Two Hebern Electric Code Cipher Machine Rotors
date: label: date made
content: ca 1925
name: label: maker
content: Hebern, Edward
label: maker
content: Edward Hebern
notes: label: Description
content: Edward Hebern of California designed several machines to encipher and decipher typed messages. They used one of the most important twentieth century 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.
label: Description
content: These two rotors are of Hebern’s design. Each has a metal ring with spokes attached to central hole, between two bakelite rings. Twenty-six short metal strips pass through each rotor. The strips are screwed down on one side of the rotor. On the other side, they are held down with nuts (one rotor has no nuts). Both sides of each rotor have twenty-six round metal contacts, outside the metal strips. A metal band goes around the outside of each rotor, with the letters from A to Y. Between the letters are square openings in the rings. One rotor is numbered “3” on the ring, the other “4”. Both rotors have a mark on one spoke that reads: HEBERN (/) ELECTRIC (/) CODE. They are also marked with various patent dates and numbers. The latest date reads: SEPT. 30, 1924.
label: Description
content: Compare the rotor on cipher machine prototype 1991.0190.04.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: E.H. Hebern, “Electric Coding Machine,” U.S. Patent 1,510,441, September 30, 1924.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: California, Oakland
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: 1991.0190.08
label: catalog number
content: 1991.0190.08
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Cipher Machine
label: Object Name
content: cipher machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (rim and spokes, circuitry material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (rings material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1.9 cm x 10.2 cm x 10.2 cm; 3/4 in x 4 1/32 in x 4 1/32 in