Cryptologic bomb (bomba kryptologiczna)
Bomba criptológica (bomba kryptologiczna)
- Date
- 1938 · confidence high
- Place
- Warsaw, Masovia, Poland
- Credited to
- Marian Rejewski and the Cipher Bureau
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
An electromechanical machine that found the daily Enigma key by automatically testing rotor combinations. Rejewski designed it in 1938 when the Germans changed the encipherment procedure and manual methods ceased to work.
Six units were built at the AVA factory in Warsaw. In December 1938 the Germans added two more rotors and the bomba lost effectiveness. The Bletchley Bombe uses a different principle (a search based on probable 'cribs').
What it led to
- a key-search machine for routine use
- the inspiration for the British Bombe of Turing and Welchman
- automatic cryptanalysis