Deciphering an Enigma I message Virtual Colossus 2021-06-20 | Virtual Enigma is an online simulation of the Enigma machine used during WW2. This is a tutorial video on how to decipher a received Enigma message for the Model I (Army/Airforce).Virtual Enigma will be available on enigma.virtualcolossus.co.uk from 23rd June 2021
10 Years of Virtual Colossus; 2026: Virtual Schlüsselgerät 41 Virtual Colossus 2026-03-28 | And we're up to date and therefore, today is the release of my latest project: Virtual Schlüsselgerät 41After 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
Virtual Schlüsselgerät 41 Release Virtual Colossus 2026-03-28 | Released today: Virtual Schlüsselgerät 41This 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
10 Years of Virtual Colossus; 2025: Virtual Pilot ACE Virtual Colossus 2026-03-27 | Did you know that Turing designed a valve computer using mercury delay lines as memory after the war? The pilot machine built using his design ran it's first program 75 years ago and was recreated as Virtual Pilot ACE this year. pilotace.virtualcolossus.co.uk
10 Years of Virtual Colossus; 2024: Virtual M-209 Virtual Colossus 2026-03-26 | 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: Virtual Bombe Virtual Colossus 2026-03-25 | 10 Years of Virtual Colossus: 2023We 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. bombe.virtualcolossus.co.uk
10 Years of Virtual Colossus; 2022: Virtual Lorenz SZ-42 3D Virtual Colossus 2026-03-24 | 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.lorenz.virtualcolossus.co.uk
10 Years of Virtual Colossus; 2021: Virtual Enigma Virtual Colossus 2026-03-23 | 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
10 Years of Virtual Colossus; 2020: Virtual Typex and Virtual Colossus 3D Virtual Colossus 2026-03-22 | 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 @threejs and ended up recreating Virtual Colossus in full 3D! This was how it continue to today ...
10 Years of Virtual Colossus; 2019: Virtual ERNIE Virtual Colossus 2026-03-21 | 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: Virtual Dragon Virtual Colossus 2026-03-20 | 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. Gil Hayward reported that "It sounded like a monster munching its way through sheets of tin plate" and also that "The load on the power supply was so great that the room lights dimmed as several hundred relays pulled in at once". A fascinating machine to learn about and work out it's mechanism.
10 Years of Virtual Colossus; 2017: Virtual Lorenz Virtual Colossus 2026-03-19 | 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.
10 Years of Virtual Colossus; 2016: The first Virtual Colossus Virtual Colossus 2026-03-18 | 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! 2016 is the year it all began, with my first simulation of Colossus to keep the work of Tony Sale alive.
SG-41 Ink Cartridge and Paper Rollers. The last mechanism all done! Virtual Colossus 2025-11-09 | We are getting so close now! This week sees the completion of the final part of the actual SG-41 mechanism; the ink cartridge & upper paper feed rollers. So is that it ... all done? Not quite, there's one important part missing.
Virtual Schlüsselgerät 41 - some complex levers to model Virtual Colossus 2025-10-25 | Virtual Schlüsselgerät 41 (SG-41). Another week and yet another mess of levers in the CT scans that do something .. but what? One of those cases where I'm just going to have to model & animate them in Blender & threejs to find out.
Filling out the SG-41 cipher machines inner mechanism Virtual Colossus 2025-09-27 | It's time to fill out some of the metalwork that holds everything together. It's no wonder the SG-41 weighed in at around 13kg especially as Germany were running out of lighter metals by the end of the war.
GCHQ invited me to see the ultra rare SG-41 cipher machine Virtual Colossus 2025-09-05 | Last month, I was thrilled to be invited to GCHQ in Cheltenham to see their rare SG-41 cipher machine for real!It has answered many questions about this amazing WW2 machine. I can now move on & complete my latest sim which will be released (hopefully later this year) on my site virtualcolossus.co.uk
Virtual Schlüsselgerät 41 - What happens if you run out of paper? Virtual Colossus 2025-07-13 | I broke more than fixed this week! I'd placed a few items in the machine out of line so last few bits didn't fit in. Had to check scan and correct placing. All fixed now!The question to answer today - "What happens if you run out of paper?" This is a work in progress of my web simulation of the potential Enigma replacement, the SG-41 cipher machine.
Virtual Schlüsselgerät 41 - latest update adding shadows Virtual Colossus 2025-06-15 | Adding in a few shadows make all the difference to a simulation. This is made very easy with Three.js which is the JavaScript library I'm using for 3D.The encrypted output is not from a coded sim, it's from the mechanics alone!
