How The Enigma Machine Worked

The Enigma Machine worked by having the user press a letter on a QWERTY keyboard, for example, the letter "A", then, The machine would take that electrical signal from the press and bring it to (usually) three sets of wheels, each numbered. The electrical signal is then carried through these wheels, the number determining what wires would cross with what other wires, this is repeated for the other wheels as well, the wheels also rotated when a letter is pressed this is then brought to a separate letter on a board of letters with light behind them, this letter would then light up, so let’s just say it lit up “N”. There is also an addon that would switch two letters called a switchboard. In addition to this, some machines, like the Swiss-K, had reflectors that could be set to the same positions as other rotors, the only difference is that the reflector is not affected by stepping. All rotors also had ring settings that essentially acted as a hidden way of changing the way the rotors worked. Finally, all rotors except the reflector can be repositioned so that the rotor order could go, "3, 1, 2" instead of the basic order of, "1, 2, 3." These mechanisms ensured that the machine had to be in the same state as when the message was encoded, to decode it. This was incredibly hard to crack, and usually, the Germans had different switchboard positions, or "keys" for different days.