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Lieutenant, civil servant and inventor
Peter Georg Grove Beyer (5 February 1881 - 11 June 1961), was an Army
Lieutenant and a Traffic Controller at the Danish State Railways (DSB).
In 1919 he became involved in the development of two cipher machines,
a large and a small one, which became known as the
Beyer Krypto System.
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Beyer devices on this website
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Peter Beyer was born on 5 February 1881 in Grenå, Randers (Denmark),
the first son of veterinarian Friderich Gerhard Beyer (1846-1887)
and Henriette Louise Fryendahl (1856-1945). A year later his brother
Herman was born (1882-1883), but he died the following year, just a month
before his next brother was born. His parents decided to name their
new son also Herman (1883-1946).
Other children were Louise (1884-1960) and Frederik Gerhard (1887-?).
Herman would eventually follow in his father's
footsteps by becoming a veterinarian, but Peter became an Army Lieutenant
and eventually a traffic controller at the Danske Statsbaner (DSB)
— the Danish State Railways.
Peter befriended Helga Guldman (1879-1911), with whom on 23 August 1905
he got a son — also named Peter Georg Grove. A year later, on 4 August 1906,
the couple got married in Huset, Copenhagen.
Unfortunately, the marriage didn't last very long. Helga suffered from
respiratory problems and died 5 years later – age 31 –
in the Vejlefjord Sanatorium in Stouby, Vejle.
Beyer remarried seven year later on 7 August 1918
to Else Marie Gyrithe Petersen (1892-1976), then 26 years old, more than 11 years younger
than Beyer himself. From this marriage, four childeren were born:
Ole (1919), Else (1922), Inge (1924) and Birthe (1927-2001).
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This was also the time when Beyer started the development of his cipher
machines (1919), based on the theories of Danish engineer Alexis Køhl.
It was an attempt to replace the codebooks
that were commonly used at the time by the railways, the merchant navy and many
international businesses.
He filed his first patent (DK 26710)
in Denmark on 26 August 1919. It describes an
electromechanical system, named Magnus,
consisting of two electric typewriters and a cipher unit.
It was not very successful however, and it is
doubtful whether it was ever produced in quantity.
Apparently, Beyer was not only interested in cipher machines but also in
other (electro)mechanical solutions, as on 27 October 1924 he filed a
patent in France for a calculating machine (589,036).
It is currently unknown how successful the device was and whether it
was ever produced.
After improving his large cipher machine in the following
years, he decided to take a different approach and develop a
miniature cipher machine
that people could carry in their pocket. It looked like a regular
pocket watch of the era and was compatible with his earlier
Magnus machine.
But like many contemporary inventors, he was ahead of his time, and the
cryptographic strength of his devices was not good enough for governmental
and military use. Nevertheless, the pocket device was taken into production
by the Danish Cipher Machine Co. Ltd. in Copenhagen, and modest quantities
were sold on the international market. Today they are a rarity.
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Beyer passed away on 11 June 1961 in Glostrop, Copenhagen (Denmark), age 80.
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Thursday 09 January 2025. Last changed: Friday, 17 April 2026 - 09:21 CET.
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![Beyer Magnus Krypto. Photograph kindly provided by Niels Faurholt [2].](../../crypto/beyer/img/304268/010/full.jpg)