Marian [Adam] Rejewski is of particular interest. He was the first to break Enigma encodings. His work and that of his colleagues was made available to the British in early 1940 and was known to Alan Turing.
His paper, published in Applicationes mathematicæ [Warsaw], volume 16 (1980), is still the very best explanation of how the reading of Enigma messages was mechanized. It is in English, slightly quaint but entirely accessible English---I could not write Polish half so well---and it still repays attention. On 12/5/14, Tomasz Rola <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Dec 02, 2014 at 10:34:26PM +0100, R.S. wrote: >> W dniu 2014-12-02 o 22:08, Ed Finnell pisze: >> >_The Imitation Game - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia_ >> >(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Imitation_Game) >> >Something for the holidays... >> > >> >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >> >send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN >> > > >> Check the "hackers" of Enigma: >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine This success was a >> result of efforts by three Polish cryptologists, Marian Rejewski, >> Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski, working for Polish military >> intelligence. Rejewski "reverse-engineered" the device, using >> theoretical mathematics and material supplied by French military >> intelligence. Subsequently the three mathematicians designed >> mechanical devices for breaking Enigma ciphers, including the >> cryptologic bomb. > > I guess our (Polish) bomba kryptologiczna (cryptological bomb) was a > product of country with much less spare resources than UK and USA, who > made their own "bombes" few years later (strange coincidence of names, > isn't it). > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomba_(cryptography) > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombe > > I guess, with few more years of peace, our efforts could possibly lead > to much more advanced devices. But at the same time, few years later > all sides would have been better prepared, making a conflict even more > brutal. > > I find the whole Enigma-breaking story quite interesting in many > aspects, not last of which is description of such efforts by western > specialists (some of those resemble popular detective/spy stories, > with idealistic factory workers and whatnot). It's interesting to > think why our own folk were not included in efforts made by Bletchley > (actually, they were left to do as they pleased, to speak it > euphemistically, given that they were often chased by Germans > throughout occupied Europe, in hope to beat some secret out of > them). From what I've gathered so far, up to early 1970-ties the > popular knowledge was that Enigma was unbreakable, and at the same > time some derivative of it had been sold to third world countries (I > don't remember who sold them, UK or USA). Funny. But also a bit > disgusting, if anybody asks me, because after the 70-ties not much > have changed. Maybe I demand too much, however, since modern people > seem to treat past merely as a source of romantic entertainment, at > best. > > Our own success story, including first breakings of E* with pen and > paper (yeah, in times when everybody else was lying belly up in front > of "impossible") in early 1930-ties (Grill), leading to first attempt > to mechanize it in 1935 (Cyclometer) is, I'm afraid, largely swiped > under the rug. > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grill_(cryptology) > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclometer > > So, Bomba was great stuff but it seems to me, we were doing it with > pen, paper and brain for a while :-). > > BTW, if anybody here would rather read a book, I liked Neal > Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. It is a bit naive from nowadays' > perspective, but quite good and maybe even educating read. Not about > Enigma, or rather not only about it. Most movies nowadays fail to > catch my attention, probably because I tend to read about them before > watching, which results in dissatisfaction :-). And if they treat > about anything technical, boy, I am disgusted even before reading (but > I am also disgusted by Lord otR, so perhaps I am just disgusted with > everything - um, not with everything, so those must be mediocre and > deserve contempt). > > -- > Regards, > Tomasz Rola > > -- > ** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. ** > ** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home ** > ** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... ** > ** ** > ** Tomasz Rola mailto:[email protected] ** > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
