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Pin-wheel Hagelin ← CX-52
Gendarmerie version of the CX-52 · France
CX-52/g 1 was a special version of the
Hagelin CX-52 cipher machine, used in the 1960s and 70s by the
Gendarmerie Nationale — the French Military Police. 2
It was supplied with all 12 pin-wheels (6 of them in a
metal storage case) and had a unique (non-standard)
set of slide bars.
The one shown here was supplied in March 1963 by
Crypto AG in Zug (Switzerland), via
its distributor in Paris (France) René Presseq de Chauny, 3
and came with a more secure version of the manual.
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The machine is basically a standard CX-52, but has several special features.
Apart from the fact that it was supplied with 12 pin-wheels, it had a rather
unusual white ring
that could be mounted over the alphabet ring,
as shown in the image.
Apart from scrambling the input alphabet by
swapping the letters of the alphabet ring,
the user could also use a pencil to write
down the scrambled alphabet onto the white plastic ring.
It is currently unknown how exactly this was used.
Although it is mentioned in the manual,
the machine does not have the F/V feature fitted.
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According to the metal plate on the top lid, the machine was supplied
in March 1963 via Crypto AG's
agent in Paris: René Presseq de Chauny,
as part of a large batch. It is likely though that this was not the first
batch of CX-52 machine that were supplied to the Gendarmerie, as the
original Operating Procedure that was found with the machine featured here,
is from August 1960 [C].
From the surviving serial numbers it can be estimated that between
1000 and 2000 units were involved in this production batch, and that in total
several thousands of machines were used by the Gendarmerie Nationale
at the time.
The CX-52 was also used by the French Army – prior to 1960 – but these
machines were built under licence by Manufacture d'Armes de Tulle (MAT).
In addition, similar machines were sold directly by Crypto AG
to the French Army in late 1960s.
➤ Full description of the CX-52
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The suffix '/g' (for Gendarmerie) is neither an official
Crypto AG designator, nor
a secret Hagelin designator.
It was added by us to discriminate this variant
from the regular configurations.
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Direction de la Gendarmerie et de la Justice Militaire, Sous-Direction
de la Gendarmerie, Bureau technique.
The Gendarmerie Nationale is one of two national police forces in France.
It falls under the control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and has
military as well as civil tasks. It is also responsible for the protection
of the French President. The Gendarmerie is the successor to the
Maréchaussée [3].
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The company René Presseq de Chauny was located at 35 Rue de la
Bienfaisance in Paris (VIIIe), France. In his report of 28 March
1955, NSA cryptologist William Friedman
confirmed that René de Chauny was Hagelin's agent in Paris at the time
[2 p.11].
STTA (at the top of the label) stands for
Service Technique des Telécommunications de l'Air — the French Air Force
procurement service.
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This storage/carrying bag was supplied with the machine.
It has separate compartments for the CX-52, the additional wheels,
extra paper rolls, the pin-setting tool and the user instructions.
The bag is made of water-resistant PVC and has canvas carrying straps.
Note that due to ageing and the use of an anti-fungus agent,
these bags are rather smelly. It should be
kept in a well-ventilated room to avoid deterioration.
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The machine was supplied with the usual hinged cover, shown in the image
on the right. The cover is locked with a physical key (insert at the right
side of the machine) and can be opened by pushing the circular knob at the
front.
The cover protects the machine when it is not in use, and also holds the
maintenance tools.
A short canvas trap is attached to the right side,
to allow the machine to be carried around.
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The machine is a common CX-52 with the 26-letter Latin alphabet,
but with an unusual set of slide bars. This was probably done to
make the machine more secure and incompatible with machines supplied to
other customers. The bars are identical to the bars supplied to the
French Army however.
The machine has a white blank letter ring that can be mounted over the
alphabet ring. It can be written with a pencil to contain a scrambled
alphabet (similar to re-arranging the letters).
➤ More information
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The machines were supplied with all 12 known pin-wheels, of which 6 were
used, subject to the current key settings. By default,
wheels 25 26 29 31 34 37 were placed in the machine, while the remaining
wheels (38 41 42 43 46 47) were stowed in the
metal storage case shown here.
The storage case was kept in a compartment
of the carrying bag.
It has the same serial number as the machine.
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Like other Hagelin cipher machines, the CX-52/g was supplied with
a leather wallet with four flat cylinder keys that carry the
machine's serial number.
Two keys have a single notch in the grip. They are intended for a regular
operator and can only be used to open the cover.
The other two keys have two notches and can be used to open the cover as
well as the top lid of the machine. It is also known as the officer's key.
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A unique feature of this CX-52/g, is the blank white plastic ring shown in the
image on the right. It can be written with a pencil and allows arbitrary
(mixed) alpabeths to be used, in the same vain as re-arranging the regular
letter ring.
The ring has three mounting stubs that allows it to be mounted over the regular
alphabet ring, after the letters B, K and T have been
removed temporarily. The three letters are
stowed in a metal tube that is held inside the
cover.
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To make setting and resetting the pins of the pin-wheels easier,
this simple tool was supplied. It is made of green eloxed aluminium
and has a stub at the centre that holds the pin-wheel. The lever can
then be used to push a pin down without causing damage to the wheel.
When not in use, the push tool is
stowed in a special pocket of the
carrying bag.
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As the CX-52 can only produce its output on a printed paper strip,
additional blank paper rolls were required. According to the
checklist, at least one additional
roll was supplied with the machine, but the leftmost compartment of the
carrying bag has room for up to 4 rolls.
The image on the right shows the paper rolls that came with the machine
featured here.
