WEBVTT - TechStuff Ponders an Enigma 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:17.520 tech stuff from how stuff Works dot Com, Guten Talk, 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.759 when Hair's List vote coming by Tectoic. My noma is 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:23.360 Chris Polette when Ish been redact to her by how 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:26.000 Stuff Works dot Com, zits in Mary Gegan uber v 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:31.040 m R is senior text. Here in Jonathan Strickland at 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:36.400 vas Dance Zing is I'm lied fur dis vonn no 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:42.720 loft balogne. Yeah. The predominance of German today is probably 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:47.040 confusing some people. H The best part is see Jonathan 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:51.279 hear from Europe. Jonathan never tells me what quote he's 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:53.640 gonna do, and uh I didn't tell him. I was 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:55.640 going to do the introduction in German. This time I 0:00:55.680 --> 0:01:00.200 actually switched my quote. Okay, so when you as I 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:03.640 heard you speaking Germans like, oh no change, Uh, he 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:05.600 changed the play on me. So anyway, today we're going 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:09.319 to talk about um. Something that actually came to mind 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:14.280 when during the process of recording our episode on quantum computers, 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:16.920 which were led to a discussion of quantum cryptography and 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.759 cryptography is something that actually fascinates probably just about all 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.760 of how stuff works dot Com considering UM, and it 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:28.160 also comes to play it touches on another podcast topic 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:32.800 that we tackled months and months ago, Mr. Touring. Oh yes, 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:35.000 Alan Touring is gonna come up, and it's very important 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:38.000 in this discussion as well. We're talking about the specifically 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:42.240 the Enigma machine, which was a cipher machine used by 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:47.480 Germany during World War Two. Yeah. The funny thing is, UM, 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:51.559 if you've watched any history or read any history about 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:56.360 World War two and UH specifically the war between Germany 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.520 and the Allies, UM, you have a sense of what 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:03.040 this machine meant to the German war effort. But the 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:06.000 thing is, what I don't think comes across in a 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:10.440 lot of those UM discussions is that there's no one 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:14.840 Enigma machine, and it certainly wasn't unknown to the world 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:18.720 before that because the the Enigma goes back years before 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:20.360 the start of World War Two. It was actually a 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:25.080 commercial machine used to encrypt messages. And in fact, because 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.679 it was a commercial machine, it gave some people a 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:30.760 leg up on on figuring out how to crack the 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:35.280 code because it was generally considered to be a practically 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:39.560 uncrackable code if you were to follow the most careful 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.720 security procedures possible. And we'll get into why that is. 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:46.160 But before I think, before we jump into what the 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:48.880 machine did and what how it did it, we need 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:51.760 to talk a little bit just about cipher's in general. Please. 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.640 All right, So a cipher really, and in this case 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:58.400 we're talking about creating a coded message, and uh, there 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:00.600 are different ways of doing this, lots different ways. You 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.800 can create a new alphabet, you can try and hide 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:08.040 things and images. That's called agraphy, right where What you 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:10.880 can also do it is hide messages within a file, 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.280 like like the code for a file. So I could 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:19.200 send a seemingly harmless file to Chris, but if you 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:20.920 were to actually look into the code of that file, 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:24.400 hidden there, not displayed in any form of executable function, 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:27.480 might be a message. So there are lots of different 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.040 ways of getting secret messages across, but a very common 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.480 one is using a cipher where you replace one letter 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:36.280 of the alphabet with another. All right, So the very 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:40.440 basic version of that is a mono alphabetic substitution cipher. 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:45.040 It means you're using just the one alphabet and that 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:48.840 one letter is always going to represent another letter always 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:51.040 in that cipher. Oh yeah, my friends and I used 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.800 to do this back in you know, grade school. Yeah, 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:56.280 you know we we would say, okay, so every letter, 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:58.440 you know, the letter A is represented by the letter 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:00.520 D and it just goes down the alpha that like that. 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:03.840 You've just shifted the alphabet to the to the right 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.920 a couple of places, sure, like that, and then you 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:10.000 just go from there. And so in order to to 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.600 decode this, if you're not just trying to crack it, 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:15.400 I mean, if you're actually decoding it, like you're the 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.880 person who is supposed to receive this message, you would 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:23.279 need to know which letter you know, how far over 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:26.520 did the alphabet shift? Right, So if if A is 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:28.520 B and B s C and C is D, then 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:30.800 you know, all right, well it's a. It shifted one place, 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:33.600 and so I know to shift all these letters back 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:36.839 a spot so that I can decode this. All right. 