Re: Lazy rotor based electro-cipher machine designers: why did the 26+8 (34) element rotor never emerge???

From: jsavard@ecn.ab.ca
Date: 04/02/03 

From: jsavard@ecn.ab.ca ()
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2003 15:22:08 GMT

http://CBC.am/home.htm {Radio Canada} (mikehack@u.washington.edu) wrote:
: Lazy rotor based electro-cipher machine designers: why did the 26+8 (34)
: element rotor never emerge???

: 34 x 34 x 34 >> 26 x 26 x 26

: 34: A-Z, 2-9 ( I = 1, O = 0 )

: Also, it is more plugboard friendly -- when the plugboard is not placed
: where the Germans placed it.

Actually, on my web site, you will see that there were rotor machines with
more than 26 spaces on each rotor.

One example was the Hagelin HX-63, which used rotors with 41 contacts,
described on my page at:

http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/crypto/ro020301.htm

It has also been noted in some sources that the KL-7 had 36-contact
rotors, but apparently its workings have not been declassified, as I have
seen no description of its manner of operation.

There was even the Polish LACIDA machine, which used Enigma-style rotors
with spring-loaded contacts at one end, and which mixed rotors of
different sizes.

http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/crypto/ro020603.htm

John Savard

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