WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: TechStuff Ponders an Enigma 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.720 stuff Works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.640 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:19.760 How Stuff Works in love all things tech, and today 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:24.599 is a Friday. We gotta get down on Friday. As 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:26.720 Rebecca Black would say. But this is not an episode 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:30.920 about Rebecca Black, who I would argue is an Enigma. Instead, 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:35.559 this is an episode about the Enigma, the Enigma coding machine, 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:39.760 and we originally published this classic episode on October nineteenth, 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:42.280 two thousand eleven. Chris Poulette and I talked about the 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.720 Enigma machine, what it was, and what it took to 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.400 break the code. I hope you enjoy, and I'll talk 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.320 to you again in just a moment. Today we're gonna 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:55.040 talk about um, something that actually came to mind when 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:59.760 during the process of recording our episode on quantum computers 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.480 sort of led to a discussion of quantum cryptography and 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.319 cryptography is something that actually fascinates probably just about all 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:09.280 of how stuff works dot Com considering um, and it 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:13.720 also comes to play it touches on another podcast topic 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:18.360 that we tackled months and months ago. Mr Turing Oh Yes, 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:20.560 Alan Touring is gonna come up in this very important 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:23.560 in this discussion as well. We're talking about the specifically 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:27.759 the Enigma machine, which was a cipher machine used by 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:33.000 Germany during World War Two. Yeah. The funny thing is, UM, 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:37.160 if you've watched any history or read any history about 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:41.920 World War two and uh specifically the war between Germany 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:45.080 and the Allies, UM, you have a sense of what 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:48.600 this machine meant to the German war effort. But the 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.520 thing is, what I don't think comes across in a 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:55.960 lot of those um discussions is that there's no one 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:00.400 Enigma machine, and it certainly wasn't unknown to the world 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:04.240 before that because the the Enigma goes back years before 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:05.920 the start of World War Two. It was actually a 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:10.639 commercial machine used to encrypt messages. And in fact, because 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:13.240 it was a commercial machine, it gave some people a 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:16.280 leg up on on figuring out how to crack the 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:20.800 code because it was generally considered to be a practically 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:25.079 uncrackable code if you were to follow the most careful 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.240 security procedures possible. And we'll get into why that is. 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:31.680 But before, I think, before we jump into what the 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:34.440 machine did and what how it did it, we need 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:38.000 to talk a little bit just about cipher's in general. Please. Alright, 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:40.640 So a cipher really, and in this case, we're talking 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:44.480 about creating a coded message, and uh, there are different 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:46.240 ways of doing this, lots of different ways. You can 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:49.640 create a new alphabet, you can try and hide things 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:53.760 and images. That's called agraphy right where. What you can 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:57.200 also do it is hide messages within a file, like 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:00.000 like the code for a file. So I could send 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:04.919 a seemingly harmless file to Chris, but if you were 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:07.359 to actually look into the code of that file, hidden there, 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:10.720 not displayed in any form of executable function, might be 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.320 a message. So there are lots of different ways of 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:15.799 getting secret messages across, but a very common one is 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:18.280 using a cipher where you replace one letter of the 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:22.680 alphabet with another. All right, So the very basic version 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:27.040 of that is a mono alphabetic substitution cipher. In height, 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.560 it means you're using just the one alphabet and that 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:34.360 one letter is always going to represent another letter always 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:36.560 in that cipher. Oh yeah, my friends and I used 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.640 to do this back in grade school. Yeah, you know 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.320 we we would say, okay, so every letter, you know, 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:44.440 the letter A is represented by the letter D, and 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:46.640 it just goes down the alphabet like that. You've just 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:49.840 shifted the alphabet to the to the right a couple 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:52.880 of places, sure like that, and then you just go 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:56.440 from there. And so in order to to decode this, 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.400 if you're not just trying to crack it, I mean, 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:01.400 if you're actually coding it, like you're the person who 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.680 is supposed to receive this message, you would need to 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:09.040 know which letter you know, how far over did the 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:12.400 alphabet shift, right, So if if A is B and 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:14.560 bs C and C is D, then you know, all right, 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.200 well it's a. It shifted one place, and so I 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:20.320 know to shift all these letters back a spot so 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.000 that I can decode this. All right, that's your very 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.560 basic mono alphabetic substitution. Now those are easy to crack. 