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.120 That's your very basic mono alphabetic substitution. Now those are 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.520 easy to crack. It's easy for anyone to crack, yes, 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:46.599 all right, as long as you know some basic uh 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:50.880 rules and and tendencies in your native language, you can 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:53.600 crack these. For example, you can start looking for two 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:57.160 letters that are like letters that are are doubled up. 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:00.000 You start looking at those, and then you think, okay, 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:04.320 which letters in the English language are the most frequently 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.240 paired together? Like two ta s would be an example. H. 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.039 Two teas happen a lot, so that that letter there 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.599 could represent a T. Let me see if that starts 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.000 to fit other things. And you look for patterns, and 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:18.479 you find these patterns and you can decode things. You 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:20.800 can make this a little more difficult, actually a lot 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:23.280 more difficult, depending on how sophisticated you get using a 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:29.120 polyalphabetic substitution. All right, so there's this one kind of 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.200 cipher called a Vignier cipher. Uh, this is a little 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.080 more complex. Now. In a Vineer cipher, you've got a grid. 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:39.080 It's twenty six boxes across in twenty six boxes tall. 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.240 All right. On that top level of the grid, you 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.200 have the alphabet spelled out normally A, B, C, D 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:47.599 all the way to Z. And then on the next 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:50.599 one you shift that letter over once, so now it's 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:53.880 B through A. So the last the last one is 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:55.960 gonna be A. And then you go the next lay 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.040 up level down you shift it over against Now it's 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:01.120 C through B and do this all the way down 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:05.240 until you get to Z to A at the very bottom, 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:10.120 all right, or not zo a zero zero y Um. 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:13.320 I'm sitting here. I'm I'm mixing myself up now the 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:15.359 way Vin your cipher's worked as you would have a 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:19.920 key phrase or keyword, Okay, So it's something that you 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:22.520 and the person you're writing to have both agreed upon 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:27.159 in advance. So let's say that for for Chris and I, 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:29.880 we sit there and we decide text stuff is our 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:34.159 key phrase. You would look at your grid and you 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:37.160 would go down that first column. You go all the 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:40.240 way down to the T column, the column that starts 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:43.800 the alphabet begins with the letter T. And then let's 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.680 say that my first word is to Chris is going 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:52.640 to be how d I then look across the top 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:56.120 of that grid for the H on the very top row. 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:58.720 All right, So I've got my finger on the t 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:03.440 oh based on the first column, and I'm looking at 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:07.800 the H column in the top row, and I find 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:11.720 the intersection of those two so where the T row 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:17.280 and the H column meet, and then that letter represents H. 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:20.600 And then for oh, I go because my key phrases 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:22.880 tech stuff. I go to the E column or E 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:25.760 row on the first column. So I look at that 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.800 first column, which is again in alphabetical order, so it's 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:30.520 A B, C, D E. So I go to the 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.000 E row and then I look for the O in 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:37.600 the top row, and I find the intersection of those, uh, 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.080 the column of O and the row of E. But 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:44.520 that and that becomes my Oh so Chris, because he 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:47.720 knows that the key phrases tech stuff, he knows which 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:50.000 road to look at, and then he looks at the 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:54.160 encoded letter. He finds that in the in within that row, 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:56.640 looks up to see what column it is, and that's 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:01.280 the letter it it decodes into. Now this might sound 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:05.160 really complex. That's kind of the point. Well, you don't 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:08.040 want the enemy to decipher your code, because then it 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:11.360 will learn what you're up to and the element of 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:18.000 surprise is lost. So this um this method becomes less 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.760 useful if you are starting to encode longer and longer messages, 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:26.520 because that increases the chance that the enemy or someone 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:29.000 who is not meant to read the code can figure 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:31.880 out your key phrase or keyword. And if they figure 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:35.400 out that keyword, then they've unlocked everything. That's all they need. 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:39.200 They just need to create a Vinyer cipher graph or 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.520 chart and then use that key phrase to decode what 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:46.720 you've said. Now, the Enigma machine takes and a similar 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:50.959 approach to the Vignier cipher and complicates it on a 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:56.440 massive scale and also automates it. Yeah, because, um, you 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:59.520 know with any of these codes that the key uh 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:05.679 is probably the most important part. Um. If you intercept 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:10.880 a coded transmission and you have no idea how it 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.360 has been enciphered, it's going to take you much longer 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:18.840 to try to break that code. Um. Whereas if somebody 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:20.760 on the other end has the key to it, they'll 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:23.719 be able to decipher it in no time or a 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:27.600 little bit more than no time. UM. So that's that's 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:29.400 one of the tricky parts, is I mean you can 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:33.080 uh you know, during War two they were there were 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:35.960 all kinds of different ways to send messages, including things 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.120 like one time pads, which is a a pad used 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.640 of paper used with a particular code this is the 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.320 one for this message. And uh. This would be used 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:48.880 out in the field by agents who couldn't carry something 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:53.320 like a rotor machine like the Enigma with them. Uh. 