Gordon Bell (1934-2024) was the father of the DEC PDP and VAX minicomputers. He was also a co-founder, with his wife Gwen, of the famous and fabulous Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

In 1981, Gordon bought two Enigma machines from a seller in Geneva and thought he donated both to CHM. What Gordon forgot was he loaned one of the Enigmas to his friend, a former Navy Captain and Naval Intelligence Officer. This Navy Captain used the Enigma in presentations, which he performed in Navy dress blues, flamboyantly whipping around his sword as a pointer. Unfortunately, the Navy Captain passed away in 2012 and his widow found Gordon's Enigma in their safe, in 2016.

This Enigma has the corrosive, light-green letter shade, so there was corrosion around the keys, key shafts, and rear of the plugboard. Luckily, this corrosion was cosmetic and cleaned up well. Also, it had a 6-volt battery with round light bulbs, so some of the letters in the display panel had significant burn-through, which was pretty blinding as each bulb lit up.

The wood case was separated at most joints and the front edge had .5-1 inch loss of the first layer of laminate, which was brittle, cracked, and lacked glue for another .5 inch. The bottom of the wood box had a split across the entire panel.

The Enigma was missing the top lid latch, one Bakelite spare plugboard cable holder, one L-shaped guide for the flap, the reflector guide pin, and two metal caps that push out the reflector toward the rotors. The first four items were supplied by Dan and Tom Perera, from original parts. The last item was not replaced, so nylon bushings were installed as a temporary fix. Glen Miranker supplied his replica bulbs with the flattened tops.

Before the restoration, this Enigma machine worked on about 10% of the key presses, but required heavy pressure on the keys. After repairs to plugboard connections, rotors, and reflector, it worked perfectly. Also, the smooth and solid feel of German engineering was restored.