Zygalski’s sheets demystified

On the 22nd July, at the Józef Piłsudski Institute, there was an excellent presentation by Jerry McCarthy, who explained how the perforated cardboard sheets invented by the Polish code-breaker Henryk Zygalski had been used to find the starting-settings of the Enigma machine. A super occasion, because it was attended by members of Zygalski’s family – he alone of the Polish code-breakers settled in Britain after the war. Later in the year, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his death, a special memorial to Zygalski will be unveiled at Chichester – an opportunity for an entertaining character whose intellectual stature deserved proper recognition in his lifetime to become better known. See more about the Piłsudski event here.