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:55.520 You know. And the thing is if the if you lose, 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.040 if the person on the other end loses the key 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.680 for that particular pad uh, um, it's just gonna take forever. 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.880 But the Enigma was a way to automate this UM 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.560 this process, and this machine, which was first patented nineteen nineteen, 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.680 ended up being pivotal UH in World War Two, both 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:16.040 for the Germans and well actually the the Axis because 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:20.439 they did have a Japanese version that they used UM, 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:22.720 but also for the Allies when they were able to 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:26.240 figure out how the machine worked, and because it does 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.520 have its own flaws. UM. So let's let's talk about 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.079 what was in an Enigma machine and what it looked 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:36.719 like and and how it encoded letters UM. Each of 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.000 the machines, going back to the very first one, the 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:44.920 Enigma A had rotor wheels UM and a keyboard. It 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:47.280 looks a little uh if you've never seen one of 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.840 these machines, and they all look a little different there, 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.440 Like I said, uh, several different types of machines that 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:55.120 evolved over time, but all of them had a keyboard 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:58.520 on it UM arranged in more of a well, at 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:00.600 first it was an alphabetic fashion and then turn into 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:05.480 more the German keyboard style, but so kind of like 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:07.959 a typewriter. Yeah. And the very first one looked a 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.240 little bit like one of the old timey cash registers. 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:13.480 It was so big, um but yeah, I mean these 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:16.640 had rotor wheels though, and so you would type a letter, 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.240 let's say A, and depending on the way the rotor 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:23.280 wheels were set, it would produce a completely different letter. Yeah. 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:24.960 And the way it would produce it as it had 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:29.040 lamps twenty six lamps, each one uh marked with a letter, 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.439 and the lamp that lit up would be the encoded 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.679 letter for that particular key press. Yeah. They use were 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:38.720 the ones used in World War Two. The earlier ones 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:41.440 did not have lamps. Um. But yeah, I mean the 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.280 ones that we're talking about specifically around World War Two. 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:47.280 That made it easier for the operator to identify which 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:49.840 letter was being used because these most of these machines 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:52.640 had no printer. Yeah. Usually you would have two people 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:56.000 working on both sides of this, both the encoding and 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:58.200 decoding side. You would have one person who would be 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:00.400 pressing the keys and another person who would either be 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:05.960 writing down the letter um, the encoded letter or writing 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:08.480 down the decoded letter. Because an important part of the 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:11.560 Enigma machine, and actually one of the reasons why it 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:16.120 was eventually broken was that it was a device that 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:18.840 if if you if you type the let's let's just 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:21.760 say for for argument's sake, that if I type the 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:25.520 letter A, the letter Q comes up on the lamp. Well, 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:28.320 if I were to take a second Enigma machine that 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.800 was that was configured the same way as the first one, 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:33.880 and that's really important. We'll talk more about why that 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:36.000 is in a minute, and I typed the letter Q, 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:39.760 the letter A would light up, and then all I 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:42.040 would have to do, essentially is take my coded message 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:44.800 that was sent to me, type it out on my 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:48.640 Enigma machine that is configured the same way that the 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:52.640 encoded message machines was configured, and then have someone else 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:54.840 write down which lamps let up, and I have the 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.679 decoded message, except that the people in England were saying, no, 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:00.800 this is gibberish. It's use and someone says, no, you 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:05.440 idiots in German. Anyway, the I thought I would make 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:07.080 you laughing. I thought about that last night and I 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:11.960 was just waiting to unleash it. Um. So the cool 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:13.839 thing here is that, all right, So imagine that each 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:17.200 of these roters. Think of it like a cylinder. Okay, 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:22.480 So imagine a cylinder and on the the on the 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:26.080 ends of the cylinder are rods and contact points. So 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:29.200 there's rods on one side and contact points on the other. Okay, 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.400 this is where an electrical current can flow through. Now 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:36.160 there are twenty six rods and twenty six contact points, 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.880 so there's one for each of the letters the alphabet. Now, 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:44.560 if you were silly, you would just wire these straight across, 