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The Lorenz cipher machine was used by Hitler to send message his top generals The National Museum of Computing

One of Adolf Hitler's message machines was found in a shed in England

The Lorenz machine sold on eBay for £10.

ONE OF THE MACHINES used to send coded messages between Adolf Hitler and his generals sold for £10 on eBay after being discovered in a shed in England.

Researchers at The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park saw a “telegram machine” for sale on the auction site for £9.50 (€12.5), and believed it may have actually been a Lorenz machine, used by the German army to send top-secret coded messages.

“My colleague was scanning eBay and he saw a photograph of what seemed to be the teleprinter,” John Wetter, a volunteer at the museum in Buckinghamshire, south England, told the BBC.

To investigate further, Wetter travelled to the southeastern town of Southend where he found the machine, which resembles a typewriter, on the floor of a shed, covered “with rubbish”.

We said ‘Thank you very much, how much was it again?’ She said ‘£9.50′, so we said ‘Here’s a £10 note — keep the change.’

The museum is now hunting for a replacement motor, which is missing.

“It looks like an electric motor in black casing with two shafts on each side, which drive the gears of the Lorenz machine,” said Wetter.

PastedImage-41925 Volunteer John Watson (right) shows the Lorenz machine to Bill Tutte, nephew of the wartime codebreaker of the same name

The Lorenz teleprinter was used in World War II to swap personal messages between Hitler and his generals.

A linked cipher machine consisting of 12 individual wheels each containing multiple settings encoded the messages.

Andy Clark, chairman of the trustees at The National Museum of Computing, called the machine “far bigger than the famous portable Enigma machine”.

“Everybody knows about Enigma, but the Lorenz machine was used for strategic communications,” said Clark.

It is so much more complicated than the Enigma machine.

© – AFP 2016

Read: Adolf Hitler’s own copy of Mein Kampf has just sold at auction >

Read: ‘A fully-fledged masochist’: Inside the CIA’s psychological profile of Adolf Hitler >

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    Mute herman sherman
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    Sep 19th 2015, 2:09 PM

    Concorde is as good as commercial aviation has got in the last 40 years.a wonderful piece of engineering

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    Mute Ronan Stokes
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    Sep 19th 2015, 3:20 PM

    The first time in modern history that a we went backwards from a technological advancemen, commercial supersonic flight. Great to see it making a comeback.

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    Mute Seán J. Troy
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    Sep 19th 2015, 4:43 PM

    A great achievement, but it was useless. It was too expensive to run to allow ordinary people to afford it. And the core business class that DID use it started to prefer cheaper, more comfortable executive seats on normal transatlantic flights. It simply wasn’t worth the money even for the people who shell out a fortune for this kind of thing.

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    Mute Eoin O'Neill
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    Sep 19th 2015, 7:56 PM

    That and the space shuttle retirement.

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    Mute Chris Treacy
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    Sep 20th 2015, 2:01 AM

    Ronan stokes don’t believe everything you read here……but I’d love to see it happening but will only believe it when I sees it ……..

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    Mute Davy Boy
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    Sep 19th 2015, 2:14 PM

    Use to love seeing it fly over when I lived in London always a joy come back soon

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    Mute John Clarke
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    Sep 19th 2015, 2:11 PM

    This aircraft is central to aviation history. Good to see there’s a plan to recognise that and to get her flying again.

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    Mute Bill Madden
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    Sep 19th 2015, 2:16 PM

    Back in the day when Air France has one at Shannon Airport you just watched the house windows shake to know it was taking off!

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    Mute David McShite
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    Sep 19th 2015, 2:25 PM

    The most perfect combination of art and engineering ever achieved by man.

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    Mute HRH The Brummie
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    Sep 19th 2015, 2:08 PM

    welcome back speedbird 1. (one of its previous BA call signs)

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    Mute Stephen M
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    Sep 19th 2015, 2:32 PM

    Fantastic. Would have loved to have had to opportunity to fly on Concorde, hopefully they are successful to get it up in the air again.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeEB2Lxbfa4

    Great video of what it was like to fly on it. No music or anything to ruin it.

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    Mute Flippermac
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    Sep 19th 2015, 2:08 PM

    UK was always years ahead of the rest of the world in technology …its going back wards now

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    Mute HRH The Brummie
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    Sep 19th 2015, 3:16 PM

    So Flipoermac, what’s going backwards when it comes to restoring the world’s only supersonic passenger jet that graced the skies for over four decades? .

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    Mute Flippermac
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    Sep 20th 2015, 7:33 AM

    HRH my point is it was made 40 years ago .You wank@@er

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    Mute don lavery
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    Sep 19th 2015, 7:54 PM

    I flew with BA on one of the last flights. it took of with the speed of a Formula One race car and climbed at a mile a minute. i watched the mach meter rise until we were supersonic and then twice that. We could see the blackness of space at max atitude. The only thing higher was the international space station. Amazing experience.

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    Mute Donal O'Brien
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    Sep 19th 2015, 5:19 PM

    I remember the noise it made at quarter to six every evening when it broke the sound barrier, it used drive dogs, foxes and pheasants bananas.

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
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    Sep 19th 2015, 2:39 PM

    So the future of aviation is a forty year old plane with very little leg space?

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    Mute Tadgh Smith
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    Sep 19th 2015, 3:09 PM

    Not a good idea except maybe for airs hows or other demonstration flights. The fact is it’s a 40 year old plane, supersonic flight causes a lot more metal fatigue than subsonic.the thing could break apart in mid air.

    If the were to build a new unit from scratch that’s one thing, but I don’t think that’ll be on the cards.

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    Mute Pronnsias McCarthaigh
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    Sep 19th 2015, 6:33 PM

    Airshows and demonstrations are worse again because of the bad track record of stuff falling out of the sky. .

    These planes belong to static museums.

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    Mute Al Ca
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    Sep 19th 2015, 6:36 PM

    The B-52 bombers that began active service with the USAF in 1955 are still flying today and are not due to retire until 2044.

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    Mute Pronnsias McCarthaigh
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    Sep 19th 2015, 6:42 PM

    The difference there is that the Yanks spend 800 Billion a year on WAR and can afford to meticulously service these aircraft right down to every last nut and bolt with no expense spared. You cannot compare this to a charity on a limited budget that intends to refurbish the concord.

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    Mute Philip Cooper
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    Sep 19th 2015, 6:58 PM

    Supersonic flight will never take off. Boom boom.

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    Mute Justin Gabriel
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    Sep 19th 2015, 5:18 PM

    going to a game conference in one Manchester airports hangar next month’ the concorde will be the backdrop’ and streamed live’ cant wait!!!

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    Mute Gus Sheridan
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    Sep 19th 2015, 4:46 PM

    Lots of 1970s technology

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    Mute Chris Treacy
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    Sep 20th 2015, 2:03 AM

    1960s you mean ….it first flew in 1970

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    Mute Chris Treacy
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    Sep 20th 2015, 2:05 AM

    it’s a disgrace with the advancement of technology that we haven’t invented something designed in the ,60s …same as the space shuttle which is also retired

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