- Hey.
How can I help you? - Hi.
I've got a 1943 World War II Morse code decipher machine.
Wow.
You gotta realize, most of the World War II coding machines
were still illegal to have up to like, 10 years ago.
No, literally, you could go to prison for a long, long time
for having one.
Even World War II ones.
No one here in a black car followed you or anything,
did they?
No, I-- No.
I think I'm good.
It's a machine that they use, deciphering Morse code.
I got it from a friend of mine about a year ago,
and it's kind of cool, but money's cooler.
I'm going to ask $300 for it.
I'll take a little less, but not too much.
We'll have to see how that goes.
It's mega intriguing, OK?
Militaries have always used code.
Almost all the messages were used through telegraph,
and during World War II they were
really difficult to decode.
Sometimes we broke them, sometimes we didn't.
Code breaking was very, very important during World War II.
And if you screwed up in your Morse code just a little bit,
people could die.
So if it's what he says it is, I would
love to have this in my shop.
So do you know if it works?
It turns on.
I haven't run a tape through it, so--
There's obviously a lot of vacuum tubes, or something,
to make it this damn heavy.
Yes.
Yeah, it's extremely heavy.
That's World War II technology right there.
[laughter]
It's all here.
It's all the original wiring.
I like it.
So how much do you want for it?
Well, I was going to ask $300.
OK.
I want to call somebody up who will
tell me what the hell this is.
Oh-- works for me.
He would be impressed, and he will
know if you're going to prison or not,
so hang out like 15 minutes, all right?
This is the Super Enigma version
of a World War II decoder, or a really weird film projector.
I don't know.
Apparently you put something Morse code in,
and it beeps out the other end.
TG-34-A. This was one of the most
used types of Morse equipment that we had in World War II.
I did bring something down here that I
think will help you to understand
exactly what this is.
OK.
And that is-- secret code?
That is actually the tape that goes into this.
How the hell do you have that?
To be perfectly honest, this was in my garage.
So I figured I'd bring it down, so that you could see it.
OK.
Um-- yeah, you are just one weird guy.
[laughter]
But this would actually be on a reel like this,
and it would beep, either with dits or dots.
Dits or dots?
Dits or dots.
Dips are the short beeps, dots are the long beeps.
But most men who went into the service didn't know Morse code.
They had to be taught.
This is a training machine.
Oh, wow.
Um--
A machine like this was really important because one dit
or dot wrong, and you can completely
throw off battle, throw off a plan,
tell people to go to the wrong place.
So it was very important that you
were actually being trained to do it precisely
as you were hearing it.
So this was not used in the battlefield, obviously.
No.
This was used in the states, in a classroom setting.
Yes.
This is a training unit.
OK.
All right, well, thanks, man.
I know exactly what I have now.
All righty.
During World War II, Morse code was the common language
that could be used.
It's one of those codes that a lot of people know,
but in the military you had to be so exact that you had to go
back to school to learn it. - You know what?
It looks like it's in good shape.
I have no idea if I can sell it.
I'll give you $200.
I went online and did research it,
and tey're between $500 and $900
There's one guy in the world with a really big beard,
with the only tape for this thing,
and even he doesn't want. - $250?
$200 bucks, and I am taking a big shot whether I'm ever going
to sell this thing or not.
So if you want $200 bucks, I'll give you $200 bucks.
- All right. $200 bucks. - All right.
Sweet, man.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, just leave it here for now,
and I'll meet you right up front.
All right. Thank you.
When I found out it was a training tool,
I got disappointed.
Like, there goes the price, because it's not
out in the field, and all that.
But $200's a fair price.
That will give me some spending money here in Vegas,
and I can have some fun with that.