ECOLEX 3 (ECOLEX III) The Ecolex Story In Short
By Maarten Oberman
One Time Tape SystemThe first cryptographic machine to connect to the Telex network was produced by request from the Dutch government. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made this request to the Dutch PTT, which was at the time, part of the Dutch government.
They requested a One Time Tape (OTT) system. However, Shannon’s Theory was still classified at the time but it was common knowledge that OTT was proven secure and free to use. The first post WWII OTT system in the Netherlands was called Colex. It was comprised of 100 relays and was capable of encoding 3 to 6 characters per second when connecting to the Telex network. The paper tape keying material was distributed via diplomatic pouch. The first systems were installed in the Dutch embassies in Washington, London, Pairs, Batavia (now called Jakarta, but when it was in that time still a Dutch colony) and of course The Hague, the residence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 1950, when the availability of electronic components improved , the next generation of Dutch OTT systems became available. The first system was a functional equivalent to the Colex but based on vacuum tubes. it was call Ecolex. By 1950, the fifth one was produced. . The encryption speed was about 40 characters per second.
Later on, variants of Ecolex namely Ecolex I and Ecolex II were produced. Included were higher speeds, more alphabets and component optimization. In those years, many embassies and all Dutch Navy ships used Ecolex.se. There were also negotiations with NATO for the purchase of Ecolex systems. A rather unique feature of the Ecolex II was the possibility of interpretability between the Ecolex systems and the Norwegian system, namely, the ETCRRM.
In 1957, everything regarding crypto technology at the Dutch PTT, was sold to Philips USFA. USfA is the abbreviation for Ultrasone Fabriek. Executives at the PTT organization considered crypto not as a priority for securing the public network but as a free market issue. They and Philips USFA signed an agreement which resulted in the production of the Ecolex IV in 1963.
The inventor of the Colex and Ecolex at PTT was professor/doctor I.R. Oberman. After the sell out to USFA, he took his crew and himself to the Technical University in Delft (The Netherlands) in 1958. Here he became the head of the switching laboratories until his retirement In 1980.
Documentary wise, it looks like there has never been an Ecolex III at first sight, but that is not true. Oberman made improvements to the Ecolex II at the university and called it the Ecolex III. This system had been demonstrated to Foreign Affairs and Navy people. Several Ecolex III systems were built but the device never went into production. The USFA developed Ecolex IV became the improved system.
For more details about the cryptographic history in the Netherlands in the 1945-1965 time frame, please refer to Google lenz: www.oberman.nl/boek . This 268 page book, written by Maarten Oberman and published in Dutch only, has around 150 authentic historic documents.
Contributors and Credits:1) Maarten Oberman [maarten(at)oberman.nl]
May /10/23