Nazi codes and cash registers

[Charlie in Dayton]

Check the listings for your local PBS outlet for the next month or so...

"Dayton Codebreakers" is the story of the work done here in Dayton at National Cash Register (NCR) in the development of the machinery that eventually was instrumental in breaking the German codes generated by the Enigma coding machine. This is a story that has not been publicized much before this, and the production was organized and written by the daughter of the man who spearheaded the project.

Several of the buildings noted in photos in the show still exist.

There is a historical monument on the corner of East Stewart St and Patterson Boulevard, noting what happened in the building that's still there, behind the fencing and a modern facade.

This is particularly interesting to me for several reasons...the world history, the national history, the local history...and the fact that as I type this, I'm about half a mile from these places that were so vital in the intelligence workings of WW II.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Not showing up in my TiVo list yet. Would it be listed under that title, or is it an episode of Nova or American Experience or something like that?

[Charlie in Dayton]

It's a local production from channel 16 here in Dayton. Joe Desch's daughter has been putting this together for a number of years now -- there's been a series that ran in the local papers, and I've seen her presentation twice now. Extremely interesting.

Someone over on the BABB came up with a website from the National Security Agency that tells the story. It's a great read. (http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00016.cfm)

[Charlie in Dayton]

...oops...forgot to answer the question...

Yes, the name of the program is "Dayton Codebreakers". Again, not sure if it's gonna make the national PBS schedule...but I hope it does...

[Matabiri]

Is Dayton the American equivalent of Bletchley Park?

[geni]

Originally posted by Matabiri
Is Dayton the American equivalent of Bletchley Park?

No The closest equivetlent would be magic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_%28cryptography%29) which due to it's lower level of complexity did not requre a Bletchley Park stlye operation

[drkitten]

Originally posted by Matabiri
Is Dayton the American equivalent of Bletchley Park?

Dayton is the city where the codebreaking machines were built. In fact, I believe that most of the second-generation bombes that were used at Bletchley were actually built at the NCR plant in Dayton and shipped across the Pond.

I believe that the closest American equivalent to Bletchley Park would have been OP-20-G, the Washington-based group responsible for breaking Japanese naval codes Unlike the Germans, the Japanese didn't have a single centralized code (like Enigma) that was used by all branches of the military, so there was never a single centralized code-breaking agency. I'm not entirely convinced that PURPLE was that much an easier cypher to break than was Enigma, especially since the machines themselves were so similar. But PURPLE was used on a much more limited basis, and as such didn't require the centralization of Bletchley to break.

[kedo1981]

Not to derail the topic, but as a Dayton Native myself I’ve often wonder why so many world altering innovations have come from this region (not just Dayton but the whole of Ohio it seems).
The state seems to have a history of not just invention (making a do-hicky work better with a thing-a-ma-bob) but spawning entire industries; little one horse towns, not with one published writer but dozens of world class authors and artists (Yellow Springs)
Whats up with that

[richardm]

Originally posted by new drkitten
Dayton is the city where the codebreaking machines were built. In fact, I believe that most of the second-generation bombes that were used at Bletchley were actually built at the NCR plant in Dayton and shipped across the Pond.


I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of the bombes used at Bletchley Park were built by the British Tabulating Machine Co. (licensed from the original punched card machine manufacturer founded by Hollerith in the USA which eventually became IBM :) BTM went on to be ICL eventually.)

There were some US Navy bombes that had a radically different design, although they worked on the same basic principle. Can't remember much about them now or how many were used at Station X, Google can probably help.

[Charlie in Dayton]

Originally posted by kedo1981
Not to derail the topic, but as a Dayton Native myself I’ve often wonder why so many world altering innovations have come from this region (not just Dayton but the whole of Ohio it seems).
The state seems to have a history of not just invention (making a do-hicky work better with a thing-a-ma-bob) but spawning entire industries; little one horse towns, not with one published writer but dozens of world class authors and artists (Yellow Springs)
Whats up with that

It's a marvelous question, why it is that the Greater Dayton area has been such a hotbed of mechanical and intellectual innovation...the Wright brothers and the airplane...the stepladder...John Patterson and National Cash Register (NCR)...leaded gasoline (although eventually found to be a polluter, leaded gasoline was what was needed to begin the development of high-compression i.e. high-performance internal combustion engines)...the electric starter...the pop-top can...Paul Laurence Dunbar...and literally hundreds of others...

Some inventions chain off others. A large number of automotive innovations came from Delco (now ACDelco -- the original name came from the D(ayton) E(lectrical) L(aboratories) CO(mpany)). The cash register eventually morphed into counting machines and then to computers (Google for IBM, and see where the company founder got his start in the business world). And of course, intellectuals tend to flock together (like we do) -- so they'd naturally seek each other out.

The world has benefitted from the developments that were born here on the banks of the Miami River...just think how different it'd all be without a few of the above innovations.

[kedo1981]

I’ve always thought that the combination of natural resources and a influx of people with a strong work ethic and “a spirit� of unconventionality was a major part.
I don’t want sound all “woo woo� but the whole region may act like a creative muse.

The “native� tribes felt that the iron rich springs like in Yellow Springs or Bellbrook were “sacred, healing, whatever� (of course that might just be some made up BS on the San Souche spa pamphlet).

Of course more than likely it was just that one person who for no reason other than his horse went lame on the banks of the Ohio and had to make due, started a “pottery� business or a blacksmith shop or whatever, got a good economic environment going, making the City an attractive place for Patterson to setup shop and start spreading decent jobs (and money) around, thus causing the Wright boys to want to open a bike shop in town and gave them time to tinker around with this silly flying idea of theirs, thus making the US military open a major base in the middle of it all, all culminating with me writing one big assed run-on sentence.