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#TNMOC #BletchleyPark #CorporateEvents #TechHistory
The Nazis’ Most Notoriously Complex Cryptographic Machine Is Now Available Online gizmodo.com/the-nazis-mo...
Virtual SG-41 project brings Nazi cipher machine to life in the browser www.theregister.com/2026/04/08/v...
10 Years of Virtual Colossus: 2026
And we're up to date and therefore, today is the release of my latest project: Virtual Schlüsselgerät 41
After a year of work try it out for yourself using just your web browser.
Hope you like my new website design too!
sg41.virtualcolossus.co.uk
Released today: Virtual Schlüsselgerät 41
This cipher machine, based on Hagelin C-38 but WAY more complex was set to replace Enigma.
Over a year of work & research & it's ready for you to try for yourself.
sg41.virtualcolossus.co.uk
@tnmoc.bsky.social @cryptomuseum.bsky.social
If that's around the same time, I suspect that might be a different machine .. either the Manchester Baby or the Manchester/Ferranti Mark 1! Turing moved to Manchester from the Pilot ACE program to work on the Ferranti Mark 1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manches... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manches...
10 Years of Virtual Colossus: 2025
Did you know that Turing designed a valve computer using mercury delay lines as memory after the war? The pilot machine ran 75 years ago and was recreated as Virtual Pilot ACE this year. And we're up to date .. excited for release of Virtual SG-41 tomorrow!
10 Years of Virtual Colossus: 2024
The next sim I worked on was the M-209, an American version of the Hagelin C-38. A new resource, the CT scans of the machines at @DeutschesMuseum, meant I could very accurately model each part giving amazing detail! m209.virtualcolossus.co.uk
10 Years of Virtual Colossus: 2023
We have already completed Colossus and Lorenz SZ-42 but we only had Enigma working. It was time to learn about the Turing-Welchman Bombe and to begin building it into a fully working simulation. Find it at bombe.virtualcolossus.co.uk
10 Years of Virtual Colossus: 2022
The next machine to get 3D treatment was one I really enjoyed learning about, the Lorenz SZ-42. I completed a 2D version in 2017, but wondered if I could do this technological marvel justice. It ended up as one of my favourite sims I've ever done.
10 Years of Virtual Colossus: 2021
Now, with new 3D skills, it was time to attempt a machine that I'd always felt already had many great sims.
And so, I created my most visited sim yet:
Virtual Enigma both model I and M4, complete with radio & Morse key. enigma.virtualcolossus.co.uk
Two new sims were completed this yr and little did I realise that Virtual Typex would be the last in 2D. I started playing with a library called three.js and ended up recreating Virtual Colossus in full 3D! This was how it continue to today ...
10 Years of Virtual Colossus: 2019
In this year, I created a sim of E.R.N.I.E to celebrate the new 5th version. A hardware random number generator built in 1956 to find winners for the UK Premium Bonds. Designed by Harry Fensom who worked at the GPO Research Station, Dollis Hill
10 Years of Virtual Colossus: 2018
In 2018, I started looking at a BP cipher breaking machine from the American Signal Security Agency. This was Dragon, a relay machine built to drag a crib through a partially decrypted message from Colossus. A fascinating machine to learn about!
That's interesting to hear of the American threads on the screws, but haven't read Donald Davies paper (I do not have a subscription!)
The SZ42 at Bletchley Park was restored to working condition and taken to Heinz Nixdorf Computer Museum in Paderborn, Germany for the Cipher Event 2007. I managed to get DVD of some footage from Paderborn during build of my sim some of which I've put on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBXW...
10 Years of Virtual Colossus: 2017
Having completed my Colossus sim, I became interested in how the machine that it was built to crack worked: the Lorenz SZ-42. There wasn't a working machine I knew of to see working and no videos online, so I began researching to build my own.
Can you believe that the Virtual Colossus project is now 10 years old!
Today, I'm starting the countdown to the release of my latest simulation the incredible Schlüsselgerät 41. Each day, I'll show what I was working on from 2016 until we catch up to today!
Nearing the go-live date for Virtual Schlüsselgerät 41 .. or at least until I find there's yet another part that I didn't quite understand on this complex 1940s cipher machine. Here's the result & now back to final testing. Check out my new transparent case mode too!
Are you fed up with your old, slow labour-intensive Enigma machine? There is a better way .. and it's coming very soon to a browser near you!
"jetzt muß die Enigma sterben" .. Now the Enigma must die.
Schlüsselgerät 41 : sg41.virtualcolossus.co.uk
@tnmoc.bsky.social @cryptomuseum.bsky.social
Hopefully we match up now, if not, let me know and I'll take another look. You're probably one of a very small number of people to ever check as far down the options to find the sz42c!
Keep watching my socials and on the site as very soon, my latest work, the awesome (and insanely complex) German Schlüsselgerät 41 cipher machine, will be finally completed after over a year of work.
Good work @shayden1337.bsky.social for spotting a bug in my Lorenz SZ42c code! If you're not keeping up with your WW2 German cipher tech (tut), the SZ42c was to replace the SZ42a/b & wasn't ever completed. The info for how it ran comes from sparse TICOM reports.
lorenz.virtualcolossus.co.uk
You win a big gold star! 🌟 Well done for paying attention & knowing your SZ42c facts - you are, of course, absolutely right! I've mis-typed in one of the wheel 6's limitation values. That should now be resolved (clear your cache & reload).
Glad you enjoy my simulations, it's really good to hear from someone who's using them. Wow, ok, let me take a look ... I'll get back to you
Make one of your New Year's Resolutions to visit The National Museum of Computing in 2026 :-)
Previously unknown instructions & settings sheets for the SG-41 have been discovered in Czech archives! Thanks to Eugen Antal, Carola Dahlke & Robert Jahn who published them in Cryptologia.
I've been working to bring these into Virtual SG-41
@tnmoc.bsky.social @cryptomuseum.bsky.social
Sad news today, another veteran has been taken from us. Ruth Bourne, WWII Bletchley Park Bombe operator has died aged 98.
She started working at BP aged just 18.
Thank you for your service Ruth, we will remember you.
news.sky.com/story/wwii-b...
The long slog to getting everything ready to release Virtual Schlüsselgerät 41 is well underway.
Lots now completed on setup, tutorials and a few more bugs ticked off. No definite release date just yet as I keep adding to my to-do list, but it's very soon!
I've completed the last model for Virtual SG-41! It's ALL there & working, a 1940s technical marvel lives again! It's taken nearly a year; 378 models drawn by hand on CT scans from Deutsches Museum then animated with @threejs.org
The end is in sight!
@tnmoc.bsky.social
@cryptomuseum.bsky.social
