 begin forwarded text date thu NUMBER oct NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER to john s denker jsd monmouth com from greg rose ggr URL subject re optical analog computing cc r a hettinga rah shipwright com digital bearer settlement list dbs philodox com cryptography URL at NUMBER NUMBER am NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER john s denker wrote r a hettinga wrote the first computer to crack enigma was optical NUMBER bletchley park used optical sensors which were and still are the best way to read paper tape at high speed you can read about it in the standard accounts e g URL but colossus was not for enigma the bombes used for enigma were electro mechanical i m not aware of any application of optical techniques to enigma unless they were done in the us and are still classified and clearly the first bulk breaks of enigma were done by the bombes so i guess it depends whether you count bombes as computers or not whether this statement has any credibility at all greg williams zenon NUMBER campaign page URL greg rose internet ggr URL qualcomm australia voice NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER fax NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER level NUMBER NUMBER victoria road URL gladesville nsw NUMBER NUMBERb ecNUMBERf NUMBERcNUMBER cNUMBER dNUMBERf eNUMBER eNUMBERbf cdNUMBERf NUMBER aNUMBERc end forwarded text r a hettinga mailto rah ibuc com the internet bearer underwriting corporation URL NUMBER farquhar street boston ma NUMBER usa however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity predicting the end of the world has not been found agreeable to experience edward gibbon decline and fall of the roman empire 