The Hebern Rotor Machine was an electro-mechanical encryption machine built by combining the mechanical parts of a standard typewriter with the electrical parts of an electric typewriter, connecting the two through a scrambler. It is the first example (though just barely) of a class of machines known as rotor machines that would become the primary form of encryption during World War II and for some time after, and which included such famous examples as the German Enigma .
49-430: Edward Hugh Hebern was a building contractor who was jailed in 1908 for stealing a horse. It is claimed that, with time on his hands, he started thinking about the problem of encryption, and eventually devised a means of mechanizing the process with a typewriter. He filed his first patent application for a cryptographic machine (not a rotor machine) in 1912. At the time he had no funds to be able to spend time working on such
98-422: A rotor . Linking the contacts on either side of the rotor were wires, with each letter on one side being wired to another on the far side in a random fashion. The wiring encoded a single substitution alphabet. When the user pressed a key on the typewriter keyboard, a small amount of current from a battery flowed through the key into one of the contacts on the input side of the disk, through the wiring, and back out
147-597: A book entitled The Cryptologist Looks at Shakespeare , which won a prize from the Folger Library and was published under the title The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined. The book demonstrated flaws in Gallup's work and in that of others who sought hidden ciphers in Shakespeare's work. At NSA's request Friedman prepared Six Lectures Concerning Cryptography and Cryptanalysis , which he delivered at NSA. But later
196-550: A device, but he continued to produce designs. Hebern made his first drawings of a rotor-based machine in 1917, and in 1918 he built a model of it. In 1921 he applied for a patent for it, which was issued in 1924. He continued to make improvements, adding more rotors. Agnes Driscoll , the chief civilian employee of the US Navy's cryptography operation (later to become OP-20-G ) between WWI and WWII , spent some time working with Hebern before returning to Washington and OP-20-G in
245-413: A dictionary of some sort, a cryptographic technique common at the time. The Friedmans soon managed to decrypt most of the messages, but only long after the case had come to trial did the book itself come to light: a German-English dictionary published in 1880. The United States government decided to set up its own cryptological service, and sent Army officers to Riverbank to train under Friedman. To support
294-465: A different contact. The power then operated the mechanicals of an electric typewriter to type the encrypted letter, or alternately simply lit a bulb or paper tape punch from a teletype machine. Normally such a system would be no better than the single-alphabet systems of the 16th century. However the rotor in the Hebern machine was geared to the keyboard on the typewriter, so that after every keypress,
343-678: A new cipher machine for their most sensitive diplomatic traffic, replacing an earlier system that SIS referred to as "RED." The new cipher, which SIS called " PURPLE ", was different and much more difficult. The Navy's cryptological unit ( OP-20-G ) and the SIS thought it might be related to earlier Japanese cipher machines, and agreed that SIS would handle the attack on the system. After several months trying to discover underlying patterns in PURPLE ciphertexts, an SIS team led by Friedman and Rowlett , in an extraordinary achievement, figured it out. PURPLE, unlike
392-502: A patent for a "cryptographic system". It was filed on July 25, 1933, issued on August 1, 2000. Friedman Hall, located on Fort Huachuca , Arizona , is named in his honor. Friedman had two children with his wife, Elizebeth: Barbara Friedman (later Atchison), and John Ramsay Friedman. Commander Schoen, a character appearing in Neal Stephenson 's novel Cryptonomicon , is to a large extent inspired by Friedman. Schoen shares
441-521: A scholarship to work on genetics at Cornell University . Meanwhile, George Fabyan , who ran a private research laboratory to study any personally interesting project, decided to set up his own genetics project and was referred to Friedman. Friedman joined Fabyan's Riverbank Laboratories outside Chicago in September 1915. As head of the Department of Genetics, one of the projects he ran studied
490-483: A series of eight papers on cryptography, collectively known as the " Riverbank Publications ", including the first description of the index of coincidence , an important mathematical tool in cryptanalysis. With the entry of the United States into World War I , Fabyan offered the services of his Department of Codes and Ciphers to the government. No Federal department existed for this kind of work (although both
539-503: A significant background and personality traits with Friedman, including being one of the top cryptanalysts of the U.S. Army, breaking Japanese codes prior to Japan's involvement in World War II, and the psychological problems that he suffered from as a result. In his acknowledgements, Stephenson writes "Among all these great wartime hackers, some kind of special recognition must go to William Friedman, who sacrificed his health to break
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#1732773215139588-611: A younger sister, Nellie Hebern, born in 1874. At the age of 6, on August 4, 1875, Edward Hugh and three of his siblings were admitted to the Illinois Soldiers’ and Sailors’ home in Normal, Illinois. According to the Soldiers’ home register their father was listed as having died in 1874 in an unknown location, but he was admitted to the same Soldiers’ Home 40 years later. By February 13, 1879, the youngest Hebern child, William,
