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In 1921, Boris Hagelin developed his first cipher machine whilst
working for crypto-company Damm in Sweden. In 1935 he produced
his first fully mechanical machine that would lead the way to a
long range of mechanical cipher machines.
Shortly before WWII, he developed the M-209 for the American Army.
After the war the company continued with numerous mechanical and
electronic devices, and still exists today as Crypto AG.
The model numbers of the Hagelin machines are often related to the
year in which they were developed (e.g. the C-35 was developed in 1935).
Furthermore, a B is added before the model number if the unit has
a keyboard.
Hagelin machines described on this website:
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The B-21 was the first cipher machine developed by Boris Hagelin.
He designed the machine in 1921 when he was working for the
Damm brothers in Sweden.
Physically, it resembles the Enigma machine
but internally it scrambles wires in a 5 x 5 matrix,
controlled by 4 pin-wheels.
The machine was said to be more secure than the Enigma.
 More information
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The C-35 is the first fully mechanical pin-and-lug machine
developed by Hagelin. It is much smaller than later machines of
the same class and was initially developed for the French Army,
who wanted the machine to fit the pocket of the army trousers.
In November 2008 we had the opportunity to take some detailed
photographs of this machine from the internal Hagelin collection.
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The C-36 is one of the first mechanical pin-and-lug machines
developed by Hagelin. It is larger than the C-35 and resembles
the M-209 in shape. Unlike the M-209, however, the tabs on
the metal bars inside the machine are not movable.
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Based on the C-38, Hagelin developed the M-209 for the American
Army, shortly before WWII. It's a small compact mechanical machine
that remained in service until after the Vietnam War.
As the machine could be broken by the Germans in less than 4 hours,
it was only used for tactical field messages. The M-209 was built
under licence by Smith Corona in the USA.
More information
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The BC-38 is in fact a C-38 that has a keyboard and is motor-driven.
It is compatible with the C-38 and the American M-209 and was used
during WWII by the American Army, especially in command centers.
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The C-446 is a typical military Hagelin machine.
The machine shown here was used by the Dutch Navy and
was available in two versions: the standard C-446-A
and an C-446-RT that used a Random Tape rather than
coding wheels.
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Designed in or around 1952, the CX-52 is probably one of the most successful
models of the mechanical Hagelin cipher machines. Numerous variants have been
developed, such as the standard CX-52, an RT-version (using Random Tape) and
an Arabic version.
The CX-52 was introduced in the early 1950s and remained in use in some
countries until the late 1990s.
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The BC-543 is a rather strange member of the Hagelin family. As the name
suggests, it was developed around 1954. However, it is not based on the
C-52 that was developed two years earlier, but rather
on the BC-38 which in turn was based on the
C-38 a.k.a. M-209. The BC-543 is in fact functionally
identical to the BC-38 and differs only in minor details.
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The CD-57 is a truely portable hand-held cipher machine that easily
fits the pocket of, say, a coat. It was introduced in 1957 and was
based on the design of the earlier CD-55.
It has 6 coding wheels and is crypto compatible with the C-52 (see below).
The CD-57 was also built under licence by Hell as the STG-61.
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In 1977, Hagelin introduced the HC-520 CRYPTOMATIC as part of the HC-5xx
family of machines. It was one of the first fully electronic cipher
machines that were developed as the successors to the H-4605.
The HC-520 looks like an electronic calculator and was considered
very compact at the time.
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In the mid-1970s, Crypto AG (Hagelin) developed a series of
voice crypto untits, aimed at both the civilian and military
market. This was called the CRYPTOCOM CRM-008 product line.
The CRM-008 was introduced in 1975 and was sold well into the
1990s.
This machine is sometimes identified as the Hagelin HC-230
(civilian version) or HC-235 (military version).
More information
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Swiss Army Knife
This is genuine Swiss Army Knife with the Hagelin logo
on its side. It was probably a gift from Crypto AG to their
customers.
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