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:29.720 It's easy for anyone to crack, yes, all right, as 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:33.520 long as you know some basic u rules and and 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:37.640 tendencies in your native language, you can crack these. For example, 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:40.560 you can start looking for two letters that are like 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.600 letters that are are doubled up. You start looking at those, 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:46.799 and then you think, okay, which letters in the English 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:51.520 language are the most frequently paired together, Like two T 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:55.320 s would be an example. Oh, two teas happen a lot, 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:58.240 so that that letter there could represent a T. Let 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:00.159 me see if that starts to fit other things. You 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:02.599 look for patterns, and you find these patterns, and you 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:05.560 can decode things. You can make this a little more difficult, 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.200 actually a lot more difficult, depending on how sophisticated you 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:13.719 get using a polyalphabetic substitution. All right, so there's this 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:17.280 one kind of cipher called a Vignier cipher. Uh, this 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:19.640 is a little more complex now and a Vineer cipher. 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.800 You've got a grid. It's twenty six boxes across in 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:27.200 twenty six boxes tall. All right. On that top level 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:30.280 of the grid, you have the alphabet spelled out normally A, B, C, 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:32.839 D all the way to Z, and then on the 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.920 next one you shift that letter over once, so now 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:39.320 it's B through A. So the last the last one 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:41.279 is gonna be A. And then you go the next 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:43.400 lay up level down you shift it over against. Now 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.200 it's C through B and you do this all the 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:49.280 way down until you get to Z to A at 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:52.360 the very bottom, all right, or not zo a zero 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:56.960 of zo y um. I'm sitting here, I'm I'm mixing 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.599 myself up now the way Vinnier cipher's because you would 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:04.799 have a key phrase or keyword. Okay, so it's something 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:07.320 that you and the person you're writing to have both 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:11.280 agreed upon in advance. So let's say that, for for 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:13.960 Chris and I, would we sit there and we decay 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:18.480 text stuff is our key phrase. You would look at 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:21.560 your grid and you would go down that first column. 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:24.760 You go all the way down to the T column, 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.480 the column that starts the alphabet begins with the letter T. 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:31.240 And then let's say that my first word is to 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:36.640 Chris is going to be uh, howdy. I then look 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.760 across the top of that grid for the H on 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:43.440 the very top row. All right, So I've got my 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:47.520 finger on the t row based on the first column, 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:52.160 and I'm looking at the H column in the top row, 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.400 and I find the intersection of those two so where 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.400 the t row and the H column meet, and then 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:04.520 that let represents H. And then for oh, I go 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:07.320 because my key phrases tech stuff, I go to the 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:10.800 E column or E row on the first column. So 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.040 I look at that first column, which is again in 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:15.520 alphabetical order, so it's A B, C, D E. So 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:17.640 I go to the E row, and then I look 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:21.040 for the O in the top row, and I find 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:24.400 the intersection of those, uh, the column of O and 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.080 the row of E and that and that becomes my 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:31.880 Oh so Chris, because he knows that the key phrases 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:34.400 tech stuff, he knows which road to look at, and 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.560 then he looks at the encoded letter. He finds that 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:41.000 in the in within that row, looks up to see 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:43.160 what column it is, and that's the letter it it 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:48.600 decodes into. Now this might sound really complex. That's kind 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.520 of the point. Well, you don't want the enemy to 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.920 decipher your code, because then it will learn what you're 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:58.400 up to, and the element of surprise is lost. So 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:04.960 this um this method becomes less useful if you are 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:09.120 starting to encode longer and longer messages, because that increases 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.640 the chance that the enemy or someone who is not 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:15.200 meant to read the code can figure out your key 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:18.320 phrase or keyword. And if they figure out that keyword, 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:21.280 then they've unlocked everything. That's all they need. They just 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:25.280 need to create a vinyer cipher graph or chart and 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:29.280 then use that key phrase to decode what you've said. Now, 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:32.960 the enigment machine takes and a similar approach to the 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:37.719 Vignier cipher and complicates it on a massive scale and 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:42.440 also automates it. Yeah, because um, you know with any 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:46.920 of these codes that the key, uh is probably the 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:52.679 most important part. Um. If you intercept a coded transmission 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:57.600 and you have no idea how it has been enciphered, 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:00.520 it's going to take you much longer should try to 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:05.040 break that code. Um. Whereas if somebody on the other 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:06.640 end has the key to it, they'll be able to 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.880 decipher it in no time or a little bit more 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:13.440 than no time. Um. So that's that's one of the 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:16.679 tricky parts, is I mean you can uh you know, 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:19.120 during wor War two, they were there were all kinds 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.000 of different ways to send messages, including things like one 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.400 time pads, which is a a pad used of paper 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.760 used with a particular code this is the one for 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.080 this message. And uh. This would be used out in 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:34.840 the field by agents who couldn't carry something like a 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:39.120 rotor machine like the Enigma with them. Uh you know. 