A few years back, on the heels of the release of The Imitation Game , MoMath hosted a puzzle hunt based on that film. To that end, the exhibit designer and I were tasked to create a codex cylinder for one of the problems the participants were to solve. He created this lovely acrylic and magnet device and my job was to make the letters to be manipulated to break the code. Seeing that the hunt was based on the movie, and the movie was based on Alan Turing’s quest to break the German ENIGMA code during World War 2, I used the ENIGMA code machine as an inspiration – using typewriter-style lettering for the letters, and including a patterned interior based on the housing of the ENIGMA machine itself. These devices are still used by the Museum education department as part of their code-breaking lessons.
Jason Polkovitz 