Cipher machines

[fifted]

Was perusing the Crypto Museum and happened upon this striking (though probably difficult to come by) beauty:


From http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/stk/race/index.htm

There, it's called an "Off-line electronic cipher machine". Doesn't say much about the keyboard, but I love the single legends, and the text buttons look downright 7bit-worthy.

Has anyone seen more about these classified devices in terms of keyboards, either caps or switches?

[ray4jc]

Is that a mushroom cloud key on the right side

[Eszett]

That you take a pilcrow for a mushroom reminds me to the Israeli psy-trance group called Infected Mushroom, where everything is mushroom, even street lamps, he he.

[fifted]

Is that a mushroom cloud key on the right side

Lol, I had thought it an electronic component, but mushroom cloud almost makes more sense for this gadget!

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Pilcrow → ¶

[Halvar]

It would make sense for it to be a pilcrow as the machine types to some kind of tape, but I've never seen a pilcrow that looks anything like that, with that kind of round head. Shouldn't it be more like an inverse P?

[kbdfr]

It's simply a bell.



http://unicode-search.net/unicode-names ... ?term=237E
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_character

[7bit]

Nobody sees the self-destruction switch!

[matt3o]

I see r2d2 cap too big for a very small person.

[fifted]

Thanks for the bell key tip; one mystery down!

I thought it interesting that the period and comma are bottom-aligned, and the single quote top-. It looks a little wonky from a design standpoint but does help readability, I guess.