The bomba, or bomba kryptologiczna, was a special-purpose machine designed around October 1938 by Polish Cipher Bureau cryptologist Marian Rejewski to break German Enigma-machine ciphers.
Diagram of Rejewski's cryptologic bomb. For clarity, only one set of three rotors is shown (1); in reality, there were six such sets. An electric motor (2) turns the rotors. 3: Switches.
Enigma's plugboard, with two cables connected (ten were used during World War II). This enhancement greatly increased the system's security.
The Cipher Bureau was the interwar Polish General Staff's Second Department's unit charged with SIGINT and both cryptography and cryptanalysis.
General Staff building (Saxon Palace), destroyed in World War II. The arcade still shelters Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, before which stood Thorvaldsen's equestrian statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski. In this building, from 1932, the Cipher Bureau broke the German plugboard military Enigma.
Enigma, an electro-mechanical rotor machine with scrambler comprising entry drum, three rotors, and reflector. This military model also has a plugboard.
Marian Rejewski when he first reconstructed Enigma
A Zygalski perforated sheet (1938)
