Today is a nice place to visit but you can't stay here for long
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Enigma code breaker Alan Turing's papers have been saved
THE NATIONAL HERITAGE MEMORIAL FUND made an eleventh hour donation to save the works of World War II Engima encryption machine code breaker Alan Turing.
While we were waiting for the government to take responsibility for its heritage and pay, it seems that UK IT hack Gareth Halfacree led the charge by setting up a pledge site for the papers. Halfacree raised £23,000 from public donations but it was the National Heritage Memorial Fund that finally topped that up with a chunky £200,000 donation.
According to the BBC, the final tally of public donations was still £200,000 short. It's a shame that Apple couldn't part with any of the £60 billion cash pile it's sitting on and that other cash rich information technology companies didn't donated something. Turing was, after all, a founding father of modern computing.
Arguably if it wasn't for the UK polymath and cryptologist we'd all be speaking German now. Turing helped break the German World War II codes at Bletchley Park in the 1940s, but his collected works were in danger of being lost to the UK when they failed to meet the reserve at Christie's auction house.
The INQUIRER reported in November that Halfacree set up a donation appeal to save the papers. Together with the Bletchley Park Trust, they wanted to stop Turing's works "from being locked away in the vaults of a private collector" and leave them on permanent public display at Bletchley Park.
The campaign to keep the papers at Bletchley Park was given a boost at Christie's auction house but that wasn't enough to save them. So the UK should thank Halfacree for his unswerving efforts, as well as the National Heritage Memorial Fund for rescuing a national treasure. µ
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Whilst the polish were responsible for the initial cracking of the army singals i think you will find that they didnt crack the significantly harder navel codes, although technically even then they didnt "crack them" because that would have been impossible for the time, it was the capture of the codes from a weather boat and a u-boat that gave us a significant advantage, along with some lazy German signal operators and yes that was the British that got those codes incase anyone has been confused by the US "version" of history depicted by holywood.
anyhow, im glade we got to keep them, regardless of the IT merit involved its a massive piece of our history
The first electronic computer was made in germany though wasn't it?
"1935-1938: Konrad Zuse builds Z1, world's first program-controlled computer. Despite certain mechanical engineering problems it had all the basic ingredients of modern machines, using the binary system and today's standard separation of storage and control. Zuse's 1936 patent application (Z23139/GMD Nr. 005/021) also suggests a von Neumann architecture (re-invented in 1945) with program and data modifiable in storage. "
So speaking german we might still have conputers, but not facebook probably.
(this does not mean I advocate the 3rd reich, they had bad things too :P)
Exactly my thought, too. I am very glad that some people remember the work done by the Polish intelligence services and cipher bureau.
The Polish mathematicians that first broke the enigma are given due credit in David Kahn's excellent book on the subject, "Seizing the Enigma"
Glad to hear that Turing's papers were saved from being locked away forever and will be made available for public display in the museum.
"...if it wasn't for the UK polymath and cryptologist we'd all be speaking German now...".
Why there is no credits to Polish mathematicians from the Polish Cipher Bureau, who in December 1932 first broke Germany's Enigma ciphers???
The Polish Cipher Bureau gave Enigma decryption techniques and equipment to French and British military intelligence.
http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/virtualbp/poles/poles.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8158782.stm