To put it bluntly, this assertion is not only wrong, but just plain stupid. A Dutch inventor Hugo Alexander Koch filed a patent for an enciphering machine patent in October 1919. How much Koch was responsible for the this innovation is the subject of debate with some researchers contending Koch was a figurehead for a team effort. But Koch soon after sold the patent to the German manufacturer and electrical engineer Arthur Scherbius who soon refined and marketed an elctro-mechanical enciphering device marketed under the name Enigma in the 1920s. Scherbius initially hoped private businesses would be his main customers, but his main customers were the German navy followed soon by the German army.

Where the stupid for the wiki assertion comes in is not only is the broad genealogy of Enigma well-known, but also Turing was born in 1912! Turing was obviously quite intelligent, but for a nine-year old to not only come up with such a device, but also have the legal knowledge and capital to patent it is stretching the definition of genius far too much. Either the wiki author either completely misunderstood the source cited or the source itself made this error (for the record, the book in question is The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography which appears to be pop history- google preview won't let me see the relevant portion to confirm where the error originated). Either way, this is a major mistake that should be deleted on Wiki.