AN EAST Lancashire engineer has created the only working replica of the Enigma machine in the UK.

Paul Brougham’s cipher machine invention, which is identical to those which created German coded messages, is hoped to become an invaluable tool for schools and universities.

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The machine has attracted interest from historians at Bletchley Park, where legendary mathematician Dr Alan Turing and his team managed to crack the ‘unbreakable’ German Enigma code.

Paul, 54, plans to build more machines which he intends to sell through his Haslingden-based company Wulfwerk.

Engineer and military historian Paul spent three years and £15,000 creating the prototype, precisely replicated by studying an Enigma machine owned by a friend in Kendal.

The story of the Enigma machine has recently been in the spotlight with the release of The Imitation Game.

The film staring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Bletchley Park.

Paul said: “I have had an interest in military history for years and I thought that it would be an interesting project to create a replica of the Enigma machine.

“I was invited to Bletchley Park to show them what I had done.

“The machine wasn’t fully working and they suggested I modified it to enable encryption and decryption .”

There were originally around 40,000 Enigma machines but the bulk of them were destroyed and the remaining 100 originals are worth £100,000 each.

Paul added: “Once we returned from Bletchley we made the alterations to the machine to enable it to encrypt and decrypt.

“We have been invited back there and will be donating a model to the Turing Museum .”

For more details about the Enigma machine e-mail paul@wulfwerk.co.uk.