[Milsurplus] [ARC5] Dead Pigeons, Secret Messages, and Random Numbers

[J. Forster]

I suppose it's possible to built something like an Enigma, with several
rotors, wired randomly, that went into a thing like a Veeder-Root counter.

The last rotor would have 26 (or 36) output lines. The single active one
would print it's letter, and then the rotor would advance.

Such a thing would not be truly random, but would probably be good enough
for shortish messages.

Maybe that'd work.

It still begs the question, what did they actually do.

Best,

-John

==========



> On 27 Nov 2012 at 10:24, J. Forster wrote:
>
>> This is why I posted my question:
>>
>> Does anyone know how they produced the one-time pads?
>>
>> If they came from a small set of books, it should be practical to
>> regenerate the pads, and decrypt the message.
>>
>> I simply do not believe they were mechanically produced by any
>> computer of the day.
>
> Well, I am not so sure about that: the calibration books for the BC-221
> series
> were all made up and printed by a mechanical computer.
>
> And then there were the computers, designed and built by Ford (NOT the car
> company) which were used on all Navy ships to direct their fire...not to
> mention the computers used in the B-29 for control of their defensive
> armament.
>
> As you said, those folks were very ingenious and clever. Babbage is a case
> in point and that was over 150 years ago.
>
> Ken W7EKB
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