist.
2:49 p.m.
New subject: VAX 6000-410 available in SA, TX
At the UT Health Science Center this Saturday (8th) the above
mentioned VAX is a part of the auction. Don't know exactly what
they have with it, just know that there will be one. Here is the
address:
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, Texas
The auction starts at 9am.
George
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