The Turing Bombe
The Second Mission: The Turing Bombe
Celebrating the Alan Turing Year 2012
2012 is the Alan Turing Year: A Centenary Celebration of the Life and Work of Alan Turing.
To celebrate this we have created this mystery geocache, a cache that focuses on the work Alan Turing did during World War II.
Besides being highly influental in the creation of the modern computer and computer science, Turing was also working with code breaking in great secrecy during World War II.
Although kept secret for many years after the war, Turing worked with breaking the German infamous Enigma cipher at Bletchley Park just outside Milton Keynes, England.
Turing and a team of mathematicians and engineers constructed an electromechanical machine that exploited some specific weaknesses in the Enigma cipher. This machine was called "The Turing Bombe", and was based on an idea from Polish cryptographers.
We have tried to make the bombe as historically correct as we possible. There may of course be differences that we are unaware of.
If you have not already done so, you will benefit from solving our other cache, "The First Mission: Enigma" before this one.
The Bombe
Click here to access the Turing Bombe
Instructions
Bombe Front
Click on a rotor bank to select it. To rotate the rotor, simply click and drag with the mouse on the large version of the selected rotor bank visible to the right. For the geocache the rotors and rotor order are already correct, so there is no need (or way) to change them.
Bombe Side
To the left is a miniature view of the side of the bombe. Click and drag the red rectangle to change which part is visible in the zoomed in version to the right. The buttons and lever on the right hand side are clickable.
Bombe Back
Connect cables and bridges by dragging cables from the right to the slots on the back of the bombe.
Enigma
Click and hold a key on the keyboard (either with the mouse, or on your computer keyboard) to get the encrypted letter lit up in the lamp panel above the keyboard. To change key setting, click and drag on the jagged ridge of the rotor in question. To change the ring setting, open up the top cover of the Enigma by clicking on one the knobs located on the right and left sides of the keyboard. Then, while holding the SHIFT key, rotate the rotor core relative to the ring. A handy tooltip will emerge, helping you to figure out which ring setting you have.
For the geocache, the correct rotors and rotor order is already in place, and there is no need (or way) to change them.
Click the Enigma button a second time or the plugs at the bottom of the Enigma to access the plug board on the front of the Enigma. Connect the cables in the plug board by dragging plugs to the desired sockets.
Checking Machine
Rotate the rotors by clicking and dragging them to the desired position. To change the ring setting, hold the SHIFT key while rotating the wheel. Click the keys on the keyboard to use the machine; the corresponding encrypted letter will light up.
For the geocache the right rotors and reflector cartridge are already in place.
Save
To save your connections on the _Bombe_, click the Save button. The entire state of the Bombe will be copied to the text field on the upper right. Press the right mouse button in the text field to get access to a context menu with the usual copy and paste operations. Copy the text and save it for later. Note that this does not save the states of the Enigma or Checking Machine.
Load
To load a previously saved state of the _Bombe_, paste a saved text (as per above) into the textbox and press the Load button. Note that this does not change the states of the Enigma or Checking Machine.
(C) 2011-2012 Magnus Ekhall & Fredrik Hallenberg