Editing Enigma machine (section)

=== Basic operation ===
[[File:Encrypting and decrypting using an enigma machine.webm|thumb|Enciphering and deciphering using an Enigma machine]]
A German Enigma operator would be given a plaintext message to encrypt. After setting up his machine, he would type the message on the Enigma keyboard. For each letter pressed, one lamp lit indicating a different letter according to a [[Pseudorandomness|pseudo-random]] substitution determined by the electrical pathways inside the machine. The letter indicated by the lamp would be recorded, typically by a second operator, as the [[cyphertext]] letter. The action of pressing a key also moved one or more rotors so that the next key press used a different electrical pathway, and thus a different substitution would occur even if the same plaintext letter were entered again. For each key press there was rotation of at least the right hand rotor and less often the other two, resulting in a different [[Pseudorandomness|substitution alphabet]] being used for every letter in the message. This process continued until the message was completed. The cyphertext recorded by the second operator would then be transmitted, usually by radio in [[Morse code]], to an operator of another Enigma machine. This operator would type in the cyphertext and&nbsp;— as long as all the settings of the deciphering machine were identical to those of the enciphering machine&nbsp;— for every key press the reverse substitution would occur and the plaintext message would emerge.