Learn how the Schlüsselgerät 41 (SG-41) starts to encipher letters. A fiendish machine! Virtual Colossus 2025-06-07 | Now we finally get to see how all the messing about in Virtual SG-41 with cogs & cams starts to encipher our letter. A lot of work done in past couple of weeks to get here, this is a fiendishly clever device!
Schlüsselgerät 41 (SG-41) update and new lever addition Virtual Colossus 2025-05-17 | Now we've got the Pilot ACE completed, it's time to get back to our build of the SG-41 (Schlüsselgerät 41). Here's a very brief recap of where we'd got to and a quick additional set of levers hidden away behind the rotors to work out.
Virtual Pilot ACE - A simulation of the Pilot ACE and demo of some programs from 75 years ago. Virtual Colossus 2025-05-10 | The Pilot ACE (Automatic Computing Engine) was one of the first computers to be built in the United Kingdom. Designed by Alan Turing, the Pilot ACE was a cut-down version of Turing's full ACE design and was built at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) at the beginning of the 1950sIt is one of the earliest general-purpose, stored-program computers, used around 800 valves (vacuum tubes) and ran at 1MHz speed
Virtual Pilot ACE computer to be released on 75th anniversary Virtual Colossus 2025-04-18 | On the 10th May 1950, the Pilot ACE computer designed by Alan Turing ran its first program. To celebrate, I am excited to tell you that my simulation Virtual Pilot ACE will be released 75 years later on that same day so you can try it for yourselves.
Schlüsselgerät 41 - how the rotor stepping works Virtual Colossus 2025-03-22 | As promised, here's a very quick explanation of how the stepping mechanism of the Schlüsselgerät 41 (SG-41) works.I hope it makes sense, I had to jam a lot of info into a small video so you may need to watch it a few times to get it!A much more complex movement than Enigma or Hagelin M-209
Virtual SG-41 - modelling a new cam Virtual Colossus 2025-03-15 | I'm currently creating a simulation of the SG-41 German cipher machine. Sometimes I'll get stuck when a sim I'm working on doesn't match the real device & I just can't understand why. Then suddenly, I'll spot a small part in the scan that I missed which explains it. Today was one of those times.
SG-41 Schlüsselgerät 41 (cipher machine 41) Rotor Stepping Virtual Colossus 2025-02-23 | Sometimes I can see how the mechanism works from the scans, but in complex cases, it can be best to just model it and see what happens. The rotor stepping of the SG-41 mechanism is in the second type! The answer is mind-blowing!
Virtual SG-41. Modelling the rotor mechanics. Virtual Colossus 2025-02-15 | It's been a busy couple of weeks of modelling on my Virtual SG-41. Let's take a look at a few of the complex mechanics that go into moving the rotors, it's going to take a lot of work to animate this lot!
Virtual SG-41 Rotors - a work in progress Virtual Colossus 2025-02-08 | You can't have a pin-wheel machine without some rotors, so it's time to add those in to our virtual machine. The SG-41 has 6 rotors with the first two from the left having 25 pins, the middle two have 23 and the rightmost two have 24 pins.
The SG-41 (Hitler Mill) - how does the key mechanism work? Virtual Colossus 2025-02-01 | Wow, this has taken a lot of staring at 3D scans to understand, but we're ready to look at the full mechanism on the SG-41 to get the key pressed lined up with the paper! I hope you're enjoying following along with me on this project.Schlüsselgerät 41 (cipher machine 41), 1 or SG-41, was a mechanical pin-wheel cipher machine, developed during WWII by Regierungsoberinspektor Fritz Menzer as a replacement candidate for the Enigma cipher machine, which was used by the German Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) and the German intelligence service, the Abwehr. It was manufactured by Wanderer Werke in Siegmar-Schönau (Germany) and was introduced on 12 October 1944. Although 11,000 units were ordered, just 1000 to 1500 units had been delivered by the end of the war. The machine is also known as Hitlermühle (Hitler mill), most likely because of the large crank at the right side. (see cryptomuseum.com/crypto/sg41)
Virtual SG-41 First View Virtual Colossus 2024-12-22 | I've been learning about the SG-41, a mechanical pin-wheel cipher machine, developed as a replacement candidate for Enigma. This is complex, but I'm up for the challenge so ... introducing Virtual SG-41. Follow along as I try to work it out and create a working simulation for you to play with!
