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ENIGMA

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THE MACHINE THAT CHANGED HISTORY

Patented in 1918 by German engineer Arthur Scherbius, the Enigma machine was originally intended for commercial cryptography. However, it soon became the cornerstone of military communications for the German forces during World War II.

Its complexity was unprecedented, utilizing a system of rotating wheels (rotors) to scramble messages into billions of potential configurations. It was considered "unbreakable" until the monumental efforts of three Polish mathematicians, Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki, and Henryk Zygalski and later Alan Turing and his team at Bletchley Park changed the course of the war.

HANDCRAFTING THE LEGEND: MY PHYSICAL MODEL

While many Enigma replicas exist across the globe, most rely on modern microchips or microcontrollers. I set out to build something different: a purely mechanical and electrical model that remains strictly faithful to the original engineering, crafted from wood and analog components.

Handcrafting process - Woodwork

There is no Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or any digital logic inside this machine. Every electrical path and rotor movement is entirely mechanical. Replicating this tactile logic required months of precision work, manually soldering every connection to mirror the authentic 1940s technology.

Electrical components and wiring

This journey was a labor of love, and today the physical model is fully operational and mimics the original machine's behavior perfectly. Below you will find a digital simulator as a tribute to that mechanical build—connecting the physical wood and wires to the modern screen.

ENIGMA CYPHER SIMULATOR

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