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Enigma Machines Fetch High Prices at Auctions
Late in World War II, fleeing German soldiers tried to destroy the equipment they used for transmitting messages in their Enigma code. Hundreds of salvageable machines, however, were left behind, and the technology, with alphabet keyboards and hidden rotors, still fascinates the public.
“It’s got spying, it’s got mystery, it’s got great stories behind it,” Kenneth Rendell, the founder of the Museum of World War II, in Natick, Mass., said in a phone interview. He has nine Enigma machines on view. (Another is on loan at the New-York Historical Society through May 27.)
The devices and related material now routinely bring five-figure prices at auction. On March 12 a canvas sheath for an Enigma instruction book, marked with a yellowish cross, perhaps to disguise it as a first-aid guide, sold for $13,800 at James D. Julia Auctioneers in Fairfield, Me.
(Cont'd at link)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/arts/design/enigma-machines-fetch-high-prices-at-auctions.html
Late in World War II, fleeing German soldiers tried to destroy the equipment they used for transmitting messages in their Enigma code. Hundreds of salvageable machines, however, were left behind, and the technology, with alphabet keyboards and hidden rotors, still fascinates the public.
“It’s got spying, it’s got mystery, it’s got great stories behind it,” Kenneth Rendell, the founder of the Museum of World War II, in Natick, Mass., said in a phone interview. He has nine Enigma machines on view. (Another is on loan at the New-York Historical Society through May 27.)
The devices and related material now routinely bring five-figure prices at auction. On March 12 a canvas sheath for an Enigma instruction book, marked with a yellowish cross, perhaps to disguise it as a first-aid guide, sold for $13,800 at James D. Julia Auctioneers in Fairfield, Me.
(Cont'd at link)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/arts/design/enigma-machines-fetch-high-prices-at-auctions.html