Bletchly Park 1

Had an amazing idea. I can fit two bridging unit thingies into eachother. I can write about the Bletchly Park visit I made for another bridging unit. God knows why it falls under the subject of physics (the mechanics of the machine, maybe? No sophisticated electrical components and computer code in those days).

Anyhoo, the park was once an estate belonging to a wealthy family, which was commandeered by the military in WWII to intercept axis messages and decrypt them (most notably the Enigma and Lorenz cyphers). A lot of work was made by Alan Turing, who constructed the world's first computer to help with this.

This was the Bombe Machine, and it was incredibly big, with prop shafts and mechanics shifting wheels around with basic electronics all over the shop to turn several sets of 3-columned wheels around. The middle set would turn one increment for every complete rotation of the top set, and the bottom set would turn one increment for every full rotation of the middle set. There were 26 increments (one for each letter) and the system was set up in a sort of 'menu' where hundreds of cables would be set up in an array at the back of the machine. If the machine found a possibly valid combination it would pause until told to continue, with the possible combination to the Enigma code displayed on a separate set of 3 wheels.

Once the code was broken for that day (a new code was set at midnight every day by the Germans, with different codes for the SS, Navy, Airforce, and Army) work could begin on decrypting every incoming message on a modified Type-X machine, which was sort of like a typewriter. After midnight the whole process had to be done again, with a run on the Bombe usually taking around 15 mins. That's assuming it didn't stop and find a valid combination on that run. 'Twas a lengthy process, but many argue that it won the war.

How did we repay Turing? Well, he was gay. That meant that once the war was over he could choose either prison or 'hormone altering injections' to try and 'make' him straight. Arseholes. Instead he elected the fatal way out and the Earth lost one of its greatest minds.

And on that cheerful note, good night.