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:49.319 so a would all position one would would also would 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:52.280 be a straight wire from the rod to the contact 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:56.120 and position one. Now, of course that's not the way 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:58.720 the Enigma machine works. What happened was they wired it 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.959 so that position one would go to a different contact 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.319 on the other side. So position one might go ton 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:09.280 like Rod one might go to contact twelve. Rod two 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.400 might go to contact twenty three. Rod three might go 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.400 to contact one. That kind of thing. And you had 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:19.080 this massive wires inside the rotor that determine which ones 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:22.240 went to what, And then the rotor would fit inside 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:26.320 the Enigma machine, which would uh electricity from a battery 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:29.320 would come through, and depending on what key you pressed, 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:31.840 that would allow the pathway to go through to a 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:35.320 certain rod. The the electricity would go through the wire 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:37.920 in the rotor come out the side of the contact 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.200 that again is not directly across from the position of 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:44.760 the rod. And that's the basic idea of how it 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:48.680 would substitute a letter. Now if it if the rotor 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:51.160 did not turn, or if there were not more rotors, 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:55.280 you would just have a mono alphabetic substitution, like every 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:57.760 time you type A, the letter Q would light up 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:00.760 if nothing else changed, if that all it did, in 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:02.800 which case it would have been a useless machine because 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:04.680 people would have been able to break that without ever 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.200 having to spend more than a couple of hours on 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:10.240 a on a on a message. Now, a lot of 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:15.200 the machines, UM, we're using three rotors. UM. Now here's 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:19.240 here's where this makes it more complex. Uh. These machines 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:23.520 came with five rotors uh named numbered with Roman numerals 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:28.680 UM and every here here again here's part of the key. UM. 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:32.960 The German command would send out the monthly use of wheels. 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.280 So you might put the wheels in for one two, 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:39.960 so four would be in the leftmost position, one would 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:41.320 be in the middle, two would be in the right 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:45.640 most position, and every time the operator presses a letter, 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:49.840 let's say J the third. Actually, think of this if 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:53.320 you've ever seen a car odometer that measures the distance. 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:57.240 The rotor on the right moves one notch every time 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:00.840 the operator presses a button. So the operator press is J, 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:04.440 the rotor on the right turns one notch. The operator 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.160 presses N, the rotor turns one notch, and then the 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:12.920 middle um. Every so often, the middle rotor moves one notch, 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:18.720 and then again with the leftmost it moves more slowly, 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:23.280 so as the operators typing the message out, the rotors 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:28.040 are turning to incipher the message more thoroughly. The idea 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.960 being that you're not repeating the same alphabet to frequently. 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.120 In fact, you it would take you, it would take 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.800 you an incredibly long message to be able to repeat 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.400 pete such an alphabet ah. And that's one of the tricks. 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:42.520 Eventually it could happen, which is why the Germans limited 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:47.000 their message length to two fifty characters. So to to 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.680 explain this even further, if I press let's say that 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:53.560 I just have the one rotor in there, just for 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:56.160 simplicity sakes, So I've got one rotor in there, and 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:58.760 if I press the letter A, the letter Q lights 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:01.640 up because that's just the way the wiring is in 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.399 that rotor. After I pressed the letter A, the rotor 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:09.480 turns one notch. I pressed the letter A. Well, Q 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.000 is not gonna light up because what's just happened is 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.600 that there's a new rod where the electricity makes contact 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:18.880 with that rod. It's in position A. The first rod 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:21.720 was in position one. Now that the rotor has turned 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:24.560 one notch the rotor, the rod that's in position for 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:27.879 the letter A is rod too. So instead of Q 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.040 lighting up, maybe J lights up. So you could just 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:34.159 keep pressing A and a different letter is going to 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.000 light up every time, except for one other exception we 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:39.240 should point out, which was again something that helped the 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:45.080 Allies break the Enigma code. They the Germans had decided foolishly, 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:49.240 as it turns out, that no letter would ever incipher 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:53.359 to itself. So B can never b B. Yes, so 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:55.199 if you saw the letter B in a message, you 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.439 automatically knew it wasn't B. So you've just you've just 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:00.880 and that sounds like it's menace fuel that you've only 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:05.520 eliminated one option, But that was huge. I mean, without that, 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:08.600 it would have been so much harder to to decode 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.879 these messages. Now when you add that second rotor in 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:15.520 uh so, let's say that again, we're gonna go with 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:18.280 the positions. So the so we have the rods in 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:20.320 the twenty six positions and the contacts on the other 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:24.320 side of the cylinder in twenty six positions. Electricity comes 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:28.680 in through rod one and it's going out through contact twelve. 