Hugo Koch
Encyclopedia
Hugo Alexander Koch was a Dutch
inventor who conceived of and patented an idea for machine encryption
— the rotor machine
, although he was not the first to do so. He is sometimes erroneously credited as the originator of the Enigma machine
, although this has been shown to be the work of German engineer Arthur Scherbius
.
Koch filed for his rotor machine patent on 7 October 1919, and was granted Netherlands patent 10,700 (equivalent to ), held by Naamloze Vennootschap Ingenieursbureau Securitas in Amsterdam. No machine was built from his patents, and, in 1927, he assigned the rights to Arthur Scherbius, the inventor of the Enigma machine. Scherbius had developed the idea of rotor machine encryption independently from Koch, and had filed for his own patent in 1918. Bauer (1999) writes that Scherbius bought Koch's patents "obviously not because he did not own patents before; presumably he wanted to protect his patents".
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
inventor who conceived of and patented an idea for machine encryption
Encryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
— the rotor machine
Rotor machine
In cryptography, a rotor machine is an electro-mechanical device used for encrypting and decrypting secret messages. Rotor machines were the cryptographic state-of-the-art for a prominent period of history; they were in widespread use in the 1920s–1970s...
, although he was not the first to do so. He is sometimes erroneously credited as the originator of the Enigma machine
Enigma machine
An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
, although this has been shown to be the work of German engineer Arthur Scherbius
Arthur Scherbius
Arthur Scherbius was a German electrical engineer who patented an invention for a mechanical cipher machine, later sold as the Enigma machine.Scherbius was born in Frankfurt am Main and his father was a small businessman...
.
Koch filed for his rotor machine patent on 7 October 1919, and was granted Netherlands patent 10,700 (equivalent to ), held by Naamloze Vennootschap Ingenieursbureau Securitas in Amsterdam. No machine was built from his patents, and, in 1927, he assigned the rights to Arthur Scherbius, the inventor of the Enigma machine. Scherbius had developed the idea of rotor machine encryption independently from Koch, and had filed for his own patent in 1918. Bauer (1999) writes that Scherbius bought Koch's patents "obviously not because he did not own patents before; presumably he wanted to protect his patents".