Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park (BP) is a site located in the town of Bletchley, in Milton Keynes, England. During World War II, Bletchley Park was the location of the United Kingdom's efforts to break ciphers, including those of the Enigma and Lorenz machine used by Nazi Germany. The intelligence produced by Bletchley Park, codenamed ULTRA, has been credited with hastening the end of World War II.

Cryptanalysis

Among the famous mathematicians and cryptanalysts working there, perhaps the most influential and certainly the best-known in later years was Alan Turing. In 1943, the Colossus, the world's first programmable digital electronic computer, was designed at Bletchley Park by Max Newman and his team. The computer was designed and built to help break the Fish Cyphers, in particular the Lorenz cipher. Tommy Flowers of the British Post Office, whose crew actually built the computer(s) at its Dollis Hill facility, is said to have been the biggest influence on the building of an electronic computer, as he introduced the electronic valve - a device considered too unreliable until its use in the Colossus.

Related Topics:
Mathematician - Cryptanalyst - Alan Turing - 1943 - Colossus - Max Newman - Fish Cyphers - Lorenz cipher - Tommy Flowers - British Post Office - Dollis Hill - Electronic valve

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It is thought that at the height of the codebreaking efforts during the war, more than 10,000 people worked at Bletchley Park. They were selected for various intellectual achievements, whether they were chess champions, crossword experts, polyglots or great mathematicians. Some of them are said to have completed a five-year course in Japanese in just six months.

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The Bletchley Park effort was comparable in influence to other WWII-era technological efforts, such as the crytographic work at Arlington Hall, the Naval Communications Annex (both in Washington, DC, and both in commandeered private girls' schools), the development of sophisticated microwave radar at MIT's Radiation Lab, and the Manhattan Project's development of nuclear weapons.

Related Topics:
Arlington Hall - Naval Communications Annex - Radar - MIT - Radiation Lab - Manhattan Project - Nuclear weapon

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