The Rebuild of Heath Robinson

The original Heath Robinson.




Heath Robinson was the first attempt to use a machine to help in the breaking of the German Lorenz ciphered teleprinter traffic in WW II. It was Max Newman's idea to try a machine attack and Heath Robinson was designed at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) by C. E. Wynn-Williams, who had already been involved with Bletchley Park in the design of a high speed Bombe for breaking German Naval Enigma traffic. It was very much an experimental machine and was called "Heath Robinson" after the WW II cartoonist who pictured fantastic machines, Rube Goldberg was the American equivalent.

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