MACHINE THAT KEEPS SECRETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 148, 23 June 1923, Page 19

MACHINE THAT KEEPS SECRETS.

1 1 2 BILLIONS OP CODES. c A wonderful machine, In appearance 1 between a cash register, a gramophone and I a typewriter, has been invented by a Californian. 6 It combines the duties of a telegraphic 6 transmitter and an automatic coding c : machine; in other words, while the operai tor taps out his message over the wires (or !by wireless) on the Keys oi tne lower aj.ii. '' 'of the machine, curious devices within 0 ' automatically turn the straightforward ie J words into a cryptic jumble, which no perl ' j son can possibly make head or tail of 16 except a receiving operator whose machine d i has been synchronised -with it. I The secret of the machine is contained 1,3 'in a little master wheel, by which no 11 1 fewer than 403,303,146,321,064,400,000 diCEer- ' ent codes can be formed. *' J United States Government experts laboured for over a year trying to decipher , a message sent out by this invention without success, and no key has been, or Is ever S likely to be, discovered. The only essential thing is that transmitter and receiver . n "' should have the same master wheel. I , S " The value of such an invention is obvious ' C since it cuts out all possibility of unauthorised intervention and unwanted listeners. I The machine is now said to be under- '" y I going tests by five Governments, as well a as by the United States, lis .-==