It could only effect a 'swapping' of letters, rather as the reflector did. And furthermore it did not have the full scrambling power of the rotors. However it was not a rotor - it did not rotate. Unlike the rotors, it could be rewired by the operator. You can compare its effect with the addition of a further rotor to effect a scrambling both between the keyboard and the entry disc, and between the entry disc and the lamp panel. The plugboard or 'Stecker', visible on the front of the machine, was the most important addition made to the basic Enigma when turning it into a machine for military use. This was rather a primitive aspect of the Enigma as it relied on the operator to observe and write down the lit-up letter at each stage of encipherment and decipherment. The lamp panel shows the enciphered output letter for the keyboard key pressed. Then the operator can assemble a new sequence of rotors on the shaft, and put this back into the machine. When the release lever is pulled forward, the reflector slides to the left and the group of three rotors can be taken out on their shaft. Mechanically, this is effected as follows. and did not take advantage of the opportunity for introducing a further scrambling.Īs explained above, it is important that the rotors are interchangeable. A curious aspect of the Enigma design was that the keyboard was connected to the entry disc in the The left hand side of the entry disc has metal contact discs just like the wheel discs. The keyboard contacts are connected to the right hand side. The entry disc is a fixed disc of 26 contacts. In operation, a current flowed from right to left then back left to right, so the reflector is at the left and the entry disc is at the right. You can readily see three rotors in place. We are now ready to see the machine actually used by the German armed forces, and to go on to the further complications introduced through the ring-setting and the plugboard or Steckerverbindung. You can see the specific substitutions embodied in the wheels on this page. Some further wheels were brought into use during the course of the war but basically the rotors remained unchanged throughout. 5x4x3) configurations by choosing a set of three rotors from the five. ![]() In 1938 the Germans added rotors IV and V to the repertoire, thus giving 60 (i.e. These rotors could be assembled on the shaft in any order giving 6 (i.e. In the 1930s, the Enigma had only three different kinds of rotor, I II and III. These rotors were manufactured with their wirings buried inside and they could not be modified in use. (8) The CARRY notch attached to the alphabet ring (see below for explanation). (7) The discs embedded into the core to make contact with the spring-loaded contacts in the next rotor. (6) The spring loaded contacts to make contact with the next rotor. It is the core which effects the essential alphabetic substitution. (5) The CORE containing the cross-wiring between contacts (6) and discs (7). ![]() (4) The catch which locks the alphabet ring to the core (5). (3) The shaft upon which the rotors turn. (2) The alphabet RING or tyre round the circumference of the rotor (see below for an explanation of its significance). (1) The finger notches used to turn the rotors to a start position. This is of Tony Sale's sequence of pages on the Enigma, explaining the components of the Enigma machine and how it was adapted for military use.īefore seeing how the Enigma machine was constructed you should see the rotors or wheels which embodied the alphabetic substitutions. The Enigma - 2 The components of the Enigma machine
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