637-463: Is primarily used as Oakland’s Asian resource center. Hebern's implementation of his idea was less secure than he believed, for William F. Friedman found at least one method of attack when it was offered to the US Government. Hebern's company did not prosper, his promotional efforts for it were questioned, and he was tried and convicted for fraud. Agnes Meyer returned to Washington to work for
686-683: Is still in existence, as Crypto AG . By September 1922 Hebern started construction of the Hebern Building at 829 Harrison Street in Oakland, California. The striking two-story structure was built to accommodate 1,500 workers and had a luxurious office for Hebern. The 1923 stockholders’ report said it was “one of the most beautiful structures in California and said to be the only building in the State of true Gothic architecture throughout.” By
735-589: The National Security Agency (NSA) when it was formed to take over from AFSA. Friedman produced a classic series of textbooks, " Military Cryptanalysis ", which was used to train NSA students. (These were revised and extended, under the title " Military Cryptanalytics ", by Friedman's assistant and successor Lambros D. Callimahos , and used to train many additional cryptanalysts.) During his early years at NSA, he encouraged it to develop what were probably
784-801: The Netherlands , and Arvid Damm in Sweden . Hebern started a company to market the Hebern rotor machine ; one of his employees was Agnes Meyer , who left the Navy in Washington, D.C., to work for Hebern in California . Scherbius designed the Enigma , Koch sold his patent to Scherbius a few years later, and Damm's company — taken over by Boris Hagelin after his death — moved to Switzerland and
833-471: The 1950s. In 1940, subordinates of his led by Frank Rowlett broke Japan 's PURPLE cipher , thus disclosing Japanese diplomatic secrets before America's entrance into World War II . Friedman was born Wolf Friedman ( Yiddish : װאָלף פֿרידמאַן , Russian : Вольф Ф. Фридман ), in Kishinev , Bessarabia , the son of Frederick Friedman, a Jew from Bucharest who worked as a translator and linguist for
882-593: The Agency, concerned about security, confiscated the reference materials from Friedman's home. Friedman's health began to fail in the late 1960s, and he died in 1969. Friedman and his wife Elizebeth are buried in Arlington National Cemetery . Friedman and his wife donated their archives to the library of the George C. Marshall Foundation , which also has had material reclassified and removed by
931-562: The Army and Navy had had embryonic departments at various times), and soon Riverbank became the unofficial cryptographic center for the US Government. During this period, the Friedmans broke a code used by German -funded Indian radicals in the US who planned to ship arms to India to gain independence from Britain. Analyzing the format of the messages, Riverbank realized that the code was based on
980-528: The Army and Navy were unwilling to use Hebern's design, much to his surprise. Edward Hebern Edward Hugh Hebern (April 23, 1869 – February 10, 1952) was an early inventor of rotor machines , devices for encryption . Edward Hugh Hebern was born in Streator, Illinois , on April 23, 1869. His parents were Charles and Rosanna (Rosy) Hebern. They met in Harris County, Texas while Charles
1029-640: The German Enigma or the Hebern design, did not use rotors but stepper switches like those in automated telephone exchanges . Leo Rosen of SIS built a machine using—as was later discovered—the identical model of switch that the Japanese designer had chosen. Thus, by the end of 1940, SIS had constructed an exact analog of the PURPLE machine without ever having seen one. With the duplicate machines and an understanding of PURPLE, SIS could decrypt increasing amounts of Japanese traffic. One such intercept
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#17327732151391078-429: The Hebern, in which the rotors were stacked with the rotor at one end or the other turning with each keypress, the so-called fast rotor . In these cases the resulting ciphertext consisted of a series of single-substitution cyphers, each one 26 letters long. He showed that fairly standard techniques could be used against such systems, given enough effort. Of course, this fact was itself a great secret. This may explain why
1127-414: The NSA, a secret agreement with Crypto AG , a Swiss manufacturer of encryption machines. The agreement resulted in many of the company's machines being compromised, so that the messages produced by them became crackable by the NSA. Friedman retired in 1956 and, with his wife, turned his attention to the problem that had originally brought them together: examining Bacon's supposed codes. Together they wrote
1176-713: The NSA. Friedman has been inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame and there is a building named after William and Elizebeth at the NSA complex at Fort Meade in Maryland. He was also presented the Medal for Merit by President Harry Truman , and the National Security Medal by Dwight Eisenhower . Friedman has the distinction of having one of the longest known suppressed patent applications, for U.S. patent 6,097,812 ,
1225-510: The Navy. Friedman went on to design a much more secure and complex rotor machine for the US Army. It eventually became the SIGABA . William F. Friedman William Frederick Friedman (September 24, 1891 – November 12, 1969) was a US Army cryptographer who ran the research division of the Army's Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) in the 1930s, and parts of its follow-on services into
