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Improved printing Enigma
Enigma B was a so-called Schreibende Enigma (Printing Enigma),
which means that it prints its output directly onto paper.
The machine was developed in 1924 as the successor
to the Enigma A (1923).
Unlike the Enigma A, which featured a rotating print head, it featured
Typenhebel (type bars).
Rotating print heads had proven to be unreliable at high speeds and type bars
were already used widely in common typewriters.
In 1926 an improved version of the Enigma B was released.
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The Enigma B was first developed in 1924 and was a nicely finished machine.
The image on the right shows the Enigma B as seen from the top. It features
a rather large keyboard with the standard alphabet (A-Z), numbers (0-9) and
punctuation marks (comma, slash, plus, etc.).
The machine is mounted on top of a tick metal base which contains the
electro-mechanical parts that cause a letter to be printed on the paper.
The typebars and the carriage were probably 'borrowed' from a standard
typewriter.
At the bottom is a wide (black) spacebar. To the left of the
space bar is the numbers shift, which needed to be pressed before entering
numbers or punctuation marks. Pressing this key, automatically inserts a
space in the text.
To the right of the space bar is the letter-key that had to be pressed
before entering letters again. When pressed, it also produced a space.
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The coding wheels had only 26 contacts, so only the letters A-Z were included
in the coded message. A clever system for switching between alphabets was used,
such as the one described in patent DE425566
of 28 February 1924. In the patent, inventor Paul Bernstein describes a system
to use the letters 'J' and 'Q' for switching to numbers and vice versa.
In the output, the 'J' is replaced by an 'I' and the 'Q' is replaced by a 'K',
so that the text is still comprehensible.
The machine looks like a standard typewriter with a large extention on the right.
The current message key can be set with a series of knobs on the right side
of the machine. The current settings, consisting of 4 letters and 5 numbers,
can be read from a window at the front of the large extension.
The actual coding parts are mostly hidden behind the machine's front cover.
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The two photographs on this page came with a description of the
machine in 1926 and were found in the archives of the FRA in Sweden [1].
The image at the top has been published before, but the one on the right
is rather unique as it shows the Enigma B from a different angle,
with the front cover removed, revealing the actual coding wheels.
Click the image for a closer look.
The Enigma B was very heavy and was therefore generally mounted on a sturdy
table or a metal supporting frame, such as the one shown here.
Both above images are courtesy FRA Sweden [1].
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Enigma B was first developed in 1924 and faced many production and
reliability problems [2]. Two years later, in 1926, an improved version was
introduced. The differences between the two variants are currently unknown,
but it is likely that their physical appearance was largely identical.
It is not known how many Enigma B machines were produced, but given its
rather high price (approx. RM 8000) we assume that only a modest
quantity was ever produced.
In 1929, the Enigma B was succeeded by the Enigma H;
the last of the printing Enigma machines.
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At present, no further information about the Enigma B is available.
If you have any information that is not already on this page,
please contact us. We would also like to know whether any
Enigma B models have survived, so that they can be researched further.
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© Copyright 2009-2013, Paul Reuvers & Marc Simons. Last changed: Saturday, 08 February 2014 - 13:52 CET
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![Top view of Enigma B. Photo courtesy FRA [1].](img/b_003_full.jpg "Top view of Enigma B. Photo courtesy FRA [1].")
![Typical Enigma B mounted on supporting table. Photo courtesy FRA [1].](img/b_004_full.jpg "Typical Enigma B mounted on supporting table. Photo courtesy FRA [1].")
