Arthur Scherbius
Scherbius’s Enigma work is a major part of the history of machine cryptography. It provides essential context for the later cryptanalytic campaigns against Enigma, without conflating the machine’s inventor with those campaigns.
Arthur Scherbius was a German electrical engineer and cryptologist associated with the design and development of the Enigma cipher machine. His rotor-machine work helped make mechanized encipherment a practical commercial and, later, military technology.
Enigma in context
Enigma’s later military use and the Allied cryptanalysis of its traffic are separate historical chapters. This profile concerns Scherbius’s role in the machine’s development and patent era.
In memoriam
Scherbius died in 1929. The surviving machines and museum collections preserve the material history of his work.
Timeline
- 1878-10-30Born in Frankfurt, Germany.
- 1918Patents a rotor cipher-machine design associated with Enigma.
- 1923Presents the Enigma machine commercially at the International Postal Congress in Bern.
- 1929-05-13Dies in Berlin, Germany.
Arthur Scherbius
- Type
- Person
- Era
- 1918-1929
- Born
- 1878
- Died
- 1929
- Known for
- cryptography; rotor machines; enigma; electrical engineering
- Tags
- cryptography, rotor machines, enigma, electrical engineering
Created by Joas A Santos · Something wrong or want it removed? Open an issue.