1274-770: The Russian Postal Service, and the daughter of a well-to-do wine merchant. Friedman's family left Kishinev in 1892 on account of anti-Semitic persecution, ending up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania . Three years later, his first name was changed to William. As a child, Friedman was introduced to cryptography in the short story " The Gold-Bug " by Edgar Allan Poe . He studied at the Michigan Agricultural College (known today as Michigan State University ) in East Lansing and received
1323-772: The War Department and later led the Signals Intelligence Service (SIS)—a position he kept for a quarter century. In 1929, after the American Black Chamber in New York City was disbanded, its files were entrusted to SIS, and the cryptographic and intelligence services was reorganized to suit its new position at the War Department. Friedman coined several terms, including " cryptanalysis ", and wrote many monographs on cryptography. One of these (written mostly in his spare time)
1372-595: The children eventually moved to Madera, Ca. beginning with the two eldest boys in 1896. Daniel Boone Hebern was in North Fork, California working as a laborer; his brother, Edward Hugh Hebern was in Madera farming. Daniel purchased two plots of land in North Fork. He got a patent in 1918, shortly before three others patented (in other countries) much the same thing. They were Arthur Scherbius in Germany , Hugo Koch in
1421-598: The design of the Enigma machine and on how the British decrypted the Enigma cipher . However Friedman visited Bletchley Park in April 1943 and played a key role in drawing up the 1943 BRUSA Agreement . Following World War II, Friedman remained in government signals intelligence. In 1949 he became head of the cryptographic division of the newly formed Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) and in 1952 became chief cryptologist for
1470-429: The effects of moonlight on crop growth, and so he experimented with the planting of wheat during various phases of the moon . Another of Fabyan's pet projects was research into secret messages which Sir Francis Bacon had allegedly hidden in various texts during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I . The research was carried out by Elizabeth Wells Gallup . She believed that she had discovered many such messages in
1519-436: The first super-computers, although he was never convinced a machine could have the "insight" of a human mind. Friedman spent much of his free time trying to decipher the famous Voynich Manuscript , said to be written sometime between 1403–1437. However, after four decades of study he finally had to admit defeat, contributing no more than an educated guess as to its origins and meaning. In 1955, Friedman initiated, on behalf of
Hebern rotor machine - Misplaced Pages Continue
1568-524: The generated code included having rotors step one position with each keypress, and putting the fastest rotor (the one that turns with every keypress) at either end of the rotor series. In this case, by collecting enough ciphertext and applying a standard statistical method known as the kappa test , he showed that he could, albeit with great difficulty, crack any cipher generated by such a machine. Friedman used his understanding of rotor machines to develop several that were immune to his own attacks. The best of
1617-428: The idea of his machine. In 1931 the Navy finally purchased several systems, but this was to be his only real sale. There were three other patents for rotor machines issued in 1919, and several other rotor machines were designed independently at about the same time. The most successful and widely used was the Enigma machine . The key to the Hebern design was a disk with electrical contacts on either side, known today as
1666-464: The lot was the SIGABA —which was destined to become the US's highest-security cipher machine in World War II after improvements by Frank Rowlett and Laurance Safford . Just over 10,000 were built. A patent on SIGABA was filed at the end of 1944, but kept secret until 2001, long after Friedman had died, when it was finally issued as U.S. patent 6,175,625 . In 1939, the Japanese introduced
1715-552: The mid-'20s. Hebern was so convinced of the future success of the system that he formed the Hebern Electric Code company with money from several investors. Over the next few years he repeatedly tried to sell the machines both to the US Navy and Army , as well as to commercial interests such as banks. None was terribly interested, as at the time cryptography was not widely considered important outside governments. It
1764-409: The one beside it rotates a full turn. In this way the number of such alphabets increases dramatically. For a rotor with 26 letters in its alphabet, five such rotors "stacked" in this fashion allows for 26 = 11,881,376 different possible substitutions. William F. Friedman attacked the Hebern machine soon after it came on the market in the 1920s. He quickly "solved" any machine that was built similar to
1813-649: The program, Friedman wrote a series of technical monographs, completing seven by early 1918. He then enlisted in the Army and went to France to serve as the personal cryptographer for General John J. Pershing . He returned to the US in 1920 and published an eighth monograph, "The Index of Coincidence and its Applications in Cryptography", considered by some to be the most important publication in modern cryptography to that time. His texts for Army cryptographic training were well thought of and remained classified for several decades. In 1921 he became chief cryptanalyst for
1862-415: The rotor turned and the substitution alphabet thus changed slightly. This turns the basic substitution into a polyalphabetic one similar to the well known Vigenère cipher , with the exception that it required no manual lookup of the keys or cyphertext. Operators simply turned the rotor to a pre-chosen starting position and started typing. To decrypt the message, they turned the rotor around in its socket so it