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:41.360 And the thing is if the if you lose, if 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:43.720 the person on the other end loses the key for 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.360 that particular pad, um, it's just gonna take forever. But 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:50.400 the Enigma was a way to to automate this UM. 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.319 This process, and this machine, which was first patented N 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.200 ended up being pivotal UH in World War Two, both 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:01.319 for the Germans and well act really the the axis 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:06.000 because they did have a Japanese version that they used, UM, 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:08.240 but also for the Allies when they were able to 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:11.760 figure out how the machine worked, and because it does 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.120 have its own flaws. UM. So let's let's talk about 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.640 what was in an Enigma machine and what it looked 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:22.280 like and and how it encoded letters UM. Each of 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.560 the machines, going back to the very first one, the 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:30.480 Enigma A had rotor wheels UM and a keyboard. It 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:32.800 looks a little uh if you've never seen one of 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.360 these machines, and they all look a little different there, 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:37.960 Like I said, uh, several different types of machines that 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:40.640 evolved over time, but all of them had a keyboard 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:44.040 on it, UM arranged in more of a well at 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:46.079 first it was an alphabetic fashion and then turned into 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:50.760 more of the uh German keyboard style, but so kind 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.240 of like a typewriter. Yeah. And the very first one 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:55.000 looked a little bit like one of the old timey 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:58.199 cash registers. It was so big, UM. But yeah, I 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:01.520 mean these had rotor wheels, and so you would type 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:04.360 a letter, let's say A, and depending on the way 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:07.720 the rotor wheels were set, it would produce a completely 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:09.920 different letter. Yeah. And the way it would produce it 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:14.000 as it had lamps twenty six lamps, each one marked 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:16.960 with a letter, and the lamp that lit up would 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:21.800 be the encoded letter for that particular key press. Yeah. 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:23.640 These were the ones used in World War Two. The 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:26.720 earlier ones did not have lamps. UM. But yeah, I 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:29.400 mean the ones that we're talking about, specifically around World 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:31.680 War two. That made it easier for the operator to 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.880 identify which letter was being used because these most of 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:37.640 these machines had no printer. Yeah. Usually you would have 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:40.760 two people working on both sides of this, both the 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:43.360 encoding and decoding side. You would have one person who 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:45.520 would be pressing the keys and another person who would 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:51.120 either be writing down the letter um the encoded letter, 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:53.880 or writing down the decoded letter. Because an important part 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:55.880 of the Enigma machine, and actually one of the reasons 0:11:55.920 --> 0:12:01.040 why it was eventually broken, was that it was a 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:03.880 device that if if you if you type the let's 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.000 let's just say for for argument's sake, that if I 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.960 type the letter A, the letter Q comes up on 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:12.960 the lamp. Well, if I were to take a second 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:16.600 Enigma machine that was that was configured the same way 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:18.640 as the first one, and that's really important. We'll talk 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:20.800 more about why that is in a minute. And I 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:24.040 typed the letter Q, the letter A would light up, 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:26.439 and then all I would have to do, essentially, is 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.520 take my coded message that was sent to me, type 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:32.440 it out on my Enigma machine that is configured the 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:37.160 same way that the encoded message machines was configured, and 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:39.760 then have someone else write down which lamps let up 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:43.120 and I have the decoded message, except that the people 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.640 in England were saying, no, this is gibberish, it's new useless, 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:49.040 and someone says, no, you idiots in German. Anyway, the 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:51.880 I thought I would make you laughing. I thought about 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:54.520 that last night and I was just waiting to unleash it. 