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In addition to the operating instructions and the
maintenance history, the machine was also supplied with this
pink A6-size booklet that describes the cipher procedure.
It also reveals that the end-user was the French Gendarmerie.
The cipher procedure was issued in August 1960, and was updated on
15 December 1967. This involved the addition of a fold-out on page 21
and the removal of pages 22 and 23.
➤ Download the cipher procedure
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The machine was supplied with a full set of maintenance tools, as shown in the
image on the right.
They are stowed inside the case cover.
The set consists of an oil tube, spare ink rollers, spare lugs, tweezers,
letter push-tool, lug-setting tool and a screwdriver.
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The CX-52 could optionally be expanded with a
B-52 keyboard unit,
that converts the machine into a fast motor-driven cipher machine,
similar to the earlier BC-38 and BC-543
machines.
The B-52 unit shown in the image on the right was found with the CX-52 machine
featured here, and was also used by the Gendarmerie Nationale.
It came with its own transit case. The B-52 was later succeeded by the
B-62.
➤ More information
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Like the CX-52 machine that were used by the French Army, the CX-52/g
has a unique set of slide bars that is different from the
standard configurations (a, b and c) that were usually
supplied to the various types of customers. The complete set of bars
is listed below.
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Pos
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Shape
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ID
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28-32
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13
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27
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14
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25-26
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13
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24
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14
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22-23
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13
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21
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54
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19-20
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13
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18
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54
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16-17
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13
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15
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15
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1-14
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13
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The CX-52 featured on this page was acquired in October 2021 together with
a B-52 keyboard unit. Both devices were used during the
1960s and 1970s by the Gendarmerie Nationale — the French Military Police —
who obtained them in 1963.
Although they were in near mint condition, they had probably
been in storage for the last 30 or 40 years, without any use or maintenance.
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The first thing to be noticed was the musty smell of the carrying bag.
This bag, made of PVC, is treated with a rather smelly anti-fungus agent.
Washing the bag several times with a mild soap followed by alcohol,
improved things somewhat, but did not eliminate the smell completely.
The machine was in good condition, but the mechanism was very dry,
causing the revolving cage to block occasionally.
As a general rule: never use excessive force when a mechanism appears to
be blocking or binding, as this could cause irreparable damage to your
machine.
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After greasing and oiling it at the appropriate spots, and removing the
minute corrosion that was visible on some of the pin-wheels, the CX-52
now runs like new again. What remained were four small 1 mm holes in the
lid, that had clearly been holding some kind of metal ID/type label.
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Luckily, one of our German friends had recently acquired a nearly identical
machine [5] that was used by the same French organisation and that still had
its ID plate fitted. It confirmed the name of the distrbutor (René de Chauny)
and the year in which the machines had been supplied (1963).
From the serial numbers of both machines and the inventory
number that was still present on the service booklet, we were able to work out
the number that had to be imprinted on the label.
A high-quality reproduction of the original label was made and the number (157)
was imprinted.
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The label was fitted at the same position as the old one, using four small
aluminium nails to affix it to the existing mounting holes.
The result is shown in the image above. The machine was then properly
services, and is now fully operational again. It runs like it has just
left the factory. It was later also tested with the orginal
B-52 keyboard unit that was found with it.
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Carrying bag extremely smelly and dirty Machine extremely dry Distributor label missing from top lid
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- Carring bag thorougly cleaned with soap and alcohol
- Documents preserved in chlorine-free plastic
- Machine superficially cleaned and oiled
- Pin-wheels cleaned and oiled
- Ink rollers replaced
- Reproduction distributor label fitted
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Model CX-52 Series C S/N 157/32047 Manufacturer Crypto AG Year 1963 (introduced in 1952) User France, Gendarmerie Nationale Wheels 25 26 29 31 34 37 + 38 41 42 43 46 47 Bars Special (see avove) F/V feature No Print head Re-arrangeable Typeface Latin (26) Offset Adjustable Letter ring Re-arrangeable SPACE A, K, W Paint Green wrinkle-paint Lock Flat cylinder key Object 303690
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A checklist of all items that were supplied with the machine can be found
on the inside of the cover of the
service booklet [B].
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Below is a list of surviving machines that were
supplied in 1963 via René Presseq de Chauny. These machines can be recognised
by an extra type plate with that name, mounted to the top lid of the machine.
In some cases this plate has been removed, but the four mounting holes should still be present. The plate holds a 3-digit serial number that is unique for the procurement.
The list shows the procurement serial number, the Hagelin serial
number and the current location.
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103 31993 Private collector (Germany) 117 32007 Sold via Bonhams, 2 December 2020 157 32047 Crypto Museum (Netherlands) ? 33?78 Sold via eBay, 21 February 2016 1
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From this list it is clear that more that 1000 units were supplied in
this batch.
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3rd digit of the serial number removed. Inventory number unknown.
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The list above allows us to make an educated guess of the actual
production quantity. If you have a CX-52 machine that previously belonged
to the Gendarmerie Nationale, please provide us with the serial number,
so that we can update the list. Your information will be treated confidentially.
If the serial number label is missing from your machine, you can also find
it on the inside of the cover, stamped in blue or red.
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This manual [A] has the same document number as [1], but
provides better security instructions.
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Any links shown in red are currently unavailable.
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Sunday 24 October 2021. Last changed: Sunday, 03 July 2022 - 16:19 CET.
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![CX-52 [fr]](img/303690/000/thumbnail.jpg "image # 303690/000")
![CX-52 [fr]](img/303690/000/full.jpg)
