Definition

Morse code
Morse code is a method of sending text messages by keying in a series of electronic pulses,
usually represented as a short pulse (called a "dot") and a long pulse (a "dash"). The code was
devised by Samuel F. B. Morse in the 1840s to work with his invention of the telegraph, the
first invention to effectively exploit electromagnetism for long-distance communication. The
early telegrapher, often one who was at a railroad station interconnected with others along
miles of telegraph pole lines, would tap a key up and down to send a succession of characters
that the receiving telegrapher could read from tape (later operators learned to read the
transmissions simply by listening). In the original version, the key down separated by a pause
(key up) from the next letter was a dot (or, as it sounded to the telegrapher, a "dit") and the
key down quickly twice in succession was a dash (a "dah" or "dit-dit"). Each text character
was represented by a dot, dash, or some combination.
In the late 1800s, as new keying technology became prevalent, a somewhat different
representation of dots and dashes was used for certain letters in what became known as the
International Morse Code or Continental Code. American Morse code, however, continued to
be used in the U.S. into the 1960s.
There are various stories concerning how the Morse code was originally developed.
According to one account, Samuel Morse went to a printer's shop and counted the amount of
printer type the printer had for each letter of the alphabet. He then interpreted these counts as
approximations of the relative frequency of each letter in typical English text. He organized
the Morse code so that the shortest symbols were associated with the most frequent
characters. Thus, for example, E and T, the most often-used letters in the English language,
were represented by a single dot and single dash, respectively. The least frequently occurring
letters, such as J and Y, and numerals and punctuation marks were given longer and more
complex representations. No differentiation was made for uppercase and lowercase.
Morse code offers a slow but reliable means of transmitting and receiving wireless text
messages through conditions involving noise, fading, or interference. This is primarily
because its simple binary code (key down or key up) allows for an extremely narrow
bandwidth. In addition, the human ear and brain make a remarkably good digital receiving
device. Nowadays, Morse code is used to a limited extent by amateur radio operators,
landline telegraphers, and military radio operators.
Enigma machine
Arthur Scherbius, a German engineer, developed his 'Enigma' machine, capable of
transcribing coded information, in the hope of interesting commercial companies in secure
communications. In 1923 he set up his Chiffriermaschinen Aktiengesellschaft (Cipher
Machines Corporation) in Berlin to manufacture his product. Within three years the German
navy was producing its own version, followed by the army in 1928 and the air force in 1933.
Enigma allowed an operator to type in a message, then scramble it by using three to five
notched wheels, or rotors, which displayed different letters of the alphabet. The receiver

needed to know the exact settings of these rotors in order to reconstitute the coded text. Over
the years the basic machine became more complicated as German code experts added plugs
with electronic circuits.
Britain and her allies first understood the problems posed by this machine in 1931, when
Hans Thilo Schmidt, a German spy, allowed his French spymasters to photograph stolen
Enigma operating manuals. Initially, however, neither French nor British cryptanalysts could
make headway in breaking the Enigma cipher.
It was only after they had handed over details to the Polish Cipher Bureau that progress was
made. Helped by its closer links to the German engineering industry, the Poles managed to
reconstruct an Enigma machine, complete with internal wiring, to read the German forces
messages between 1933 and 1938.
Ultra intelligence
With German invasion imminent in 1939, the Poles opted to share their secrets with the
British, and Britain's Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park,
Buckinghamshire, became the centre for Allied efforts to keep up with dramatic war-induced
changes in Enigma output.
Top mathematicians and general problem-solvers were recruited and a bank of early
computers, known as 'bombes', was built to work out the Enigmas vast number of settings.
TThe Germans were convinced that Enigma output could not be broken, so they used the
machine for all sorts of communications on the battlefield, at sea, in the sky and,
significantly, within its secret services. The British described any intelligence gained from
Enigma as 'Ultra', and considered it top secret.
Only a select few commanders were made aware of the full significance of Ultra, and used it
sparingly to prevent the Germans realising their ciphers had been broken.
Breaking ENIGMA
In the early years of WWII, Alan Turing worked at Britains code breaking headquarters in
Bletchley Park. In addition to mathematicians, Bletchley Park also recruited linguists and
chess champions, and attracted talent by approaching winners of a complex crossword puzzle
tournament held by The Daily Telegraph.
Turings mathematical and logic skills made him a natural cryptanalyst. Whereas
cryptographers write encryption systems, and cryptologists study them, cryptanalysts like
Turing break them. In 1939, Turing created a method called the bombe, an
electromechanical device that could detect the settings for ENIGMA, allowing the Allied
powers to decipher German encryptions. Turing and his colleagues were also able to break
the more complicated Naval ENIGMA system, which from 1941-1943 helped the Allies
avoid German U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic.

Poland was actually the first to realize that the solution to breaking ENIGMA would most
likely be discovered by a mathematician. Polish cryptanalysts as early as 1932 could decode
German ciphers and, by 1939, they were able to successfully decipher messages written with
an earlier version of ENIGMA using a replica machine like the bombe that could emulate
the way ENIGMA worked. When Poland was overrun by Germany in September 1939, the
Polish as well as French cryptanalysts shared what they knew about ENIGMA with the UK,
which allowed the cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park, including Turing, to finally crack the
ENIGMA ciphers.
Once the German messages were decrypted, the British began supplying the Office of
Strategic Services (OSS, precursor to CIA) with extensive information about foreign military,
espionage, and sabotage activities. The most sensitive intelligence came from ULTRAthe
code name applied to all intel coming from Bletchley Park, including the intercepts of
German military messages sent with the ENIGMA machine. Because of the volume of the
traffic and the overriding need for compartmentalization, the British insisted that the OSS set
up a separate, extra-secure component to handle the material.
Purple Code
Purple was a cipher used by Japan during World War Two to code diplomatic messages to
various embassies throughout the world. The United States worked solely to untangle and
decipher the super-enciphered signals they intercepted from the Japanese. Once the United
States had created a "shadow machine", a Purple machine of their own, they were soon after
able to decode the various messages they intercepted. These signals gave them an abundance
of important information concerning Japan's plans for war and their scheduled locations of
attack, however, the signals didn't carry any information about the attack on Pearl Harbor, at
least none that was interpreted in that way. Thus Japan used other codes to transmit messages
as well, and the interest in Purple had drawn away all concern for decoding the intercepted
messages not transmitted in other ciphers. Because of this, the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor was inevitable. After the attack, decoding measures on all intercepted codes no matter
what the cipher, were heightened and increased. Once war was declared, the United States
continued to use the intercepted information to figure out where the Japanese fleet was
stationed, headed and set to attack. As a result, the United States surprised Japan at Midway
and American victory there proved to be very decisive and boosted American morale.
Throughout the war, the United States made various surprise attacks on Japan due to the
knowledge they had from Purple ciphers. This ended though, when Japan stopped using
Purple in 1943.