The encryption machines of Peter Beyer

Der Däne Peter Beyer konstruierte vor einem Jahrhundert zwei Verschlüsselungsmaschinen, die sich nicht durchsetzten. Einige Fragen um diese bemerkenswerten Geräte sind noch offen.

Deutsche Version

The 1920s are an interesting time for crypto historians. That was the beginning of the age of encryption machines, which manifested itself in numerous inventions. However, most of the crypto devices developed at that time did not catch on – the designers still lacked experience.

Among the many failed encryption machines of the twenties was the “Krypto System Beyer”, named after the Danish inventor Peter Beyer (1881-1961). On Jerry Proc’s web page, which reproduces an article from 1933, it is simply called “Krypto”. This device looked like a pocket watch.

Quelle/Source: Rama, Wikimedia Commons, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr

I have come across the Beyer crypto system a few times in museums and private collections, but it is hardly mentioned in the literature. The above mentioned website of Jerry Proc is one of the few exceptions.

Cipherbrain reader Ralf Bülow recently made an interesting contribution to filling this gap. His article “How two Danes invented the Enigma” appeared last week on the blog of the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum.

The big machine

Ralf reports in his article about two Danish cipher machines of the twenties. The first one was invented by the said Peter Beyer together with Alfred Carlsen (1871-1929). It was patented in several states. On the said website of Jerry Proc, this device is called “Krypto Magnum”. Supposedly the machine was built by a “Danish Cipher Machine Company”, but Ralf couldn’t find out anything about them. Photos of the Krypto Magnum are not known to me.

Similar to the Enigma, the Krypto Magnum encrypted letters by means of electrical connections. Instead of several rotors, however, a slider was used. However, this did not provide enough complexity to make this device as secure as the Enigma. This may have been one of the reasons why the Krypto Magnum failed.

Like some other encryption machines of the time, the Krypto Magnum is composed of two electric typewriters. One provided the keyboard, the other the printing. This can be seen in the following picture, which is from the patent:

Quelle/Source: Patent

The small machine

Ralf mentions another patent of Peter Beyer in his article. This one refers to a small, also electromechanical machine. In this patent the following picture appears:

Quelle/Source: Patent

A similarity with the Beyer crypto system cannot be overlooked:

Quelle/Source: Schmeh

However, the Krypto System Beyer is a purely mechanical machine – without electrics. So it is probably a simplified version of the device described in the patent.

According to the article on Jerry Proc’s website, the large and small Beyer machines are compatible. So they realize the same encryption. However, the large device is likely to have achieved a much higher speed.

Connections to other designers

Beyer’s cipher machines are reminiscent of those of his contemporary Alexander von Kryha, whose Kryha Liliput also looked like a pocket watch:

Quelle/Source: Kopacz

Kryha also built an electric variant based on two typewriters. In addition, there was the Kryha Standard, for which, as far as I know, there is no Beyer counterpart. The three Kryha machines were mutually compatible.

However, the article on Jerry Proc’s website does not mention Alexander von Kryha. Instead, an engineer named A. Kohle is mentioned, on whose ideas both Beyer machines are said to be based. This refers to Beyer’s compatriot Alexis Køhl, who already built encryption machines in the second half of the 19th century and was thus ahead of his time. Køhl was not successful with this, which was also due to the poor quality of his devices.

More about Beyer?

In this article, I have mentioned almost everything I know about Peter Beyer and his machines. If any reader has further information on this subject, Ralf Bülow and I would be very interested.

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Further reading: The Smithsonian publishes beautiful pictures of rare Hebern encryption machines

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