- - - - .L '\,,,l,;,a .&.; .I.....,,•~ I 714 

MEMO ROUTING SLIP 

1 ~E OR TITLE INITIALS 

' Mr. hied:m.an CIRCULATE 

ORGANIZATION AND LOCATION DATE 

.AS-11... 116-Hc CONCURRENCE 

2 % FILE 

INFORMATION 

3 NECESSARY 

ACTION 

NOTE AND RETURN 

4 SEE ME 

SIGNATURE 

REMARKS 

List of patents with issue dates, etc. 

relating to the Hebern case, as per request. 

This list and the group of "presumably 

infringed" items were drawn up by me some tllle 

ego and do not necesearil.y reflect Mr. Stau1'ter•e 

views on the matter. 

911e_ 

~eclassified and approved for release by NSA on) 

9-12-2013 oursuantto E.O. 13526 

FROM NAME OR TITLE DATE 

J. R. Chiles 1/31/49 ORGANIZATION AND LOCATION TEI.El' HONE 

AS-?6C, lJl?-B 322 

DA AGO FORM 8 9 5 Replaces WD AGO Form 896, 1 Jun 46, f OCT 41 which may be used. 111-48487-2 GPO 
rll"'·.,~~F ID:A273714 

"Lu·f:I 

31 January 1949 

.tl§MORANDUM TO: Mr. Friedman 

SUBJECT: PATENTS ON ELECTRO-MECHANICAL CIPHER MACHINES 

• The patents listed below are those which may be per- tinent to the Hebern case, inasmuch as they contain some of 

the features claimed in his inventions which are possibly infringed by u. S. Army machines. 

The two Hebern patents which contain the claim~ presumed 

to be infringed are: 

U.S. 1~683,072, filed 20 Nov. 192~ (rene~ed 17 

May 1927 and issued 4 Sept. 192 ). 

U. s. 1,861{857, fil~d 17 May 1221 (~ssued 7 

June 1932J. 

Stated briefly and in general terms, there are seven features 

claimed in these patents which may be infringed. These are: 

I Interchangeable a~d invertable rotors. 

II Rotors which may be set manually at the 

beginning of encipherment. 

III Pawl and ratchet means for stepping the 

rotors. 

IV Encipher-decipher switch which reverses the 

·circuit paths thrqugh the rotor maze. 

·V 

VI 

. VII 

Cam contours on tije rotors to control their 

stepping. 

Means for enciphe.l11ng spaces and. di vision of 

cipher text into 4~ve•letter groups. 

' Electro-magnetic ~tepping. of the rotors 

controlled from tlle keyboard. 

Of these seven features, Items I,l II, III and IV are claimed 

in U.S. Patent 1,683,072 and goo*antf~ipa.tions must there-; 

fore occur in p. atents is~ued at ast ~o years. before 20 lfov. 

1923 (Hebern•s filing date). It s V, VI and VII are clai$ed 

in U.S. Patent 1,861,857 and ant ipations must occur in'' 

pa.tents 1,ssued at least two~years; prior to 17 May 1927. ·' ·~ 
~D:A273714 

The patents in the attached listing are arranged in 

order according to earliest issue date. Under Remarks those 

items among the seven named above which appear in the various 

patents a.re indicated. Of these features, Item I, "Interchangeable and invertable rotors,," is the only one which does 

not occur in one or more prior patents. However, Item V, "Cam 

contours on the rotors to control their stepping,," occurs only 

in the Korn patents on the commercial model of the Enigma 

machine, and the earliest issue dates of these patents are 

only a few months ahead of Hebern•s filing date (17 May 1927) 

for the patent in which he definitely claims this feature. 

All told, there are some sixty separate patented inventions relating to rotor machi~es which have appeared since 

1911. The sixteen listed here are only those which it is 

thought might prove useful in connection with-the Hebern case. 

I 
INVENTOR and/or 

ASSIGNEE 

Southby, F.F. 

U.S. PAT. NO. 

Bamberg, O.F. and 1,138,832 

Weinhold, E. 