The Polish Bomba kryptologiczna (Cryptological bomb) Virtual Colossus 2024-08-01 | Shortly before the Second World War, the Polish mathematicians Marian Rejewski , Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski of the Biuro Szyfrów (the Polish Cipher Bureau) devised a semi-automatic device to break the German ‘‘Enigma.This is a demonstration of what it may have looked like when running.
Virtual Pilot ACE - work in progress Virtual Colossus 2024-07-27 | A Virtual Pilot ACE simulation updateAfter a lot of work, the computer and console are now mostly populated .. isn't it looking gorgeous! Time to get a few demos running I think .. debugging is very hard on this computer! It's taken a while to get all the bugs out of the computer simulation code, but working with original ACE software helps as I can make sure all of the operations work out correctly.Lots of switches to get working next.
Virtual Hagelin M-209 Virtual Colossus 2024-06-06 | The M-209, designated CSP-1500 by the Navy (C-48 by the manufacturer) is a portable, mechanical cipher machine used by the US military primarily in World War II, though it remained in active use through the Korean War.The M-209 was designed by Swedish cryptographer Boris Hagelin and manufactured by Smith & Corona in Syracuse (New York, USA). It was based on the C-38 which itself was an improvement of an earlier machine, the C-36.This is a free online 3D simulation of the M-209 called Virtual Hagelin M-209 where you can learn how to use the machine to encipher and decipher secret messages and to find out about it's history.m209.virtualcolossus.co.uk
Virtual Hagelin M-209 VR Demo Virtual Colossus 2024-04-27 | The Hagelin M-209 is a portable, mechanical cipher machine used by the US military primarily in World War II. It was designed by Swedish cryptographer Boris Hagelin.This is an initial demo of my Virtual Hagelin M-209 simulation running on a Meta Quest!
Hagelin M-209. How does the paper feed letter grouping work? Virtual Colossus 2024-04-20 | The Hagelin M-209's printed text in 5 letter groups .. how?It's taken a LOT to understand it! I had to model all the parts & pivot them correctly to see what moved & how far. Lots of work for parts that are hidden inside but worth it I think!
Hagelin M-209 cipher machine .. work in progress Virtual Colossus 2024-04-07 | A couple of new components added to #VirtualM209 this week which connect some of the other parts together. Here's a quick explanation of how they work. Need to start thinking about how to do the print mechanism soon!
How does the Hagelin M-209 cipher machine work? Virtual Colossus 2024-03-23 | How does the Hagelin M-209 cipher machine work? Watch this work in progress for my latest online simulation #VirtualM209 as I try to show how the first part of the mechanism does it's thing.
ICT 1301 simulation running a 50 year old program to print ASCII text Virtual Colossus 2024-03-04 | The ICT 1301 was a British built and designed, second-generation transistor computer. Recently, The National Museum of Computing volunteers have been recovering data from it's archived magnetic tapes & I've got my simulation working enough to run this 50 year old program .. WOW! tnmoc.org/virtual-flossie
Virtual ICT 1301 (Flossie) running a 50 year old ASCII program Virtual Colossus 2024-02-03 | The ICT 1301 was a British built and designed, second-generation transistor computer.Recently, The National Museum of Computing volunteers have been recovering data from it's archived magnetic tapes & I've got my simulation working enough to run this 50 year old program .. WOW!
Virtual Turing-Welchman Bombe Tutorial Virtual Colossus 2023-12-03 | This is a tutorial for the Turing-Welchman Bombe simulation at bombe.virtualcolossus.co.ukIt shows how to fit the drums and wire up a menu ready for the Bombe to break an Enigma key.
