Tutte's Statistical Method
The basis of the method that the Heath Robinson machine implemented was Bill Tutte's "1+2 technique". This involved examining two of the five impulses from the characters of the ciphertext tape and combining them with the same two impulses of part of the key as generated by the chi wheels of the Lorenz machine. This involved reading two long loops of paper tape, one containing the ciphertext and the other the chi component of the key. By making the effective lengths of the two tapes co-prime with each other, all possible start positions of the key sequence were tried, and counts made.
Read more about this topic: Heath Robinson (codebreaking Machine)
Famous quotes containing the word method:
“Frankly, I adore your catchy slogan, “Adoption, not Abortion,” although no one has been able to figure out, even with expert counseling, how to use adoption as a method of birth control, or at what time of the month it is most effective.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)