Plugboard

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This article is about plug boards in cipher machines. For other uses, see plug board.

In cryptography, a plugboard (sometimes stecker or comutator) was a component of certain rotor machines, including some Enigma models, that exchanged letters of the alphabet, thereby increasing the key size of the resulting cipher.

The plugboard (Steckerbrett) is positioned at the front of the machine, below the keys. When in use, there can be up to 13 connections. In the above photograph, two pairs of letters are swapped (S-O and J-A).
The plugboard (Steckerbrett) is positioned at the front of the machine, below the keys. When in use, there can be up to 13 connections. In the above photograph, two pairs of letters are swapped (S-O and J-A).

[edit] References

  • Władysław Kozaczuk, Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher Was Broken, and How It Was Read by the Allies in World War Two, edited and translated by Christopher Kasparek, Frederick, MD, University Publications of America, 1984, pp. 237, 250 et passim.


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