February 6, 2004 - Nelson Thomson Learning - re correction to school book

We were delighted to learn that Nelson Thomson Learning will be reprinting Mathematics 11 this spring and that you have agreed to correct the caption about the Enigma machine.

 

As per your suggestion, we are forwarding for your consideration a caption that we believe would do justice to the mathematicians who cracked the Enigma code and acknowledge the further important research done at Bletchley Park.

The Enigma project was veiled in great secrecy and it was not until the 1970s that it started to come to light. These brilliant mathematicians were thus denied the recognition they deserve. It's time their identities were restored to them. We owe them a great debt.

The caption we are proposing basically follows the present format and just fills in the missing information. 

This is the Enigma machine, which the Germans used to send coded messages during World War II. However, the Germans did not know that Polish mathematicians Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Rozycki and Henryk Zygalski had cracked the code and provided the British with a machine just before the war. With continued refinements, the British were then able to read secret messages. Historians say that this shortened the war by about two years.

 

Canadian Polish Congress, Toronto District