|
|
|
|
|
|
The Enigma H was the last machine of the range Schreibende Enigma
(printing Enigma) machines. It was developed/introduced in 1929 and was
used by the German Wehrmacht as well as by some foreign customers.
It was the successor to the Enigma B from 1926.
|
The official model number of the Enigma H was H29 and the internal
designator used by the manufacturer was Ch. 14.
The Reichswehr / Wehrmacht called it Enigma II.
The machine had 8 wheels, but only 4 wheels were used for the coding
of the electric signals. The remaining 4 wheels were used to control
the wheel turnovers.
Each wheel had 26 contact points and the machine was capable of
sending letters and numbers.
The Enigma H printed directly to paper, using hammers, but wasn't
very reliable. In practice, there were many complaints about blocking
machines.
|
|
|
The H29 was sometimes used as a printing device for an ordinary (lamp)
Enigma. In the latter case, a special version of the lamp Enigma was used.
It had a connector on its side that allowed the H29 to be connected
to it. It is known that some versions of the Enigma I
were modified for this purpose.
Another example of such a modified lamp Enigma is the
Enigma G31 with print connector
(Ch. 15b) that was discovered in 2009 in Germany (G-111).
The use of the H29 as a printing device is described in German
patents DE536556
and DE595075.
On the front of the H29 is a rotary switch that can be used
to enable or disable the ciphering capabilities of the machine.
When using a lamp Enigma for input, the internal cipher functions
had to be disabled.
Not many H29 machines were built and even fewer have survived.
The only sample that is currently known, is in the war museum
in Budapest (Hungary). Unfortunately, that machine is in pretty
bad condition and many of its keys are missing (photo by Eric
Tischer below).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
