SIGSALY

the first wireless phone -- 09/17/20

 Today's encore selection -- from Fortune's Formula by William Poundstone. During World War II, a British-American team that included Claude Shannon and Alan Turing created the first digitally scrambled, wireless phone known as SIGSALY:

"Declassified only in 1976, it was a joint effort of Bell Labs and Britain's Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park, north of London. It had a scientific pedigree rivaling that of the Manhattan Project, for the British­-American team included not only Shannon but also Alan Turing. They were building a system known as SIGSALY. That was not an acronym, just a random string of letters to confuse the Germans, should they learn of it./.../