What is the Enigma Machine?

What is the Enigma Machine?

The Enigma Machine is basically a type of computer. 

An Enigma machine was a series of electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines developed and used in the early to mid twentieth century for commercial and military usage. Enigma was invented by the German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I.

On 25 July 1939, in Warsaw, the Poles initiated French and British military intelligence representatives into their Enigma-decryption techniques and equipment, including Zygalski sheets and the cryptologic bomb, and promised each delegation a Polish-reconstructed Enigma. The demonstration represented a vital basis for the later British continuation and effort.



Who were Mavis Batey and Alan Turing?

Alan Turing

 

Alan's full name is Alan Mathison Turing and he was a very famous mathematician back in the 1920's-1950's. He  was a British pioneering computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and theoretical biologist.

 

Turing was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts, when such behavior was still a criminal act in the UK. He accepted treatment with
oestrogen injections (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. Turing died in 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined his death as suicide, but it has been noted that the known evidence is equally consistent with accidental poisoning.

Mavis Batey

 

 

Mavis Lillian Batey was a famous author back in the 1920's-2010's. She was born May 5th 1921, and she unfortunately died November 12th 2013. Mavis Lillian Batey, MBE, was an English code-breaker at Bletchley Park during World War II. Her work was one of the keys to the success of D-Day. She later became a garden historian, who campaigned to save historic parks and gardens, and an author.

 

By: Megan Hierons