Scott, P • .M. 

Koch, ·H.A. 

(N.V. Ing. .''"Securitas") 

1,533,252 

- '-ttintr 

REF ID:A273714 

EARLIEST FILING DATE 

28 Sept. 1910 

(G.B. 1910-~2,477) 

9 Oct. 1912 

(Austria 62,927) 

14 July 1913 

G.B. 1913-16,192) 

20 July 1915 

(Sweden 45,343) 

7 Oct. 1919 

{Neth. 10,700) 

EARLIEST ISSUE DATE 

21 Sept. 1911 . (G.B. 1910-22,477) 

10 Jan. 1914 

·(Austria 62,927) 

16 Feb. 1914 

(G.B. 1913-16,192) 

19 Oct. 1916 

(G.B. 1915-121 001) 

10 May 1920 

(G.B. 163,357) 

REiV".iARKS 

III (Not a true 

rotor machine- has 

single drum with 

interconnected rows 

of peripheral 

contact points). 

First patent. employing rotor 

principle(single 

rotor as described, 

but use of several 

in series is 

·suggested as well as 

fact that they are 

interchangeable). 

III, VII (Similar 

to Southby machin~ 

provides for two 

rotating contact 

drums used in 

series). 

Rotating drum'. with 

contacts interconnected Vigtnere- wise along diag- onals (cited by Koch). · 

II, IV (First 

patent issued 

employing rotors in 

cascade). 
'"' . . u1dii6 

INVENTOR and/or u. s. PAT. NO. MEI~ :J112M7!1!4'E EARLIEST ISSUE DATE I'tEHARKS 

,bSS;&GNEE 

Beyer, .P.G.G. 1,414,496 26 Aug. 1919 

(Denmai,k 26,, 710) 

15 Sept, (Derunar:c 

1920 

26,710) II, IV (Single 

rotor machine). 

Damm, A.G. 1,502,376 10 Oct. 1919 7 July 1921 II, III, VII . (Sweden 52, 279) (Germany 338,660) (Rotors used are 

"half-Hebern" 

type). 

Damm, A.G. 1,540,107 2 Mar •. 1921 11 Oct. 1922 VI (Improvements (S'Weden 59,906) (France 548,,093) on precedj_ng 

patent). 

Scherbius 1 A. 1,584,,660 13 June 1920 27 June 1923 IV, VI, VII 

(N.V. Ing. (Germany 387,,B93) (France 559,,995) "Securitas") 

Scherbius A. 1,657,411 12 Feb. 1922 20 Aug. 1923 VI, VII 

(Chiffrier• (Germany 383,594) (France 561,,910) maschinen, A.G. 

W'ahnoe, H.A.T. 1,472,775 4 Mar. 1922 30 Oct. 1923 IV, VII, (First (Denmark 321 710) (u.s. 1,472,,775) patent issued with 

metric stepping of 

rotors. 

Bernstein,, P. 18Aug. 1923 24 Mar. 1925 VII 

(N.V. Ing. (Germany 4111 126) (Germany 411 1 126) "Securitas") 

Gewerkschaf t 23 Feb.· 1918 8 July 1925 II, IV (First Securitas (Germany 4161 219) (Germany 416,219) · patent filed with 

rotors In cascade, 

metric stepping). 

Bernstein, P. · 28 Feb. 1924 22 Feb. 1926 .VI 

(Ch1ffr1er- (Germany 425,566) (Germany 425,566) maschinen, A.G.) 

i ···~m .. :>• J . 
INVENTOR a.nd/or 

ASSIGNEE 

Korn,, W. 

Korn,, W. 

1,,705,641 

1,733,886 

11 Mar. 1926 

(Germany 460,,457) 

21 Mar. 1926 

(Germany 452,,194) 

5 

EARLIEST ISSDE DATE 

29 Jan. 1927 

(France 621,062) 

7 Feb. 1927 

(France 621,,515) 

REr·lARKS 

III, V (Patent on 

cipher unit of 

commercial Enigma). 

III, V (Basic 

patent on . commercial Enigma).