Who invented the Enigma machine?
German engineer Arthur Scherbius invented the Enigma machine at the end of World War I. His firm Scherbius and Ritter patented the cipher machine design in 1918 and began marketing it under the Enigma name in 1923.
Questions about Enigma machine
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Who first broke the Enigma cipher?
Polish mathematician and cryptologist Marian Rejewski at the Polish Cipher Bureau first broke the plugboard Enigma around December 1932. He was aided by colleagues Jerzy Rozycki and Henryk Zygalski, and the Polish Cipher Bureau was reading German Enigma messages from January 1933.
How many possible settings did the military Enigma machine have?
The three-rotor German military Enigma had 158,962,555,217,826,360,000 possible settings, nearly 159 quintillion. The plugboard alone contributed 150 trillion possible configurations.
When did the Allies learn the Polish Enigma-breaking techniques?
On the 26th and the 27th of July 1939, the Polish Cipher Bureau briefed French and British military intelligence at Pyry, just south of Warsaw, and provided each delegation with a Polish-reconstructed Enigma machine.
What was the Naval Enigma M4 and when was it introduced?
The M4 was a four-rotor Enigma introduced by the German Navy for U-boat traffic on the 1st of February 1942. The Allies codenamed its network Shark. An extra rotor was fitted in the same space as the three-rotor version by replacing the original reflector with a thinner reflector and a thin fourth rotor.
How much do Enigma machines sell for at auction?
Auction prices in recent years have ranged from around US$40,000 to US$547,500 in 2017. In November 2025, Christie's Paris sold an Enigma M4 used by Karl Donitz for 482,600 euros.