Edward Hebern

11/20/21, 5:08 PM Edward Hebern - Wikipedia
Edward Hebern
Edward Hugh Hebern (April 23, 1869 – February 10, 1952) was an early inventor of rotor
machines, devices for encryption.
Contents
Background
Patent
Patents
References
External links
Background
Edward Hugh Hebern was born in Streator, Illinois on April 23, 1869. His parents were Charles and
Rosanna (Rosy) Hebern. They met in Harris County, Texas while Charles was serving as guard and
escort from the civil war. On February 4, 1866 they married in Harris, Texas. Rosanna was only fifteen
years old. After mustering out of the service on May 29, 1866, Charles and his new wife returned to
Springfield, Illinois, and on June 18, 1866 he received his final pay and discharge.
Edward had an older sister, Arizona (Zoa) born in 1867, two younger brothers, Daniel Boone Hebern,
born on February 17, 1871, and William Hebern, born April 8, 1875 in Houston, Texas, as well as a
younger sister, Nellie Hebern, born in 1874.
At the age of 6, on August 4, 1875, Edward Hugh and three of his siblings were admitted to the Illinois
Soldiers’ and Sailors’ home in Normal, Illinois. According to the Soldiers’ home register their father
was listed as having died in 1874 in an unknown location, but he was admitted to the same Soldiers’
Home 40 years later. By February 13, 1879, the youngest Hebern child, William, was admitted to the
Soldiers’ Home. Six months later on August 12, 1879, Rosanna married Archibald Thompson in
Bloomington, Illinois.
On June 14, 1881, two months before her 14th birthday, Zoa left the Soldiers’ Home. Edward was
discharged from the Soldiers’ Home in May 1883, after turning 14, and went to Odin, Illinois where he
worked on a farm. By 1885, Daniel, Nellie, and William were all in Odin, Illinois. Zoa married Edward
F. Clark (27 yrs. old) on August 18, 1886 in Coffey County, Kansas. Then they headed to Utah.
The rest of the children eventually moved to Madera, Ca. beginning with the two eldest boys in 1896.
Daniel Boone Hebern was in North Fork, California working as a laborer; his brother, Edward Hugh
Hebern was in Madera farming. Daniel purchased two plots of land in North Fork.
Patent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hebern 1/3
He got a patent in 1918, shortly before three others patented (in

other countries) much the same thing. They were Arthur
Scherbius in Germany, Hugo Koch in the Netherlands, and Arvid
Damm in Sweden. Hebern started a company to market the
Hebern rotor machine; one of his employees was Agnes Meyer,
who left the Navy in Washington DC to work for Hebern in
California. Scherbius designed the Enigma, Koch sold his patent
to Scherbius a few years later, and Damm's company — taken over
by Boris Hagelin after his death — moved to Switzerland and is
still in existence, as Crypto AG. Hebern's electric code machine
By September 1922 Hebern started construction of the Hebern

Building at 829 Harrison Street in Oakland, California.[1] The
striking two-story structure was built to accommodate 1,500 workers and had a luxurious office for
Hebern. The 1923 stockholders’ report said it was “one of the most beautiful structures in California
and said to be the only building in the State of true Gothic architecture throughout.”
By the time it was
completed the following year, it had cost somewhere between $380,000 and $400,000, and the
company still had no income. In fact, its first sale, to the Italian government, was still twenty-three
months away. Eventually Hebern would sell twelve of his early machines to the Navy, the Pacific
Steamship Company of Seattle, and a few other buyers, but his ambitious building was repossessed.
The Hebern code building still stands today at 829 Harrison Street in Oakland and is primarily used
as Oakland’s Asian resource center.
[2]
Hebern's implementation of his idea was less secure than he believed, for William F. Friedman found
at least one method of attack when it was offered to the US Government. Hebern's company did not
prosper, his promotional efforts for it were questioned, and he was tried and convicted for fraud.
Agnes Meyer returned to Washington to work for the Navy.
Friedman went on to design a much more secure and complex rotor machine for the US Army. It
eventually became the SIGABA.
Patents
US 1096168 (https://worldwide.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US1096168)
References
1. Simpson, Ralph. "Before ENIGMA: Breaking the Hebern Rotor Machine." Computer History
Museum website. http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/before-enigma-breaking-the-hebern-rotor-
machine/
2. Zopette, Glenn (1994). "The Edison of secret codes". Invention & Technology. 10 (1): 34–43.
Available at: Archive.Today (https://archive.today/20071020152554/http://www.americanheritage.c
om/articles/magazine/it/1994/1/1994_1_34.shtml#selection-706.0-710.0)
External links
Hebern Code Machines (https://web.archive.org/web/20060303145854/http://www.sscnet.ucla.ed

u/geog/gessler/collections/crypto-hebern.htm)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_Hebern&oldid=909217113"
This page was last edited on 3 August 2019, at 23:09 (UTC).
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;

additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc., a non-profit organization.

Edward Hebern

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Edward Hebern

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Edward Hebern

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

11/20/21, 5:08 PM Edward Hebern - Wikipedia

He got a patent in 1918, shortly before three others patented (in

By September 1922 Hebern started construction of the Hebern

Hebern Code Machines (https://web.archive.org/web/20060303145854/http://www.sscnet.ucla.ed

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_Hebern&oldid=909217113"

This page was last edited on 3 August 2019, at 23:09 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.