Radio Communication: Cryptographic devices (1960 – 1961)
Cryptographic devices
Cryptographic equipment was developed for the Armed Forces by a specialised department of the Physics Laboratory TNO which was housed first in building H of the Measurement Building and from July 1960 at the Jan van Nassaustraat 65, The Hague. This included the development of equipment for the processing of intercepted military telex information from behind the Iron Curtain:
- Capturing telex messages with the PunchroPhyl (1960)
- Printing captured plain and cyphered telex messages with the ScriboPhyl (1961)
- PLUTO for registration of intercepted telex messages (1966)
- Developing of equipment to generate random codes for coding message traffic with the troops in New Guinea.
In building H, peanut cookies were very popular as part of the coffee and tea rounds. Suddenly, it was noticed that the amount of peanuts on the cookies seems to become smaller and smaller. A scientific study was immediately started to statistically track the number of peanuts per cookie. Before consumption, the number of peanuts was counted and plotted on a graph. A complaint to the supplier a the decreasing number of peanuts caused an increased number of peanuts per cookie with the next shipment. That process repeated itself several times.