The HX cipher machine is an electromechanical, rotor-based system designed and built by Crypto AG. The machine uses nine rotors [center right] to encrypt messages.
A dual paper-tape printer is at the upper left. Growing up in New York City , I always wanted to be a spy. But when I graduated from college in January , the Cold War and Vietnam War were raging, and spying seemed like a risky career choice. So I became an electrical engineer, working on real-time spectrum analyzers for a U. I was fascinated. Some years later, I had the good fortune of visiting the huge headquarters of the cipher machine company Crypto AG CAG , in Steinhausen, Switzerland , and befriending a high-level cryptographer there.
My friend gave me an internal history of the company written by its founder, Boris Hagelin. It mentioned a cipher machine, the HX Like the Enigma, the HX was an electromechanical cipher system known as a rotor machine.
It was the only electromechanical rotor machine ever built by CAG, and it was much more advanced and secure than even the famous Enigmas. In fact, it was arguably the most secure rotor machine ever built. I longed to get my hands on one, but I doubted I ever would. Fast forward to I'm in a dingy third subbasement at a French military communications base.
Accompanied by two-star generals and communications officers, I enter a secured room filled with ancient military radios and cipher machines. I am amazed to see a Crypto AG HX, unrecognized for decades and consigned to a dusty, dimly lit shelf. I carefully extract the kilogram pound machine. There's a hand crank on the right side, enabling the machine to operate away from mains power.
