Prototype Hebern Cipher Machine
Prototype Hebern Cipher Machine
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- Description
- This is a prototype rotary cipher machine component made by the American inventor Edward Hebern. The badly rusted machine has a steel frame with a keyboard in front, a motor on top, and a cylindrical device on its side on the top. Numerous wires lead into the cylinder, and it is attached by a gear shaft to the motor. There is a capacitor in back. There is a cord on the right and another on the left. Dimensions do not include cords. The keyboard has three rows of keys, arranged like a QWERTY keyboard, with no top row. The second row has a "SHIFT (/) LOCK" key and the bottom row a black "SHIFT (/) KEY". The object resembles the keyboard part of 1991.0190.06, but the keys are white on this machine.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- cipher machine
- maker
- Hebern, Edward
- Edward Hebern
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- rubber (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 14 cm x 31 cm x 42 cm; 5 1/2 in x 12 7/32 in x 16 17/32 in
- ID Number
- 1991.0190.05
- accession number
- 1991.0190
- catalog number
- 1991.0190.05
- Credit Line
- Gift of T. Scripps Downing
- subject
- Mathematics
- Codes and Ciphers
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Military
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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