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:31.920 Then you have your second rotors. So the second rotor, 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:37.480 Rod twelve is accepting the electricity, but it's contact that 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:43.160 the second rotors, Rod twelve is connected to contact UH seven. 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:47.000 So you've got now something that's going in through contact 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:50.200 rod one and coming out contact seven. Once it gets 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:52.679 through the second rotor, you had a third rotor in. 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:55.000 That makes it even more complicated. So it's like you've 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:58.680 just added a huge mass of wires to this device 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:03.239 and it gives it's even more complex. I'm sorry, did 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:07.560 you say huge massive wires like the scheker Brett. Yes, 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:12.000 So here's where the massive wires also comes in. There 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:15.560 was a plugboard that came with many of these Enigma machines, 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.359 not all, but many. Yeah, do you remember if you 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.800 think back to images you've seen of old telephone operators 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.280 when they had to connect a call, they would physically 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:27.560 take a wire and connect one person and plug it 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:31.200 into the slot for the other person to make the connection. Well, 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:36.119 on the Enigma machine, uh they had wires and plugs 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:40.560 that went from that basically connected the letters. Yeah. So 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:42.760 in other words, you might connect the letter A and 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:45.480 the letter J together with A with a wire, which 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:48.760 means every time you press the letter A, it's acting 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:52.120 as if you press the letter J. So that add 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:56.600 added yet another layer of encryption on top of this device. 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:00.600 Uh So, No, you're no longer send a message to 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:04.199 contact one, because that would be the one for A. 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.120 You're sending it to different or not contact but Rod, 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:12.720 you're seeing it to a different rod. Uh so maybe so. 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:17.000 By setting the alphabet position on each rotor, setting the 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.080 rotors in the particular order, choosing you know which rotor 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:22.360 you want. Because these rotors, by the way, we're not 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:25.439 um alf they if you were to look at a 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:28.000 rotor and turn it and it had the letters on it, 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:30.960 it would not be an alphabetical order. They mixed up 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:33.240 the order of the letters to They wanted to make 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:36.399 it as complex as possible. So depending upon the the 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:38.840 rotors you choose, the order you put them in, and 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.879 the plugs that you plug into the plug board, that 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:45.200 would determine what would happen if you pressed any particular 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:49.199 key at any particular time. Plus, it's in German and 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:53.639 you're probably transmitting it in morse code, so that's the 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.000 level that you have to get through in order to 0:20:56.040 --> 0:21:00.000 get to that original message. In addition, UM, the German 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:04.080 Men's tended to break up messages into regular patterns of 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:07.720 UM five characters at a time, so you know, a 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:12.000 F B Q G space, you know, so the message 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:14.679 wasn't written out, and so you wouldn't say, okay, well 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:18.720 this this word has three letters and they're only you know, yeah, 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:21.840 there's only so many word that would have three letters, 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:24.280 and they broke it up so that once you know, 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:26.320 there was really no way to tell how long the 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:29.800 word was. So a single word, and remember this is German, 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:34.040 so these words could be you know, seventy three characters long. 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:38.480 So a single word might might spend multiple five letters segments, 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:42.000 so you know, it might begin on letter four of 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:46.320 this five letter group and then finished three groups later 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:48.879 down the line, and that might have just been the 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:54.399 word for I don't know like car um. So uh yeah, 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.480 it just made it made it more difficult, obvious, skated 0:21:57.520 --> 0:21:59.960 the meaning of the original phrase as much as possible. 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.760 So how would you ever decode such a message? Now? 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:08.480 If you've got it really set up so that everyone 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:12.440 knows how the how to set up their own particular 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:15.480 Enigma machine based upon a codebook, you would have to 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:19.640 have like a codebook that was um given out by leadership. Right, 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:23.640 you'd have to have someone in charge saying, on this day, 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:26.199 for all messages that we send out, this is the 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:29.720 configuration you have to use, because if you didn't have it, 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:33.080 you wouldn't be able to decode it. Right. The German 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:36.240 command would specify the wheel order and the ring setting 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:40.040 and the the steckering the crossing Stecker means plug, so 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:43.240 they called it a plug board. It was Stecker bread UM. 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.280 But the thing is the cipher clerk would uh would 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:49.760 basically turn the three wheels to a position at random 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:53.240 whatever he wanted it to be, and then they would 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:57.119