User:Danielchatfield/Bureau du Chiffre

The Bureau du Chiffre was one of the most professional Black Chambers ever organized. It grew out of the humiliating defeat of the French in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and their subsequent fear of a new united Germany. The French took their inspiration from the Dutch cryptanalyst Auguste Kerckhoffs. Kerckhoffs did most of his work in France, and the French were his enthusiastic students.

The Bureau du Chiffre performed cryptanalysis on an industrial scale. A group of "stars" were put to work breaking new ciphers, while teams of experts with specialized training did the day-to-day "grunt work". One of the stars was Lieutenant Georges Painvin. The bright Painvin had not been interested in cryptanalysis before the war, but after the shooting began he ran into a member of the bureau, who recognized that Painvin had the "knack".