Hebern Electric Super Code Cipher Machine
name: label: maker
content: Hebern, Edward
label: maker
content: Edward Hebern
notes: label: Description
content: Edward Hebern of California designed this machine to encipher and decipher typed messages. It uses one of the most important developments in cipher machines, the rotor. Rotary cipher machines were introduced in the 1920s and 1930s for commercial purposes by several people in several countries. The rotors were wired so that electrical impulses were transferred from one element of the rotor to another. Rotating the rotors changes the flow of current, and hence the letters of the encrpyted message. Typing a message into the machine, the user read out the encrypted message from the light board above the keyboard. The recipient of a message had a similar machine for decryption. Rotary cipher machines were widely used in World War II.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Codes and Ciphers
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Military
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of T. Scripps Downing
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1991.0190.01
label: catalog number
content: 1991.0190.01
label: accession number
content: 1991.0190
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cipher machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: leather (case material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 18 cm x 26 cm x 26.5 cm; 7 1/16 in x 10 1/4 in x 10 7/16 in