Re: BBC News: Bombe rebuild to be launched to the public

Dear Matt

Thank you for your kind words. We had a great deal of National Media 
coverage yesterday and were very pleased with all that went on. However 
the press do not necessarily read what we have put out for them and for 
those on the 'BPARK' list who are technically orientated I would like to 
clarify a few points please.

When were planning the Enigma Reunion at BP to take place on Sunday 24th 
September this was to celebrate the completion of the Bombe Rebuild and 
the start of commissioning. The only construction to be complete was the 
final set of drums to make this up to the full 180.

During the planning meetings it was decided to put everything on show on 
Saturday the 23rd and well as the following day. Also there was to be 
the Press Day that happened yesterday.

As well as the Bombe completion we added to the display the completion 
and fully working Checking Machine and a Typex machine configured to 
work as a German Enigma. This was as used in numbers by the ladies in 
the BP decoding room where they recovered the plain German. This Typex 
works fully with three Enigma equivalent inserts and by September the 
23rd we will have the full set of five.

Full working of the Bombe; where we plan to have it find previously 
undiscovered keys, is to be completed before July next year when this 
will be part of the British Computer Society's 50th anniversary 
celebrations.

We are not claiming that our Bombe is fully working in every respect at 
this time; we never did. However we have made very good progress with 
the commissioning and have recreated various 'stop' menus where 
statically the whole 'scrambler' gives the correct 'stop' conditions. 
This has proved all our Drum, Reflector and Letchworth Enigma wiring. 
This being a very great step forward in its own right.

Our sense relays all work and will detect a simulated 'stop'. Therefore 
the next step is to apply the sense circuits dynamically to the know 
menu 'stop'. Then we have to commission the 'Stop and Cancel' so that 
the machine stops accurately indicating the correct 'stop' information. 
As I say we are well into the final stage of commissioning but it would 
be very unwise of us to forecast when accurate 'stops' will be achieved 
but with all that has gone before we are quietly optimistic.

For those who are interested in this level of detail why not visit us at 
BP on Saturday the 23rd or Sunday the 24th when the 'Veterans' and in 
particular a good number of the WRNS who operated the Bombes are 
visiting. For those wishing to see the wider picture why not come 
anyway. I doubt that anybody would be disappointed.

All the best

>BBC news article today:
>   -- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5319126.stm
>
>"World War II veterans are preparing to show the public how they cracked the
>Nazi Enigma codes for the first time since VE Day in 1945...John Harper, who
>led the project, said it took so long because there were `so many parts to it'"
>
>`The whole thing was to build it as authentically as possible - so we were very
>lucky that GCHQ provided us quite a few drawings of individual parts'
>
>`The difficulty was that we couldn't get any assembly drawings so we had to
>re-create those.'...
>
>The project will be launched to the public at the Churchill and Enigma Reunion
>weekend on 23 and 24 September."
>
>
>Many congratulations to John Harper and his team. Thanks for bringing this
>stuff back to life.
>
>-- Matt
>
>P.S. (I'm planning to be at BP that weekend. If anyone else on the list will be
>there, let me know: it'd be fun to say hello)
>
>Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Matt_Crypto
>Blog: http://cipher-text.blogspot.com
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
John Harper