The Hebern
Code Machine

Patents:


Patent Drawing 1,683,072.

I am grateful to David Kahn, Larry Monroe and Mark Sims in helping to assemble this information.
Please forward comments to: gessler@ucla.edu

 

 

Hebern Electric Code, Oakland.
1925-1926 US Navy 2 $600 each ?
1925-1926 US Army 2 $500 each ?
1925-1926 Pacific Steamship Co. 7 $120 each *Hypothetically acquired by Hugh? 1-rotor
1925-1926 Italian Government     ?
1925-1926 British Admiralty 2*? *Hypothetically acquired by Hugh? 1-rotor*?
International Code Machine Company, Reno.
1928 US Navy 4 $750 each + $20 per rotor 5-rotor
1931 US Navy 31 $54,480 for all 5-rotor
1934 US Navy 1 Rejected.  
Information from David Kahn's, THE CODEBREAKERS.

 

"Known" Hebern machines, in order of complexity:

1917 single-rotor machine. National Cryptological Museum, National Security Agency, Washington D.C.

Single-rotor machine with serial number 5 owned by Larry Monroe, Davis, California. Front. Side.

Recently discovered single-rotor machine with company logo and serial number 6 as pictured below-left, owned by Mark Sims.

Recently discovered single-rotor machine without any logo or serial number as pictured below-right, owned by Nicholas Gessler.

Three-rotor machine owned by Richard Brisson a.k.a. "Hagelin." A closeup and a rotor image. Richard's website.

Five-rotor machine. National Cryptologic Museum, photographed by Richard Brisson a.k.a. "Hagelin." Richard's website.

Five-rotor machine at the Smithsonian. The fifth rotor (at the left) looks like a dummy.

Five-rotor machine illustrated at Wikipedia.

Five-rotor machine in National Cryptological Museum, National Security Agency, Washington D.C. from the collection of David Kahn.

Five-rotor machine in National Cryptological Museum, National Security Agency, Washington D.C. from the collection of David Kahn.

Five-rotor machine attached to a five-level paper tape punch and reader in National Cryptological Museum, National Security Agency, Washington D.C.

Engineering drawings in National Cryptological Museum, National Security Agency, Washington D.C. from the collection of David Kahn.
Two captured by the Japanese according to Kahn.
Two captured by the Japanese according to Kahn.
Other Useful Links:
"Electrical Machine Can Make Eleven Million Codes," Popular Mechaincs Magazine, XXXVIII, December 1922, pp. 849-850. "A Brief History of Communications Intelligence in the United States," by Laurance F.Safford.
Pacific Steamship Company Records, Claremont, CA. Scientific American, July 1996. Article by David Kahn.
Pacific Steamship Company brochure.  

 

Hebern Machines from the Estate of Hugh Martin Lewis

Two Hebern machines surfaced in Freemont, California, in July 2004 from the estate of Hugh Martin Lewis. A "sparker" (radio operator) in the Royal Navy, Lewis served in Britain through 1920, in New Zealand in 1921, visited the US in 1922 and later settled there and began a business as an "Electrician, Mechanician and Scientific Instrument Maker." The presence of these two machines in his estate, the chronology provided by the photographs and other objects from his estate shown below, and the chronology provided by David Kahn, suggests that these two machines may be the ones Kahn notes as having been delivered to the British Admiralty for evaluation from 1925 to 1926. However, why would the military be interested in single-rotor machines? Alternatively, he could have acquired them from the Pacific Steamship Company or directly from the inventor.


Machine with #6 and Company Logo.
No rotor number.
In the Sims collection.

HEBERN ELECTRIC CODE
25-BROADWAY NEW YORK
U.S.A.

72 U.S. &
FOREIGN PATENTS


Machine without # or Company Logo.
Rotor number 5.
In the Gessler collection.

Note the difference in the screw patterns
on the lamp board and
the white line across the rotor housing.

 

35mm film strip, cinematic format, with 20 trigraph/plaintext code equivalents (left). Composite closeup of the 20 entries (right).
Are these code names for bases, stations or ships?


Royal Navy Air Service (RNAS) dogtag. The RNAS was established in 1914 and along with the Royal Flying Corps became the Royal Air Force in 1918. RNAS Dogtag, Petty Officer, Wireless Operator and other tags on ring.


Bookstamps displaying crown, eagle, signal flags and heliograph - a likely cipher for the signal corps.

Knights of the Golden Eagle with its creed, "Fraternity, Valor, Honor," was established in Baltimore in 1873.

The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was established in 1912 and along with the Royal Navy Air Service became the Royal Air Force in 1918.
There are no notations on the following negatives.



xxx




Her Magesty's Motor Launch (HMML) #10 in 1918. Ordered by the British Admiralty through Canadian Vickers as anti-submarine vessels in 1915 and built by Elco in Bayonne, New Jersey, the crew complement was eight (source).

On the back of the photograph at left are notations on the crew. Hugh (last entry) is listed as "Sparker" (radio and telegraph operator).

Hugh at 56B Intercept Station GFA, Kidbrooke in 1919.

Notation on the back of the photograph at left.

J. Robinson at 56B Intercept Station GFA, Kidbrooke in 1919.

Notation on the back of the photograph at left.
   

Hugh's wife, Enid Gwendolyn, in 1919.


Receiver identification plate.


Wireless operator's tag.

Whitehall in 1920.

Notation on the back of the photograph at left.

Wellington, New Zealand in 1921.

Notation on the back of the photograph at left.

Hugh, his wife Enid and their son Rees age one year on trip to US from New Zealand in 1923.

Notation on the back of the photograph at left.


Hugh's bug key #5 built in 1925.


Hugh's amplifier built in 1926.

California Drivers License establishing Hugh's year of birth in 1897 and US residence in 1929.

Business card at some time after settling in Berkeley (no date).

Rotor #5 on Nick Gessler's machine.

The actual rotor.

The wiring is reciprocal.


Enter plaintext and you get ciphertext.

Enter ciphertext and you get plaintext.
   
Left contact connects to rotor marking...
Rotor Marking
Right contact connects to rotor marking...
I
5
I
D
Y
D
G
X
G
R
W
R
H
V
H
A
U
A
L
T
L
Q
S
Q
W
R
W
S
Q
S
M
P
M
J
O
J
B
N
B
P
M
P
T
L
T
C
K
C
O
J
O
5
I
5
V
H
V
X
G
X
E
F
E
F
E
F
Y
D
Y
K
C
K
N
B
N
U
A
U

 
Rotor sequence on both Nick Gessler's and Mark Sim's machines.
 
 
Placing the rotor in position "A" and repeatedly pressing the "A" key gives the following sequence:
  
 
Z B J M J - V I S X M - F D Y V C - I U O F R - V R G O S - F
  

     
 

Wanted:
Vintage 1920s Eveready Maza "flat-top" bulbs for the single-rotor machines: