A component of a World War Two coding machine, which was used by Hitler and his generals to exchange coded messages, was found in a garden shed in Essex. The volunteers of the Bletchley Park Museum in Buckinghamshire spotted an ad on eBay, which led them to trace the historic Lorenz coding machine. A piece of the machine, described as a telegram machine, was up for sale on the online site for 9.50 pounds.

John Wetter, a volunteer of the museum, said that it was one of his colleagues, browsing on eBay, who noticed the photo, which looked like a telegram machine at first glimpse. He tracked down the place where it was up for sale, and found the teleprinter of the coding machine, which resembled a typewriter, in the original case among odds and ends on the floor in the garden shed. The owner indeed asked 9.50 pounds (4 000 Hungarian forints) for it, and Wetter eventually purchased it for 10 pounds.

The teleprinter was originally used to enter text in German, which was encrypted by a cipher machine connected to it. The cipher machine used 12 individual wheels with multiple settings to create coded messages.

Just recently, the museum received a cipher machine on loan from the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum. The German stamp on the machine and the stamp on the teleprinter purchased in Essex matched exactly. Thus the volunteers of the museum realised that they had come across a component of the historic coding machine.

However, in order to have the machine operational, a part, similar to an electric motor, which drove the wheels of the coding machine, is still needed. The museum asked the public for help in the search for the part, which is indispensable to operating the Lorenz. If it becomes possible to assemble the machine, the museum will make an attempt at encoding text on 3 July.

The Lorenz was much bigger, far more complex and important than the more famous Enigma coding machine. The Lorenz was used by the Nazi high command for strategic communication.

Source: index.hu/tech/2016/05/30/ii._vilaghaborus_rejtjelezo_darabjaira_bukkantak_egy_feszerben and

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/29/hitlers-top-secret-coded-messaging-machine-snapped-up-for-950-af