The Enigma (brown box in forground of photo) is the WW II vintage encryption device used by the Germans. The cipher it produced was cracked by the Allies very early in the war, and most secret messages where decrypted. The task of deciphering was still monumental given the volume of messages, and the British built "Bombe" (the larger metallic grey machine in the background, a precursor of modern computers) was used in this task. This is a photo of the exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute.
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