Heath Robinson (codebreaking machine)

See also: Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher

Working replica Heath Robinson machine at The National Museum of Computing on Bletchley Park. On the right is the paper tape transport mechanism that was dubbed the "bedstead" because of a resemblance to an upended metal bed-frame.[1]

Heath Robinson was a machine used by British codebreakers at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park during World War II in cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. This achieved the decryption of messages in the German teleprinter cipher produced by the Lorenz SZ40/42 in-line cipher machine. Both the cipher and the machines were called "Tunny" by the codebreakers, who named different German teleprinter ciphers after fish. It was mainly an electro-mechanical machine, containing no more than a couple of dozen valves (vacuum tubes),[2] and was the predecessor to the electronic Colossus computer. It was dubbed "Heath Robinson" by the Wrens who operated it, after cartoonist William Heath Robinson, who drew immensely complicated mechanical devices for simple tasks, similar to (and somewhat predating) Rube Goldberg in the U.S.[3]

The functional specification of the machine was produced by Max Newman. The main engineering design was the work of Frank Morrell[4] at the Post Office Research Station at Dollis Hill in North London, with his colleague Tommy Flowers designing the "Combining Unit".[5] Dr C. E. Wynn-Williams from the Telecommunications Research Establishment at Malvern produced the high-speed electronic valve and relay counters.[5] Construction started in January 1943,[6] the prototype machine was delivered to Bletchley Park in June and was first used to help read current encrypted traffic soon afterwards.[7]

As the Robinson was a bit slow and unreliable, it was later replaced by the Colossus computer for many purposes, including the methods used against the twelve-rotor Lorenz SZ42 on-line teleprinter cipher machine (code named Tunny, for tunafish).[8][9]

  1. ^ "Robinson - The National Museum of Computing". www.tnmoc.org.
  2. ^ Copeland 2006, p. 74
  3. ^ "Artists and Inventors Inspired by Rube Goldberg". www.rube-goldberg.com.
  4. ^ Bletchley Park National Code Centre: November 1943, archived from the original on 23 October 2017, retrieved 21 November 2012
  5. ^ a b Good, Michie & Timms 1945, p. 33 in 1. Introduction: Some historical notes
  6. ^ Copeland 2006, p. 65
  7. ^ Good, Michie & Timms 1945, p. 290 in 3. Organisation: Machine Setting Organisation
  8. ^ Copeland, B. Jack; Bowen, Jonathan; Sprevak, Mark; Wilson, Robin (2017). The Turing Guide. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-874782-6.
  9. ^ Igarashi, Yoshihide; Altman, Tom; Funada, Mariko; Kamiyama, Barbara (27 May 2014). Computing: A Historical and Technical Perspective. CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4822-2741-3.