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Mercury was a British cipher machine used by the Air Ministry from 1950 until at least the early 1960s. Mercury was an online rotor machine descended from Typex, but modified to achieve a longer cycle length using a so-called ''double-drum basket'' system. == History == Mercury was designed by Wing Commander E. W. Smith and F. Rudd, who were awarded £2,250 and £750 respectively in 1960 for their work in the design of the machine. E. W. Smith, one of the developers of TypeX, had designed the double-drum basket system in 1943, on his own initiative, to fulfil the need for an on-line system. Mercury prototypes were operational by 1948, and the machine was in use by 1950. Over 200 Mercury machines had been made by 1959 with over £250,000 spent on its production. Mercury links were installed between the UK and various Overseas stations, including in Canada, Australia, Singapore, Cyprus, Germany, France, Middle East, Washington, Nairobi and Colombo. The machine was used for UK diplomatic messaging for more or less a decade, but saw almost no military use. In 1960, it was anticipated that the machine would remain in use until 1963, when it would be made obsolete by the arrival of BID 610 (Alvis) equipment. A miniaturised version of Mercury was designed, named Ariel, but this machine appears not to have been adopted for operational use. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mercury (cipher machine)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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