Electromechanical off-line cipher machine for text traffic, using pseudo-random code.
Used by the German military during WW2. This is the three wheel Enigma I version.
Based on a keyboard and a lamp board. When a clear text key is pressed, a lamp lights the ciphertext character. When a ciphertext text key is pressed, a lamp lights the clear character.
Electrical circuit used three chipper rotors and a plugboard. The cipher key consists of plugboard wiring and initial rotor setting.
The British succeeded in breaking the machine code – and this was one of the best kept secrets, for many years after the war.
The IDF purchased 50 machines prior to the Sinai War (1956), converted them to the Hebrew language and trained operators, but the machines were never in actual use.
