Entire Collection of Chipher and Other

As it is well known secret services are a very well diffused practise, especially useful during war, or more generally in periods of international tension.. In the link below you can find an interesting collection of photos of devices used by various agencies in the world during the 20th century, such as chiper machines, spy equipement, radio, telegraph machines etc...

http://ciphermachines.com/photos/index.php




The argument of this post is related to the ones contained in Secret Services & Spy Sets, Secret Services & Patents: The Enigma Machine, Secret Services & The Enigma Machine, Secret Services & Radio, Secret Services & Cracking Enigma: The Bombe, Secret Services & Bombe 2.0, Telegraph & Morse Code, Minicameras 2.0 and in Minicameras...micro optics at the service of the spies

Secret Services & Spy Sets

Spy sets...I think that they're, actually, one of the most significant evidence of the technological progress of the time spell considered, which in this case is the second world war, because a spy,or more generally speaking a secret agent, doesn't have any certainty about what is going to happen to him, so he needs the best stuff to help him face all the possible scenarios and to work and report even in the most unprobable conditions...I know that now all these problems would make us laugh because of the incredible advance in tech in the last 20, but, at the time still they were a quite compelling issue to solve.

1. Spy Radio and Receiver Sets: once again the main problem was to permit spies abroad to comunicate safely and as frequently as possible...To achieve this result all nations developed their own radio, like the RSZ, developped by US Navy around 1943, a small self-contained receiver with an external battery pack in a similar housing, that could be carried on the chest in a canvas case with two pockets; or the URSS Elektron Radio Set, characterized by a output power of 50W, suitable for ranges up to 3000 km and one of the first true spy radios to used a burst encoder in order to minimize the risk of interception and detection by the enemy (LPI). Other examples are: from UK, the Type A Mk. III (A3), a small spy radio set, manufactured by the Marconi Company in the UK in 1944, close towards the end of WWII. It was intended for clandestine operations on occupied territory, by agents, special forces and resistance units (S.O.E); or from Japan the incredible 94-6, a miniature single-valve portable transceiver that was used during WWII, as part of a series of Army radios.
   
2. Covert Cameras or Minicameras: we've already spoke about this item in the posts  Minicameras...micro optics at the service of the spies and Minicameras 2.0, but if you wanna go further go on and check the web page in the crypto museum dedicated to them
3. Covert Recorders:
   
   high-precision portable minature wire audio tape recorder, which could have been easily hidden under everyday cloathing. As a matter of fact this kind of Covert Equipement, like recorders and, especially bugs, belong more to the post WWII period, around 1950 and following decades, in fact their structure is much different from their precedent, because there were different needs and purposes which must had been considered during their fulfilment. Two  exemplar models are the Nagra SN (in the photo), introduced in the 1970, used by both CIA and Stasi and capable of recording in sync with a videocamera, and the Protona Minifon Attaché, a miniature tape recorder, using a magnetic tape which was organized into cassetes produced by the Protona GmbH, since the Philips Compact Cassettes weren't yet available.
4. Burst Encoders: device that allows messages to be stored on a recording medium first. The pre-recorded message is then sent over the air at very high speed using a play-back device. Many solutions were developed, using a variety of media, such as paper, audio tape, metal tape, mechanical drums and even photographic film.   Messages that are sent this way often sound like a short tone or burst, which is why it is called a Burst Transmission.
   
5. Bugs: Once again we're making a step forward in history, of 15-20 years more or less, but still its important to define them as a foundamental element of the spy set. One of the earliest sample of this incredible piece of technology is the KBG bug, a small radio bug, introduced around 1964 , with dimensions 72x23x10 mm, so  really small, as it can be inferred by the photo below... but there were smaller and more sophisticated prototypess such as the PS-006, a bollpiont bug developped in the 80's and with a small radious of action, only 25 m due to the small voltage
   

Click on the light blue words to link with pages where you can find more specific description about each single prototype and examples of others similar devices.

Sources:
http://www.cryptomuseum.com/spy/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_probability_of_intercept

The Art in the Agency

Few paintings, by James Hart Dyke, from Art Exhibition about SIS entitled "A Year with the MI6" is held in the Mount Street Gallery in London

Battersea Power Station

Street scene in Kabul

The HQ

Entrance Hall

Waiting in the hotel room

Contrasts

Going for a meeting

Early orning view over Kabul

Line Drawing

Station

Mansfield CUMMING (1st SIS Chief)

The argument of this post is related to the ones contained in Maps & Secret Services and in SIS, aka MI6...A little bit of History.

