Bletchley Park rebuilds the bombes — code crackers that won the war

Make Blog has a great roundup of links and coverage for the opening of Bletchley Park's recreation of the Polish "bombe" code-cracking devices that were instrumental in breaking the German Enigma cipher in World War II. Bletchley's curators gathered all the surviving scientists from the original effort to lead the project, and the result is beautiful and inspiring.

Bletchley Park is a national treasure. Every visitor to Britain should go.


During World War II, British brainiacs helped save their country and defeat the Nazis. Recently, the equipment they used has been rebuilt and the surviving members got together for a reunion.

The rebuild project appears to be a maker's delight: code, electronics, old-school manufacturing, and rapid prototyping all wrapped up in a world-changing quest to win the war.

Code cracker remade