Diskret

First year of production:

1899

Company:

Friedr. Rehmann , Karlsruhe , Germany

Serial nr:

n.a.

The Diskret doubles as a typewriter and simple cipher machine. It has two concentric index rings, one of which can be rotated. The characters on the typewheel correspond with the fixed ring.

Coded text can be produced by rotating the outer disk and using that index to select characters. The resulting text can be decoded on another Diskret by turning the outer ring the same number of clicks and copying the coded text. The result will be legible.

A year before the Diskret appeared, the basic typewriter was launched without the cipher ring, als the Volksschreibmaschine (people’s typewriter). Both versions are very rare.

See the book TYPEWRITER, page 157.

Courtesy of: Costa collection