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:57.600 We have more to say about the Enigma machine and 0:12:57.640 --> 0:12:59.959 how it worked, but first let's take a quick break 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:09.920 to thank our sponsor. The cool thing here is that, 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:12.120 all right, So imagine that each of these roters think 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.840 of it like a cylinder. Okay, so imagine a cylinder 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:21.559 and on the on the ends of the cylinder are 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.480 rods and contact points. So there's rods on one side 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:26.800 and contact points on the other. Right, Okay, this is 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.480 where an electrical current can flow through. Now there are 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:34.200 twenty six rods and twenty six contact points, so there's 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:37.640 one for each of the letters the alphabet. Now, if 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:41.880 you were silly, you would just wire these straight across, 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:46.640 so a would all Position one would would also would 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:49.600 be a straight wire from the rod to the contact 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:53.439 and position one. Now, of course that's not the way 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.040 the Enigma machine works. What happened was they wired it 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:59.280 so that position one would go to a different contact 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.080 on the other side. So position one might go to 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:06.839 Rod one might go to contact twelve. Rod two might 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:09.880 go to contact twenty three. Rod three might go to 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.760 contact one. That kind of thing. And you had this 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:16.640 massive wires inside the rotor that determine which ones went 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.640 to what. And then the rotor would fit inside the 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:23.920 Enigma machine, which would uh electricity from a battery would 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:27.000 come through, and depending on what key you pressed, that 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.880 would allow the pathway to go through to a certain rod. 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:32.920 The the electricity would go through the wire in the 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:36.040 rotor come out the side of the contact that again 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.320 is not directly across from the position of the rod. 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:42.760 And that's the basic idea of how it would substitute 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:46.800 a letter. Now if it if the rotor did not turn, 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:49.280 or if there were not more rotors, you would just 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:53.320 have a mono alphabetic substitution, like every time you type A, 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.640 the letter Q would light up if nothing else changed, 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:58.760 if that's all it did, in which case it would 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:00.680 have been a useless machine. But because people would have 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:03.280 been able to break that without ever having to spend 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:04.920 more than a couple of hours on a on a 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:09.320 on a message. Now, a lot of the machines, UM, 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:13.440 we're using three rotors. UM. Now here's here's where this 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:17.480 makes it more complex. Uh, these machines came with five 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:22.640 rotors uh named numbered with Roman numerals UM and every 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.480 here here again, here's part of the key. UM. The 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:30.280 German command would send out the monthly use of wheels. 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:33.640 So you might put the wheels in for one two, 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.280 so four would be in the leftmost position, one would 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:38.640 be in the middle, two would be in the right 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:42.960 most position. And every time the operator presses a letter, 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:47.160 let's say J the third. Actually, think of this if 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:50.640 you've ever seen a car odometer that measures the distance. 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.560 The rotor on the right moves one notch every time 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.160 the operator presses a button. So the operator press is J, 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:01.760 the rotor on the right turns one notch. The operator 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:04.480 presses in, the rotor turns one notch, and then the 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:10.240 middle um. Every so often, the middle rotor moves one notch, 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:15.200 and then again with the leftmost the final it moves 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:19.680 more slowly right, so as the operators typing the message out, 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:24.040 the rotors are turning to incipher the message more thoroughly. 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:27.800 The idea being that you're not repeating the same alphabet 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.000 to frequently. In fact, you it would take you, it 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:33.600 would take you an incredibly long message to be able 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.160 to repeat pete such an alphabet ah. And that's one 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:38.920 of the tricks. Eventually it could happen, which is why 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.720 the Germans limited their message length to two fifty characters. 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:47.320 So to to explain this even further, if I press 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:49.880 let's say that I just have the one rotor in there, 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.040 just for simplicity sakes, So I've got one rotor in there, 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:55.520 and if I press the letter A, the letter Q 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.920 lights up. Because that's just the way the wiring is 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:02.720 that rotor. After I pressed the letter A, the rotor 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.800 turns one notch. I pressed the letter A. Well, Q 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:09.320 is not gonna light up because what's just happened is 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.920 that there's a new rod where the electricity makes contact 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:15.280 with that rod. It's in position and you know A, 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:18.199 the first rod was in position one. Now that the 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.320 rotor has turned one notch, the rotor, the rod that's 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:24.359 in position for the letter A is rod too. So 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.879 instead of Q lighting up, maybe J lights up. So 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:31.080 you could just keep pressing A and a different letter 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:33.600 is going to light up every time, except for one 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:35.960 other exception we should point out, which was again something 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:39.000 that helped the Allies break the Enigma code. They the 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:45.040 Germans had decided foolishly, as it turns out, that no 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:49.600 letter would ever incipher to itself, so B can never 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:51.680 b B. Yes, so if you saw the letter B 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:54.719 in a message, you automatically knew it wasn't B. So 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.520 you've just you've just and that sounds like it's minuscule 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:01.240 that you've only eliminated one option, but that was huge. 