Fwd: Code machine that Hitler and his generals used to swap top secret messages bought for just £10

Sunday 29 May 2016

Code machine that Hitler and his generals used to swap top secret
messages bought for just =A310 after it was found rusting in an Essex she=
d
------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Historian spotted the code machine keyboard while scrolling through
   eBay
- It was advertised as telegram machine and was left in a shed in
   Southend
- The National Museum of Computing volunteer then bought it for =A310

By Abe Hawken For Mailonline

Historians discovered a code machine used by Adolf Hitler to swap top
secret messages with his generals when they saw it advertised on eBay
for =A39.50.

Volunteers from the "National Museum of Computing" at Bletchley Park
tracked down the extremely rare Lorenz keyboard after seeing it on the
online bidding site.

It was being advertised as a telegram machine and the historians found
that it had been left in a shed in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, with 'rubbish
all over it'.

John Wetter, a volunteer at the museum, said : 'My colleague was
scanning eBay and he saw a photograph of what seemed to be the teleprinte=
r.

'He then went to Southend to investigate further where he found the
keyboard being kept, in its original case, on the floor of a shed with
rubbish all over it.

'We said  "Thank you very much, how much was it again?" She said
"=A39.50", so we said "Here's a =A310 note - keep the change".'

Plain commands would be entered into the teleprinter, which were then
encrypted by a linked cipher machine, using 12 individual wheels with
multiple settings on each, to make up the code.

The museum, in Buckinghamshire, is now asking people to search for the
missing motor, which is another key piece of the equipment.

And when volunteers took the teleprinter back from Essex to the museum,
they found it was stamped with the official wartime number from the
German army that matched the one on a different machine recently lent
from Norway.

The Lorenz SZ42, sent from Norway, resembles a typewriter and is one of
around 200 Lorenz machines which were in existence during World War II...=
...


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3615140/Code-machine-Hitler-gener=
als-used-swap-secret-messages-rusting-Essex-shed.html

http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/encrypt-decrypt-full-lorenz-story

http://www.tnmoc.org/news/notes-museum/lorenz-sz42missing-motor

https://twitter.com/tnmoc?ref_src=3Dtwsrc^tfw


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/29/hitlers-top-secret-coded-messa=
ging-machine-snapped-up-for-950-af/

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/29/nazi-coding-machine-lo=
renz-teleprinter-ebay

http://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/article_large/public/t=
humbnails/image/2016/05/29/19/lorenz-sz42-2.jpg