[322] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: mechanical workings of Enigma
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Gillogly)
Mon Mar 3 08:03:37 1997
Date: Sun, 2 Mar 1997 17:34:01 -0800
From: jimg@mentat.com (Jim Gillogly)
To: cryptography@c2.net
> From: Steven Bellovin <smb@research.att.com>
>
> Are there any easily accessible resources on the mechanical design of
> Enigma, i.e., how the keys were coupled to the rotor, the stepping
> mechanism, etc.? Pictures would also be useful.
The most accessible is in David Kahn's "Seizing the Enigma", which has
in the appendix some engineering diagrams of the original Korn patent.
Less accessible, depending on your library, is Kozaczuk's "Enigma",
which includes in Appendix E some functional diagrams that appear to
show how the keys drive the rotors. For the cryptographic end of the
design I found Deavours and Kruh's "Machine Cryptography and Modern
Cryptanalysis" to be most useful. It also has some blowups of the
rotors; but you'll learn more about how they <really> work by going down
to the National Cryptologic Museum at Ft. Meade, where you should be able
to handle a rotor if they're having a light tourist day.
Jim Gillogly
jim@acm.org
