That would look nice on the living room cupboard, but you can't beat this one for glamour: http://www.tatjavanvark.nl/tvv1/pht10.html
Perhaps someone here will be able to decrypt that encoded Haiku...
For sale: an Enigma machine
21–30 of 32 posts
Re: For sale: an Enigma machine
#22One day, I'd like to have a library like Jay Walker's to add this to. He's even got a Sputnik in there, along with his Enigma.
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker...
Re: For sale: an Enigma machine
#23I hope a museum gets it, but I think it will probably go for much more than the estimate. By the way, any UK HNers should definitely try to get down to the museum at Bletchley park and the national computing museum. Geek heaven :) edit: wow, they also have the first published ENIAC patents: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?from=sal...
I went there on my last trip to the UK, and had a chance to talk to a 92 year-old gentleman who had helped build some of the machines during the war, and had been involved the project to reconstruct the Colossus machine.
There isn't the huge throng of visitors and high security like at other museums. I was able to walk behind the cordon and get a up-close view of a running Colossus machine.
It feels like a place with living history, and I highly recommend visiting!
Edit: There is no shortage of Enigma machines in museums, by the way. I know there are ones at the NSA museum, the Imperial War Museum in London, and Bletchley Park has several. If someone wants their own for home use and they can afford it, I am all in favour of that.
Re: For sale: an Enigma machine
#24Also, the next lot is even more exciting: Some offprints of Turing's papers and manuscripts, formed by Prof. Maxwell Newman, guide price 300 to 500 thousand pounds! Apparently these are extremely rare; none have appeared in auction for 35 years! http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?from=sal...
http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?from=sal... I'm surprised this hadn't had more attention here! APPLE-1 -- Personal Computer. An Apple-1 motherboard, number 82, printed label to reverse, with a few slightly later additions including a 6502 microprocessor, labeled R6502P R6502-11 8145, printed circuit board with 4 rows A-D and columns 1-18, three capacitors, heatsink, cassette board connector, 8K by…
Wow! a the Apple-1 is estimated to go for £100,000 - £150,000
I wonder if there are any artifacts from todays companies that we should be grabbing up
Re: For sale: an Enigma machine
#25I hope a museum gets it, but I think it will probably go for much more than the estimate. By the way, any UK HNers should definitely try to get down to the museum at Bletchley park and the national computing museum. Geek heaven :) edit: wow, they also have the first published ENIAC patents: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?from=sal...
Visitors might want to be a bit patient on the guided tour - largely seems a waste of time initially, with the guide talking a lot about the history of the land/park itself, and the WW2/code-breaking info being somewhat superficial. Then he takes you into the National Museum of Computing and demonstrates the machines, and sometimes lets you touch and feel as well - awesome! The guided tour ends on quite the high!
depends on the guide I guess, I've been there about 4 times (used to live just down the road, and the ticket is for a whole year!) and took the tour twice, the code-breaking content wasn't highly technical, but it was covered in a decent amount of depth I felt.
Riddle from the tour: What must you add to nine to get six? (and no, it's not -3)
Re: For sale: an Enigma machine
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?from=sal... I'm surprised this hadn't had more attention here! APPLE-1 -- Personal Computer. An Apple-1 motherboard, number 82, printed label to reverse, with a few slightly later additions including a 6502 microprocessor, labeled R6502P R6502-11 8145, printed circuit board with 4 rows A-D and columns 1-18, three capacitors, heatsink, cassette board connector, 8K by…
Wow! a the Apple-1 is estimated to go for £100,000 - £150,000 I wonder if there are any artifacts from todays companies that we should be grabbing up
Now I see why - it comes with the optional cassette interface and BASIC on a tape :)
Seriously it is an exceptional artifact: original invoice (Salesperson: STEVEN) and a typed note from Steven Jobs explaining how to hook-up a TV and keyboard: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/ZoomImage.aspx?image=/lot...
Re: For sale: an Enigma machine
#27Amazing piece of kit that would be great to own - but what would /you/ do with one?
You could probably gut it and put an Arduino inside of it that played MP3's.
With all due respect, wouldn't that be a little like upholstering your couch with the Bayeux Tapestry? While the Enigma machine isn't exactly one of a kind, it is quite rare and has a great deal of historical significance.
Re: For sale: an Enigma machine
#28Bay Area folks who've read down this far, you'll absolutely love the Computer History Museum, http://www.computerhistory.org
Re: For sale: an Enigma machine
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
You could probably gut it and put an Arduino inside of it that played MP3's.
With all due respect, wouldn't that be a little like upholstering your couch with the Bayeux Tapestry? While the Enigma machine isn't exactly one of a kind, it is quite rare and has a great deal of historical significance.
Sorry, I had a feeling the sarcasm in my initial post wouldn't fully come through :)
I probably should have gone with the steampunk-themed comment I was originally planning.
Re: For sale: an Enigma machine
#30Also, the next lot is even more exciting: Some offprints of Turing's papers and manuscripts, formed by Prof. Maxwell Newman, guide price 300 to 500 thousand pounds! Apparently these are extremely rare; none have appeared in auction for 35 years! http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?from=sal...
There's a fundraising drive trying to get together the money so Bletchley Park, the museum dedicated to the work of Turing and the other codebreakers at Station X during the war, can buy the offprints and keep them for public display.
More info: http://www.justgiving.com/turing-papers/