Feb 6, 2025 09:37 PM
(This post was last modified: Feb 6, 2025 09:56 PM by C C.)
https://spectrum.ieee.org/alan-turings-delilah
EXCERPT: During the war, Turing realized that cryptology’s new frontier was going to be the encryption of speech. The existing wartime cipher machines—such as the Japanese “ Purple” machine, the British Typex, and the Germans’ famous Enigma and teletypewriter-based SZ42—were all for encrypting typewritten text. Text, though, is scarcely the most convenient way for commanders to communicate, and secure voice communication was on the military wish list.
Bell Labs’ pioneering SIGSALY speech-encryption system was constructed in New York City, under a U.S. Army contract, during 1942 and 1943. It was gigantic, weighing over 50 thousand kilograms and filling a room. Turing was familiar with SIGSALY and wanted to miniaturize speech encryption. The result, Delilah, consisted of three small units, each roughly the size of a shoebox. Weighing just 39 kg, including its power pack, Delilah would be at home in a truck, a trench, or a large backpack.
In 1943, Turing set up bench space in a Nissen hut and worked on Delilah in secret. The hut was at Hanslope Park, a military-run establishment in the middle of nowhere, England. Today, Hanslope Park is still an ultrasecret intelligence site known as His Majesty’s Government Communications Centre. In the Turing tradition, HMGCC engineers supply today’s British intelligence agents with specialized hardware and software.
Turing seems to have enjoyed the two years he spent at Hanslope Park working on Delilah. He made an old cottage his home and took meals in the Army mess. The commanding officer recalled that he “soon settled down and became one of us.” In 1944, Turing acquired his young assistant, Bayley, who had recently graduated from the University of Birmingham with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. The two became good friends, working together on Delilah until the autumn of 1945. Bayley called Turing simply “Prof,” as everyone did in the Bletchley-Hanslope orbit.
“I admired the originality of his mind,” Bayley told me when I interviewed him in the 1990s. “He taught me a great deal, for which I have always been grateful.”
In return, Bayley taught Turing bench skills. When he first arrived at Hanslope Park, Bayley found Turing wiring together circuits that resembled a “spider’s nest,” he said. He took Turing firmly by the hand and dragged him through breadboarding boot camp.
Alan Turing and his assistant Donald Bayley created this working prototype of their voice-encryption system, called Delilah.The National Archives, London
A year later, as the European war ground to a close, Turing and Bayley got a prototype system up and running. This “did all that could be expected of it,” Bayley said. He described the Delilah system as “one of the first to be based on rigorous cryptographic principles.” (MORE - missing details)
Alan Turing's "Delilah" project ... https://youtu.be/GA8RlkPXTcA
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/GA8RlkPXTcA
EXCERPT: During the war, Turing realized that cryptology’s new frontier was going to be the encryption of speech. The existing wartime cipher machines—such as the Japanese “ Purple” machine, the British Typex, and the Germans’ famous Enigma and teletypewriter-based SZ42—were all for encrypting typewritten text. Text, though, is scarcely the most convenient way for commanders to communicate, and secure voice communication was on the military wish list.
Bell Labs’ pioneering SIGSALY speech-encryption system was constructed in New York City, under a U.S. Army contract, during 1942 and 1943. It was gigantic, weighing over 50 thousand kilograms and filling a room. Turing was familiar with SIGSALY and wanted to miniaturize speech encryption. The result, Delilah, consisted of three small units, each roughly the size of a shoebox. Weighing just 39 kg, including its power pack, Delilah would be at home in a truck, a trench, or a large backpack.
In 1943, Turing set up bench space in a Nissen hut and worked on Delilah in secret. The hut was at Hanslope Park, a military-run establishment in the middle of nowhere, England. Today, Hanslope Park is still an ultrasecret intelligence site known as His Majesty’s Government Communications Centre. In the Turing tradition, HMGCC engineers supply today’s British intelligence agents with specialized hardware and software.
Turing seems to have enjoyed the two years he spent at Hanslope Park working on Delilah. He made an old cottage his home and took meals in the Army mess. The commanding officer recalled that he “soon settled down and became one of us.” In 1944, Turing acquired his young assistant, Bayley, who had recently graduated from the University of Birmingham with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. The two became good friends, working together on Delilah until the autumn of 1945. Bayley called Turing simply “Prof,” as everyone did in the Bletchley-Hanslope orbit.
“I admired the originality of his mind,” Bayley told me when I interviewed him in the 1990s. “He taught me a great deal, for which I have always been grateful.”
In return, Bayley taught Turing bench skills. When he first arrived at Hanslope Park, Bayley found Turing wiring together circuits that resembled a “spider’s nest,” he said. He took Turing firmly by the hand and dragged him through breadboarding boot camp.
Alan Turing and his assistant Donald Bayley created this working prototype of their voice-encryption system, called Delilah.The National Archives, London
A year later, as the European war ground to a close, Turing and Bayley got a prototype system up and running. This “did all that could be expected of it,” Bayley said. He described the Delilah system as “one of the first to be based on rigorous cryptographic principles.” (MORE - missing details)
Alan Turing's "Delilah" project ... https://youtu.be/GA8RlkPXTcA