
National Museum of Computing to hold live Enigma code-breaking demo with a Bombe - baud147258
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/09/19/tnmoc_bombe_enigma_code_breaking_demo/
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sizzzzlerz
This demo is apparently using a bombe that is a recreation of the original.
Does anybody know when it was made or how faithful it is to the originals? I
recall reading that the bombes were essentially hand-built, one-offs, each one
slightly different from the others as improvements were made and, what plans
there were, weren't complete.

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tialaramex
"In 1994 a group led by John Harper of the BCS Computer Conservation Society
started a project to build a working replica of a bombe. The project required
detailed research, and took 13 years of effort before the replica was
completed, which was then put on display at the Bletchley Park museum."

...says Wikipedia

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tialaramex
This was initially confusing to me and may be confusing to others who've
visited Bletchley Park

The Bletchley Park site, containing the not terribly interested mansion
building itself, and a large museum of WWII code breaking stuff, is one
charity, but on their site, in another building, is a different charity, The
National Museum of Computing, TNMOC.

Historically the Bombes (electro-mechanical devices used to help break Enigma)
were part of Bletchley Park's museum, but apparently earlier in 2018 they
moved to TNMOC.

This is weird because Bombes are really, really not computers, unlike
Colossus, which TNMOC looks after but is open to the public from the other
charity's site. Colossus is one of many machines on the cusp, it's an
electronic computer, but it really only does one thing and "re-programming" it
involves almost taking it to pieces. But Bombes are no more computers than,
say, an old-fashioned mechanical cash register is.

So this demo will be hosted by TNMOC, but the machines shown will be ones you
may have seen (unless you went there this summer) at the non-TNMOC Bletchley
Park WW2 crypto museum. A miniature version of this (part breaking Enigma)
used to be a demo that Bletchley would do live for visitors several times a
day, but TNMOC may not be offering that demo any more on their tours, I'm not
sure. I assume the demo for this stream will be far more complete than the
average visitor to Bletchley was interested in watching although I doubt it
will have a step where people try to guess German "cribs" for the message
text.

A problem for this demo, and any dramatisation of breaking Enigma, is that it
doesn't feel like very much. It's loud, and the Bombes are doing stuff because
they're mechanical in nature, but ultimately you can neither experience what
it's like to invent this extraordinary machine, nor what it is like to be the
machine while it's working, so it's emotionally a bit empty. In a movie you
can suppose that breaking the code will prevent our heroes being killed by
Nazis or something, but it's still a bit arms-length really.

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qubax
> This is weird because Bombes are really, really not computers

That's why it's generally called machines rather than computers. But the media
plays loose with words to make the story more interesting.

Also, the british bombes were way too slow to be effective.

It was actually the US Navy that produced effective code breaking bombes.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombe#US_Navy_Bombe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombe#US_Navy_Bombe)

You can see one at the National Cryptologic Museum in Maryland.

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tialaramex
This rather depends on your perspective of what the word "effective" means.

Those US navy bombes are for Kriegsmarine "M4" Enigma, which didn't even exist
when Bletchley Park began breaking Enigma. They came on line in mid-1943. So,
by this point the Axis is defeated in Africa, and Barbarossa is failing, the
German Army is in trouble on the Eastern Front, it has faced some big military
defeats there and cannot continue to sustain these losses, but Russia hardly
seems likely to accept a peace deal after being betrayed previously.

Now, the war wasn't _over_ in 1943 even in Europe. But there had been three
years of code-breaking (including of Enigma) at Bletchley by that point. It's
true that Huts attacking M4 sent data across the Atlantic to the US navy, but
again, that's from mid-1943, prior to that the British were using their slower
machines because you can't win wars by waiting until you have better
equipment.

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Simulacra
You can see an original Bombe at the national cryptologic museum in Fort Meade
Maryland. Best museum I’ve ever seen.

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matthewmcg
Indeed. A very underrated museum. Also the volunteer docents are, in some
cases, retired NSA tech personnel and can share (the declassified parts of)
some very cool stories. On a visit in 2010 or so we met an elderly woman that
had pioneered some important aspects of satellite-based ELINT and SIGINT.

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Simulacra
Yassss! The hubby and I love going up there to hang out with them whenever we
can. Don't forget to talk to the librarians! They have some amazing stories
too but I suspect most people don't realize they can go in there.

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kiwijimm
This machine was housed within the Bletchley Park museum for years. It has
recently moved to the TNMOC

Thanks, James

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mlthoughts2018
It looks like there won’t be any silly Digital Ocean PR stunt disingenuously
pretending to be ML-related this time, which is a relief.