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:04.320 I mean, without that, it would have been so much 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:07.960 harder to to decode these messages now when you add 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:12.200 that second rotor in uh so, let's say that again, 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:14.960 we're gonna go with the positions. So the so we 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:16.800 have the rods in the twenty six positions and the 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:19.200 contacts on the other side of the cylinder in twenty 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:23.360 six positions. Intristy comes in through rod one and it's 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:28.400 going out through contact twelve. Then you have your second rotors. 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:33.440 So the second rotor, Rod twelve is accepting the electricity, 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:37.560 but it's contact that the second rotors, Rod twelve is 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:42.920 connected to contact uh seven. So you've got now something 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:45.720 that's going in through contact or Rod one and coming 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:48.639 out contact seven. Once it gets through the second rotor, 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.000 you had a third rotor in. That makes it even 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:53.879 more complicated. So it's like you've just added a huge 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:58.400 mass of wires to this device and it gets even 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:02.320 more complex. I'm sorry, did you say huge massive wires? Yeah, 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:07.520 like the Stekker Brett. Yes, So here's where the massive 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:11.240 wires also comes in. There was a plugboard that came 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:14.240 with many of these Enigma machines, not all, but many. Yeah. 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:17.360 Do you remember if you think back to images you've 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:20.000 seen of old telephone operators when they had to connect 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:23.080 a call. They would physically take a wire and connect 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:26.159 one person and plug it into the slot for the 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:30.439 other person to make the connection. Well. On the Enigma machine, 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:35.359 uh they had wires and plugs that went from that 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:38.520 basically connected the letters. Yeah. So in other words, you 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:41.240 might connect the letter A and the letter J together 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:43.679 with A with a wire, which means every time you 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.920 press the letter A, it's acting as if you press 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.800 the letter J. So that add added yet another layer 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:55.879 of of encryption on top of this device. Uh So, No, 0:19:56.119 --> 0:20:00.000 you're no longer sending a message to contact one because 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.480 as that would be the one for A, you're sending 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.040 it to different or not contact but Rod, you're seeing 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:10.000 it to a different Rod. Uh so, Sterling. Maybe so 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:14.320 by setting the alphabet position on each rotor, setting the 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:17.400 rotors in the particular order, choosing you know which rotor 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:19.680 you want. Because these rotors, by the way, we're not 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:22.760 um alpha. They if you were to look at a 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:25.320 rotor and turn it and it had the letters on it, 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:28.280 it would not be an alphabetical order. They mixed up 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:30.560 the order of the letters too. They wanted to make 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:33.719 it as complex as possible, so depending upon the the 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:36.159 rotors you choose the order you put them in and 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:39.440 the plugs that you plug into the plugboard. That would 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:42.840 determine what would happen if you pressed any particular key 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:46.760 at any particular time. Plus, it's in German and you're 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:51.359 probably transmitting it in morse code, so that's the level 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:53.560 that you have to get through in order to get 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:57.960 to that original message. In addition, UM, the Germans tended 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:02.639 to break up messages into regular patterns of UM five 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:05.520 characters at a time, so you know, a F B 0:21:05.800 --> 0:21:10.160 Q G space, you know, so the message wasn't written out, 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:13.359 and so you wouldn't say, okay, well this this word 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.240 has three letters and they're only you know, yeah, there's 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:19.160 only so many word German that would have three letters. 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:21.840 They broke it up so that once, you know, there 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:24.159 was really no way to tell how long the word was. 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:27.520 So a single word and remember this is German, so 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.840 these words could be you know, characters long. So a 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:36.600 single word might might spend multiple five letters segments, so 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:39.560 you know, it might begin on letter four of this 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:43.840 five letter group and then finish three groups later down 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:46.560 the line. And that might have just been the word 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:51.640 for I don't know, like car um so, uh, yeah, 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:54.800 it just made it made it more difficult, obvious, skated 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:57.360 the meaning of the original phrase as much as possible. 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:02.080 So how would you ever decode such a message? Now? 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:05.840 If you've got it really set up so that everyone 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:09.760 knows how the how to set up their own particular 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:12.800 Enigma machine based upon a codebook, you would have to 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:16.960 have like a codebook that was um given out by leadership. Right, 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:20.960 you'd have to have someone in charge saying, on this day, 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:23.520 for all messages that we send out, this is the 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:27.040 configuration you have to use, because if you didn't have it, 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:30.399 you wouldn't be able to decode it. Right. The German 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:33.560 command would specify the wheel order and the ring setting, 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:37.040 and the the steckering the cross plugging. Stecker means plug, 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:39.400 so they called it a plug board. It was Stecker 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:42.679 brett um. But the thing is the cipher clerk would 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:45.600 uh would basically turn the three wheels to a position 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:50.159