Source:
https://www.sis.gov.uk/our-history/centenary/a-year-with-mi6-art-exhibition.html

SIS, aka MI6...A little bit of History

As I've already said in the post Secrecy...Pro & Con cryptography departements have a story that dates back in ancient times...but if it's of proprer organizations, meaning agency, that we're talking about, the're first appereance is way more tardive....In particular, in the case of the SIS, the foundation year, as reported by the agency itself, is the 1909 with the Name of Secret Services Bureau, as a response to the continuous and threatening expansion of the German military and naval army, but its exhistance hadn't been revealed until the 1994 even if rumors were already spread by the publication of the literary succes of the James Bond Series by Ian Flemming.

Actually there were already multiples sign of activity since the late 15th century, at the time of  Tudors: there were infact powerful names like Cromwelles, which was intercecting messages in the country and abroad for Henry VIII, and Sir Francis Walsingham, Private Secretary for Elizabeth I, which discovered the conspiracy against the Queen directed by Mary the queen of Scots...
(further description about this episode can be found in the first chapter of The Code book, by Simon Singh)


The SIS is a the military inteligence section 6 (MI6), and it is divided its self in braches in which  the S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive) was included and that still includes the G.C.H.Q, the unit responsible for Signal Inteligence (SIGINT) and information insurance, and the G.C.&C.S., the code-breacking division creating during the WWII.

If you want to discover all the incredible men who took the lead of this incredible department:
https://www.sis.gov.uk/our-history/previous-chiefs.html

It is possible to find more information about the Historical Events affected by the work of the SIS checking the two links below:
https://www.sis.gov.uk/our-history.html
http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=3683
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Intelligence_Service

Or in alternative in the book
MI6: The history of the Secret Inteligence Service from 1909-1949, by Prof. Keith JEFFERY,  [click on the title for a preview]

If it was...

Our Professor V. Marchis proposed us a new challenge to face in building the structural base of this blog... It consist in chosing a single paint, song and movie that could fully describe our blog. Sadly for me, I haven't figured it all out yet, but for now I can present you my idea of which is picture that  in my mind correspond  to a visual transfiguration of my blog: the Gioconda by Leonardo Da Vinci

Gioconda, by Leonardo Da Vinci, Musée du Louvre, Paris

My connection might result a little bit illogical or unfounded to some of you, due to the great time and topic lapse, but I can assure you that there are few interesting links between the two elemets.

First of all they are both an incredible example of the Technique: the Gioconda painting is a demonstration of the amazing drawing and painting skills of the author Leonardo da Vinci, of his innovative genius: like the use of the sfumato, a method that consinsts in making a a subject blend in what is sorrounding it, by not drawing the outlines. The evolution lies in the presence of the atmosphere as a visual element of the painter's original perception of the reality.
On the other side secret services are the maximum expression of technology in terms of prototypes, since all new inventions pass under the army's supervision before being patented to see if they can be of military interest; in terms of security since they can boast he newest and most advanced instruments to encrypt and break codes, really usefull when it comes to understand others movement, to built an advantage in war time and prevent unpleasant situations that could put an end to a peaceful period; and in terms of organization since they control an entire system of many agents, spread all around the country taken into consideration and most probably all around the world, with different capabilities to absolve multiple functions.

Another common pecularity is given by the mistery halo that surround them: in the first case the enigma around the subject, the painter's choices about the eyes, the pose of the body, the ambiguous facial expression etc, in the other one due to the need of absolute secrecy in treating classified data like undercover agent identities and witness protection programme information.
I don't think it is wrong to think that it's just that not knowing, those secrets that concern them is the real cause of a such great media interest, like for example literary and cinematographic productions such as  The Da Vinci Code and the series of 007 by Ian Fleming.

        
 

Minicameras 2.0

This argument is related to the topic of a previous post (Minicameras...micro optic at the service of the spies)
Just wanted to indulge you with some photos about these incredibly developed device

two images of the minox camera

Rolleflex mini cameras

Comparison between the two minox models: M3 and A

Comparinson between 3 different models:  from left Rolleflex TRL, Minox M3 and Minox A

Tessina miniature camera also in the watch band version (below)

Wristwatch camera by Steineck Abc

Minox Film

Minicameras with lighters or cigarette pocket shape