Deciphering an Enigma M4 message Virtual Colossus 2021-06-20 | Virtual Enigma is an online simulation of the Enigma machine used during WW2. This is a tutorial video on how to receive a transmitted Enigma Morse Code message and decipher it for the Model M4 used by the Navy.Virtual Enigma will be available on enigma.virtualcolossus.co.uk from 23rd June 2021
Virtual Colossus 3D Virtual Colossus 2020-12-01 | Colossus was the name of a series of computers developed by British codebreakers in 1943-1945 to help in the cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. After the war, the Colossus computers were destroyed and all plans and information was required to be incinerated.virtualcolossus.co.uk is a fully working, 3D simulation of Colossus, running in just your browser, which you can use to learn how to program the world's first electronic digital computer.In 1992, Tony Sale and his team began the ambitious task of rebuilding a working Colossus from scraps of information and a few photos - they succeeded and you can see this running for real at The National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park.Tony Sale also wrote a virtual version of this amazing machine in 2001, but it's tricky to get running as it was written for a very old version of Internet Explorer.To honour his memory and to make sure this code and it's story was not lost, in 2016, I rewrote a new Virtual Colossus using current browsers based on his original logic engine code and now, in 2020, a full 3D version you can walk around. My hope is that more people will get to know this incredible story about the first computer.Music by Tom Gillow - soundcloud.com/yipyapyopmusic
Tony Sale VideoPods - Colossus rebuild breaking a cipher text Virtual Colossus 2020-11-28 | Anoraks Corner by Tony Sale Video Podcasts."The Rebuild breaking a cipher text"This is a series of videos about the Colossus rebuild at TNMOC breaking the Lorenz cipher text by Tony Sale recorded on 10th August 2005. These are on his website www.codesandciphers.org.uk in Flash format which is soon to be removed from most browsers.They are reproduced here in order that they are not lost. These videos were very important to me to learn how Colossus worked in order to create the VirtualColossus simulations at virtualcolossus.co.uk
Tony Sale Breaking Lorenz Video Podcasts Virtual Colossus 2020-11-28 | Anoraks Corner by Tony Sale Video PodcastsThis is a series of videos about breaking Lorenz by Tony Sale which are on his website www.codesandciphers.org.uk in Flash format which is soon to be removed from most browsers.They are reproduced here in order that they are not lost.
Virtual Colossus 3D Tutorial : Wheel Breaking Virtual Colossus 2020-11-28 | This is a video showing how to use Virtual Colossus 3D to break the Chi wheels of a Lorenz message.Virtual Colossus 3D is a free, online simulation of the Colossus computer, the world's first electronic computer which can be found at https://virtualcolossus.co.uk. It is based on the rebuilt Colossus computer which can be seen running at The National Museum of Computing on the Bletchley Park Estate and is well worth a visit to see for real.More information on what is happening in this tutorial and a continuation to break the whole message can be found on the simulation by clicking on the How to decrypt a Lorenz message button.
Virtual Colossus 3D Promo Virtual Colossus 2020-11-14 | Colossus was the name of a series of computers developed by British codebreakers in 1943-1945 to help in the cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. After the war, the Colossus computers were destroyed and all plans and information was required to be incinerated.This is a brief overview of my fully working, browser based, 3D simulation of the world's first electronic computer.It is to be released for free at virtualcolossus.co.uk from 1st December 2020
Battleships in ALGOL 60 on Elliott 803 emulator Virtual Colossus 2020-05-02 | My first ALGOL program written in Elliott ALGOL 60 - Battleships!By the time you have the ALGOL compiler loaded, there's very little memory left so the AI is quite rudimentary but it seems to work.The Elliott 803 is a small, medium-speed transistor digital computer which was manufactured by the British company Elliott Brothers in the 1960s and uses ferrite magnetic-core memory. This version is running on an emulator written by Peter Onion who also looks after the 803B which can be seen running at The National Museum of Computing on the Bletchley Park estate.
Virtual Typex goes live Virtual Colossus 2020-03-14 | If you've ever asked the question, "If the Germans had Enigma, what did the British use to encrypt messages?" then Typex is probably the answer you're looking for.Typex were rotor based, cipher machines which were developed in the U.K. from 1934 onwards. It was based on the commercial German Enigma machine but with a few changes which were made to increase its security.They were used to send and receive messages for the British during WW2, but also due to its compatibility with Enigma, at Bletchley Park to decipher Enigma messages once the day key had been retrieved using the Bombes.Put live on typex.virtualcolossus.co.uk on 14th March 2020, 80 years to the day that the first Bombe, Victory, was delivered to Bletchley Park.
HQIBPEXEZMUG - 30th August 1941 Virtual Colossus 2018-08-30 | On 30th August 1941, a German cipher clerk sending a message using the Lorenz SZ40 cipher attachment unwittingly gave Bletchley Park access to the entire German High Command communications.This video gives an overview of what happened and how it was done.
Virtual Colossus - Breaking the Chi wheels Virtual Colossus 2018-05-15 | An instruction video on how to use Virtual Colossus to break the first five Chi wheels from a Lorenz SZ42 cipher message. This is based on scenario 1 from the website : http://virtualcolossus.co.uk
