It wasn’t just a matter of getting the math to work; it was a matter of getting the machinery to run. The bulky bombes, which stood seven feet tall and ten feet long and weighed more than two tons, had hundreds of moving parts, and even a bit of copper dust could foul the works. “The design of the Bombe eventually required material and components from some 12,000 different suppliers,” noted one memo. Some components did not exist on the commercial market and had to be designed and made. The designers needed diodes, miniature gas tubes, high-speed commutators, and the carbon brushes the wheels
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