1911-622: The time it was completed the following year, it had cost somewhere between $ 380,000 and $ 400,000, and the company still had no income. In fact, its first sale, to the Italian government, was still twenty-three months away. Eventually Hebern would sell twelve of his early machines to the Navy, the Pacific Steamship Company of Seattle, and a few other buyers, but his ambitious building was repossessed. The Hebern code building still stands today at 829 Harrison Street in Oakland and
1960-626: The works of William Shakespeare , and convinced herself that Bacon had written many, if not all, of Shakespeare 's works. Friedman had become something of an expert photographer while working on his other projects, and was asked to travel to England on several occasions to help Gallup photograph historical manuscripts during her research. He became fascinated with the work as he courted Elizebeth Smith , Gallup's assistant and an accomplished cryptographer. They married, and he soon became director of Riverbank's Department of Codes and Ciphers as well as its Department of Genetics. During this time, Friedman wrote
2009-422: Was "backwards", thus reversing all the substitutions. They then typed in the ciphertext and out came the plaintext. Better yet, several rotors can be placed such that the output of the first is connected to the input of the next. In this case the first rotor operates as before, turning once with each keypress. Additional rotors are then spun with a cam on the one beside it, each one being turned one position after
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2058-823: Was admitted to the Soldiers’ Home. Six months later on August 12, 1879, Rosanna married Archibald Thompson in Bloomington, Illinois. On June 14, 1881, two months before her 14th birthday, Zoa left the Soldiers’ Home. Edward was discharged from the Soldiers’ Home in May 1883, after turning 14, and went to Odin, Illinois where he worked on a farm. By 1885, Daniel, Nellie, and William were all in Odin, Illinois. Zoa married Edward F. Clark (27 yrs. old) on August 18, 1886, in Coffey County, Kansas. Then they headed to Utah. The rest of
2107-476: Was finally able to hire a man fluent in Japanese, John Hurt. During this period Elizebeth Friedman continued her own work in cryptology, and became famous in a number of trials involving rum-runners and the Coast Guard and FBI during Prohibition . During the 1920s, several new cipher machines were developed generally based on using typewriter mechanics and basic electrical circuitry. An early example
2156-442: Was hospitalized with a " nervous breakdown ", widely attributed to the mental strain of his work on PURPLE. While he remained in hospital, a four-man team— Abraham Sinkov and Leo Rosen from SIS, and Lt. Prescott Currier and Lt. Robert Weeks from the U.S. Navy's OP-20-G—visited the British establishment at the " Government Code and Cypher School " at Bletchley Park . They gave the British a PURPLE machine, in exchange for details on
2205-702: Was probably because of William F. Friedman 's confidential analysis of the Hebern machine's weaknesses (substantial, though repairable) that its sales to the US government were so limited; Hebern was never told of them. Perhaps the best indication of a general distaste for such matters was the statement by Henry Stimson in his memoirs that "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail." It was Stimson, as Secretary of State under Hoover, who withdrew State Department support for Herbert Yardley 's American Black Chamber , leading to its closing. Eventually his investors ran out of patience, and sued Hebern for stock manipulation . He spent another brief period in jail, but never gave up on
2254-621: Was serving as guard and escort from the civil war. On February 4, 1866, they married in Harris, Texas. Rosanna was only fifteen years old. After mustering out of the service on May 29, 1866, Charles and his new wife returned to Springfield, Illinois, and on June 18, 1866, he received his final pay and discharge. Edward had an older sister, Arizona (Zoa) born in 1867, two younger brothers, Daniel Boone Hebern, born on February 17, 1871, and William Hebern, born April 8, 1875, in Houston, Texas, as well as
2303-565: Was the Hebern Rotor Machine , designed in the US in 1915 by Edward Hebern . This system offered such security and simplicity of use that Hebern heavily promoted it to investors. Friedman realized that the new rotor machines would be important, and devoted some time to analyzing Hebern's design. Over a period of years, he developed principles of analysis and discovered several problems common to most rotor-machine designs. Examples of some dangerous features which allowed cracking of
2352-499: Was the first draft of his Elements of cryptanalysis , which later was expanded to four volumes and became the U.S. Army's cryptographic main textbook and reference. Realizing that mathematical and language skills were essential to SIS's work, Friedman managed to get authority to hire three men with both mathematical training and language knowledge. They were Solomon Kullback , Frank Rowlett and Abraham Sinkov , each of whom went on to distinguished service for decades. In addition he also
2401-632: Was the message to the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C., ordering an end (on December 7, 1941) to negotiations with the US. The message gave a clear indication of impending war , and was to have been delivered to the US State Department only hours prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor . The controversy over whether the US had foreknowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack has roiled well into the 21st century. In 1941, Friedman
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