MD -- Fort Meade -- Natl Cryptologic Museum:
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- NCM_060814_020.JPG: StorageTek device
- NCM_060814_033.JPG: Replica of the Great Seal that in the U.S. Ambassador's residence in Moscow.
- NCM_060814_038.JPG: The interior storage area where the Soviet bug was placed behind the Great Seal.
- NCM_060814_053.JPG: Cray Supercomputer
- NCM_060814_059.JPG: Cipher Disk. The cipher disk was invented in Italy sometime before 1470. It had concentric discs with one disk containing a scrambled alphabet. A cipher disk was used in the Civil War for flag signalling. Since the flags were often in view of the Confederate signalmen, frequently setting changes were employed. During the First World War and several years thereafter, the U.S. Army employed a simplified version of the disk with one standard alphabet and one reverse standard alphabet. You could use the same setting for the entire message for the simplest cryptogram, or change the setting after each letter.
- NCM_060814_063.JPG: Information Assurance display
- NCM_060814_065.JPG: SIGSALY
- NCM_060814_082.JPG: Vietnam exhibit
- NCM_060814_089.JPG: Hebern Electric Code Machine, circa 1918.
In the two decades prior to World War II, Edward H. Hebern (1869-1952) was the first American inventor to make a truly significant contribution to cipher machine development. His machines were the first to embody the wired rotor principle of encipherment. Hebern continued to design and build electro-mechanical rotor machines until the eve of World War II. For various reasons, he never managed to secure a large scale contract with the U.S. Government.
Displayed here is Hebern's first rotor machine. Employing a single rotor and beautifully made of solid brass, the machine worked in conjunction with an electric typewriter. This machine was built before 1920 in Hebern's Oakland, California machine shop.
- NCM_060814_119.JPG: U.S. Army Signal Flag (circa Civil War).
- NCM_060814_127.JPG: Slave quilt
- NCM_060814_132.JPG: Zimmermann telegram newspaper article
- NCM_060814_138.JPG: 18th Century Cipher Device
- NCM_060814_147.JPG: U.S. M1 Analog: Cryptanalytic "replica" used to decrypt Enigma generated messages.
- NCM_060814_158.JPG: U.S. Navy Bombe.
- NCM_060814_163.JPG: World War I Radio Intercept Site
- NCM_060814_177.JPG: You're actually allowed to use this Enigma device to see how it works. You set the settings at the top and type using the keys in front. The codes to actually use show up lit in the section right above the keyboard. So you might type an "A" and the letter "Q" lights up -- that's the one you transmit. With each letter, the setting increments so the next time you type "A", you get a different letter back.
In order to decrypt the message, you set the settings back to what they were initially and you type in the encrypted message. The decrypted message shows up on the lighted keys this time.
- NCM_060814_191.JPG: Enigma: The war years 1939-1945
- NCM_060814_195.JPG: Sturgeon
- NCM_060814_209.JPG: Tunny
- NCM_060814_214.JPG: Codetalkers
- NCM_060814_219.JPG: SIGABA-ECM
- NCM_060814_224.JPG: Purple decryption device
- NCM_060814_232.JPG: Purple -- a piece from the Japanese machine recovered from the wreckage of the Japanese embassy in Berlin, 1945.
- NCM_060814_235.JPG: Purple decryption device
- NCM_060814_240.JPG: Jade
- NCM_060814_242.JPG: Communication devices from the Korean War
- NCM_060814_247.JPG: Battle of Midway exhibit
- NCM_060814_250.JPG: Japanese codebook
- NCM_060814_257.JPG: Japanese code machine
- NCM_060814_258.JPG: A typical display room
- NCM_060814_265.JPG: Various Enigma devices
- NCM_060814_270.JPG: Commercial Enigma. This machine, marked in English, "Made in Germany," was intended for commercial export. Such Enigmas were available to anyone who wished to purchase them prior to the Nazi takeover of the German government.
- NCM_060814_278.JPG: Enigma: The pre-war years 1923-1939.
The Enigma device was actually available for commercial sale before the war.
- NCM_060814_306.JPG: NSA/CSS Cryptologic Memorial
- NCM_060814_313.JPG: C-130A. This C-130A typifies the United States Air Force Hercules reconnaissance aircraft flown from May 1958 to present. This aircraft represents and is displayed in the markings of C-130 A-II #60528, shot down by Soviet MIG fighters on September 2, 1958. Delivered from Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Marietta, GA in 1957, this C-130A was modified to a reconnaissance configuration by Temco Aircraft Company, Greenville, TX. Still in production, the "Herk" has proudly served throughout the free world since its introduction in 1954.
- NCM_060814_316.JPG: The EA-3B Skywarrior was in service for more than three decades in the U.S. Navy's secret reconnaissance war against the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. Conceived at the dawn of the Cold War as an aircraft carrier-based nuclear bomber, the A-3 Skywarrior was the largest aircraft ever designed to operate from an aircraft carrier -- hence its nickname, "the Whale". The aircraft was also an ideal platform for electronic reconnaissance, a mission it fulfilled around the globe beginning in 1956. Designated the EA-3B in 1961, the aircraft and its crew of seven offered the fleet unique electronic reconnaissance capabilities that served the Navy well in numerous Cold War-era conflicts and crises, including the Vietnam War. The U.S. Navy retired its last EA-3B from service in October 1991.
- NCM_060814_347.JPG: RU-8D:
This RU-8D served in Vietnam with the 138th Radio Research Company (Aviation). The RU-8D, a signal reconnaissance version of the Beechcraft L-23D, was the workhorse of Army airborne SIGINT during the war. It had a crew of three, a cruising speed of 195 mph, and a range of 1320 miles.
- NCM_060814_359.JPG: National Vigilance Park You can see the NSA headquarters in the back
- Wikipedia Description: National Cryptologic Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The United States National Cryptologic Museum is a museum of cryptography history, affiliated with the National Security Agency (NSA). Located in a former motel at [show location on an interactive map] 39°06'53?N 76°46'29?W? / ?39.1148, -76.7748Coordinates: [show location on an interactive map] 39°06'53?N 76°46'29?W? / ?39.1148, -76.7748, adjacent to NSA Headquarters, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, the museum collection contains thousands of artifacts, including a WW II German Enigma machine and a bombe used to break it, and displays covering the history of American cryptology and of the people, machines, techniques and locations concerned.
Initially housing NSA artifacts for viewing by employees, the museum quickly developed into a unique collection of US cryptologic history. The museum opened to the public on December 16, 1993.
The museum hosts approximately 50,000 visitors annually from all over the world, and gives tours for students and children to teach cryptology’s impact on history and the possibility of employment in the field.
Adjacent to the museum is the National Vigilance Park, where three aircraft, used in reconnaissance, are on display. The US Army Seminole RU-8D Reconnaissance Plane represents the Army Airborne Signals Intelligence contribution in the Vietnam War, and a Hercules C-130 transport, modified to look like a reconnaissance-configuration C-130A, memorializes a US Air Force aircraft shot down over Soviet Armenia during the Cold War. Finally, the park contains a US Navy Skywarrior EA-3B, commemorating a mission in the Mediterranean on January 25, 1987 in which all seven crew died.
The museum and park are open to the public and admission is free.
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