Boris Caesar Wilhelm Hagelin ( Boris Caesar Wilhelm Hagelin ; July 2, 1892 , Adjikent [1] , Elizabeth province , now Azerbaijan - September 7, 1983 , Zug [2] ) is a Swedish entrepreneur, inventor of encryption devices. The developer of electromechanical encryption devices, continuing the work of one of the first inventors of rotary machines - Arvid Damm , and mechanical encryption machines that were widely used in World War II . Founder of the Swiss company Crypto AG, specializing in information and telecommunication security. David Kahn calls Hagelin the first and only millionaire from cryptology . [3]
| Boris Caesar Wilhelm Hagelin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Date of Birth | July 2, 1892 |
| Place of Birth | Adjikent, Elizabethpol province |
| Date of death | September 7, 1983 (91 years old) |
| A place of death | Zug |
| Nationality | Sweden |
| Occupation | entrepreneur, inventor of encryption devices |
| Father | Karl Wilhelm (Vasilievich) Hagelin |
Biography
Boris Hagelin was born on July 2, 1892 in the Caucasus. His father Karl Wilhelm Hagelin worked as a manager at the Nobel oil company in Baku . In 1899, Karl Hagelin was appointed director, and moved with his family to St. Petersburg . Boris Hagelin studied at school first in St. Petersburg, then in 1904 in Sweden. After graduation, he entered the Royal Technological Institute in Stockholm , where he studied as a mechanical engineer, graduating from the institute in 1914 . [one]
In 1915, Hagelin began his professional career [4] in Westeros at the Swedish electrical company ASEA , a supplier of equipment for the Nobel company. Fluent in five languages, Hagelin worked with foreign clients. After six years at ASEA, Hagelin transferred to a temporary job in New Jersey , USA at Standard Oil , a possible partner of the Nobels in Russia. A year later, it became clear that things could not be continued in Russia (the Nobel company was nationalized), and Hagelin, not seeing for himself the prospects in the oil industry, returned to Stockholm. [one]
Being interested in encrypting business correspondence, Emanuel Nobel and Boris Hagelin's father became investors of AB Cryptograph, which at that time was on the verge of bankruptcy. The company was engaged in the production of encryption machines developed by Arvid Damm , [1] the most important invention of which was the rotary machine “Electrocryptograph B-1”. [5] Although Boris Hagelin did not have knowledge in the field of cryptography, [1] investors in 1922 appointed him to represent their interests in the company. [4] In 1925 , after Damm moved to Paris to work with telegraph companies, Hagelin led the firm. [1] In 1926, Hagelin modified one of the Damm machines, which made it possible to obtain an order from the Swedish armed forces, who initially planned to purchase Enigma cars. The Hagelin B-21 machine was the company's first commercial success. [four]
After the death of Arvid Damm in 1927 and Emanuel Nobel in 1932, control over the company passed to Hagelin. In 1934, commissioned by the French General Staff, Hagelin began developing a pocket-sized encryption machine. As a basis for it, Hagelin took one of his previous projects - an apparatus for exchanging coins and printing checks for a bus. From the resulting encryption devices C-35 and C-36 the most successful series of Hagelin cars began. [5]
After several trips to the USA in 1937-1940, Hagelin agreed to use the C-36 machine as a tactical cryptographic system by the US Army. [1] Received the designation M-209 , the machine was used in World War II and the Korean War. [6] After lengthy testing of samples brought from Sweden, [1] in June 1941, US communications forces it was decided to order Hagelin cars. [4] Since, at the request of the US government, typewriter manufacturers had to stop their production and begin to carry out a defense order, [7] a suitable Smith & Corona factory was chosen for the production of M-209 producing portable typewriters. [4] Production began in 1942 , [3] and a total of about 140,000 [3] [1] (according to other sources - 125,000 [8] ) devices were produced.
In 1948, Hagelin moved to Switzerland, where he founded the company Crypto AG in 1952 [1] and where by 1959 he had completely transferred his business from Sweden. [3] Hagelin continued to work at Crypto AG until 1970 . [one]
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Boris CW Hagelin. The Story of the Hagelin Cryptos (English) // Cryptologia. - 1994. - Vol. 18 , no. 3 . - P. 204-242 .
- ↑ David Kahn. Cipher Machine Inventor - Boris Hagelin Dies (English) // Cryptologia. - 1984. - Vol. 8 , no. 1 . - P. 60–61 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 David Kahn . Secrecy for Sale // The Codebreakers - The Story of Secret Writing . - New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1967 .-- 473 p. - ISBN 0-684-83130-9 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Silvan Frik. Boris Hagelin and Crypto AG: Pioneers of Encryption // The History of Information Security: A Comprehensive Handbook. - 2007. - ISBN 978-0-444-51608-4 .
- ↑ 1 2 Bengt Beckman. Damm, Hagelin, and Gyldén // Codebreakers: Arne Beurling and the Swedish crypto program during World War II. - 2002. - ISBN 0-8218-2889-4 .
- ↑ Tools of Cryptology // Popular Science. - 1968. - T. 192 , No. 5 . - P. 118. - ISSN 0161-7370 .
- ↑ International Directory of Company Histories . - 1996. - T. 13. - ISBN 9781558623415 .
- ↑ Thomas R. Johnson. The Era of the Wired Rotor // Book I: The Struggle for Centralization, 1945-1960 . - 1995. - S. 213. - (American Cryptology during the Cold War, 1945-1989).