Dealing with every aspect of computer science, information technology and related disciplines, the museum houses displays of essentially everything imaginable which relates to these aspects of science and technology. Here, one will find the machines and inventions which enabled mankind's social and economic advancement through the ages, from the abacus to the printing press, telegraph, telephone and typewriter, to the calculator, the computer and the internet. More displays deal with the related fields of robotics, communications, entertainment, recreation - essentially every avenue of life today in which these technologies play a part.
The museum is the holder of many originals, items from breakthrough technology and rare technological items. When it came into possession (temporarily, as the machine is on loan to the museum) of a rare Nazi Enigma Machine in 2016, it was news. Following is the beginning of a story on their acquiring the machine. If you find such things of interest you are encouraged to follow the link and read the rest of the story as it contains a great deal of information on both the Enigma Machine and its ultimate decoding by the Poles, British and Americans.
‘Hacking Hitler’s Code’ brings Enigma machine to Bozeman computer museum
By Gail Schontzler Chronicle Staff Writer | Apr 13, 2016
At the height of World War II, Europe was in flames, falling to Hitler’s armies and bombing raids, and the Allies were desperate to crack the German military’s secret codes.
A new exhibit at Bozeman’s American Computer Museum tells how teams in Poland, Britain and America deciphered the code, shortened the war and accelerated the development of the computer.
The star of the “Hacking Hitler’s Code” exhibit is an actual German Army Enigma machine, housed in its wooden box, still wearing its “Enigma, Berlin” label.
George Keremedjiev, computer museum founder, said he feels lucky that David Bohnett, one of the internet’s pioneers, was willing to loan the fabled Enigma machine, one of about 200 to survive. Picking up the Enigma machine in California and carrying it on the plane, Keremedjiev said, felt “magical.”
It seems equally magical that human beings were able to crack the Enigma code, since it generated a diabolically vast number of combinations, 107 sextillion....
...Admission to the American Computer Museum, 2023 Stadium Dr., is free. Winter hours are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday. Summer hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week.
From the Montana Standard