Alan Turing and his contemporaries pdf

Authors

Roger Johnson is a Fellow of Birkbeck College, University of London, and Emeritus 

Reader in Computer Science. He has a BSc in Pure Mathematics and Statistics from 

the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and a PhD in Computer Science from 

London University. He has researched and written extensively on a range of issues con-

cerning the management of large databases. He worked previously at the  University  

of Greenwich and at a leading UK software house. He was Chairman of the BCS 

 Computer Conservation Society from 2003 to 2007 and has served on its commit-

tee since its founding. He has lectured and written about the history of computing, 

notably on the work of the UK pioneer, Andrew D Booth. He also co-authored the 

first academic paper on the history of the ready reckoner. He has been active in BCS, 

The Chartered Institute for IT for many years, serving as President in 1992–3 and 

holding a number of other senior offices. He has represented BCS for many years on  

international committees, becoming President of the Council of European Professional 

Informatics Societies (CEPIS) from 1997 to 1999. During his service with CEPIS he 

was closely involved in establishing the European Computer Driving Licence and the 

ECDL Foundation. He served as Honorary Secretary of the International Federation 

for Information Processing (IFIP) from 1999 to 2010. He is currently Chairman of 

IFIP’s International Professional Practice Programme (IP3) promoting professional-

ism in IT worldwide.

Simon Lavington MSc, PhD, FIET, FBCS, CEng is Emeritus Professor of  Computer 

Science at the University of Essex. He graduated in Electrical Engineering from 

 Manchester University in 1962, where he remained as part of the Atlas and MU5 

high-performance computer design teams until he moved to lead a systems architec-

ture group at the University of Essex in 1986. From 1993 to 1998 he also coordinated 

an EPSRC specially promoted programme of research into Architectures for Inte-

grated Knowledge-based Systems. Amongst his many publications are four books on 

computer history: History of Manchester Computers (1975), Early British Computers 

(1980), The Pegasus Story: a history of a vintage British computer (2000); and  Moving 

Targets: Elliott-Automation and the dawn of the computer age in Britain, 1947–67 

(2011). He retired in 2002 and is a committee member of the Computer Conservation 

Society.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

The Computer Conservation Society is a member group of BCS, The Chartered  

Institute for IT. The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of BCS in  

producing this book and the assistance of Matthew Flynn and the BCS Publications 

Department. We are grateful to Kevin Murrell, Secretary of the Computer Conserva-

tion Society, for arranging the photographs and credits.

Picture credits

Archant, Norfolk: P. 56 (top)

Birmingham Museums Collection Centre: P. 66

Bletchley Park Trust: P. 2 (bottom)

Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge: Pp. 21; 22 (top and bottom); 24; 27; 

28; 29; 30 (top and bottom)

Crown Copyright, with the kind permission, Director GCHQ: P. 2 (top)

From author’s private collection  (RJ): Pp. 60; 63; 64; 67

From author’s private collection (MC-K): P. 54 (bottom)

Elliott-Automation’s successors (BAE Systems and Telent plc): Pp. 48 (top, middle 

and bottom); 51 (top); 54 (top); 56 (bottom); 77

Fujitsu plc.: P. 19 (top)

IBM plc: P. 36 (bottom)

LEO Society: P. 26

Medical Research Council, Laboratory of Molecular Biology: P. 31

National Physical Laboratory: P. 18 (top and bottom)

Royal Society: P. 80

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Acknowledgements

School of Computer Science, University of Manchester: Pp. 34; 36 (top); 39 (top and 

bottom); 41; 42; 43; 44; 46; 51 (bottom)

Science Museum, London: Front cover; P. 62

St John’s College, University of Cambridge: Pp. 3; 5

Twickenham Museum: P. 6

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PREFACE 

The years 1945–55 saw the emergence of a radically new kind of device: the  high-speed 

stored-program digital computer. Secret wartime projects in areas such as code-

breaking, radar and ballistics had produced a wealth of ideas and technologies that 

kick-started this first decade of the Information Age. The brilliant mathematician and 

code-breaker Alan Turing was just one of several British pioneers whose prototype 

machines led the way.

Turning theory into practice proved tricky, but by 1948 five UK research groups 

had begun to build practical stored-program computers. This book tells the story of 

the people and projects that flourished during the post-war period at a time when, 

in spite of economic austerity and gloom, British ingenuity came up with some  

notable successes. By 1955 the computers produced by companies such as Ferranti, 

English  Electric, Elliott Brothers and the British Tabulating Machine Co. had begun 

to appear in the marketplace. The Information Age had arrived.

To mark the centenary of Alan Turing’s birth, the Computer Conservation 

 Society has sponsored this book to celebrate the efforts of the people who produced 

the world’s first stored-program computer (1948), the first fully functional comput-

ing service (1950), the first application to business data processing (1951) and the 

first delivery of a production machine to a customer (1951). Our book is a tribute 

not only to stars such as Tom Kilburn, Alan Turing and Maurice Wilkes but to 

the many other scientists and engineers who made significant contributions to the 

whole story.

Chapter 1 sets the background to these events, explaining how, and where, the basic 

ideas originated. Chapters 2–6 describe how teams at five UK locations then built a 

number of prototype computers based on these ideas. Chapter 7 explains how these 

prototypes were re-engineered for the market place, leading to end-user applications 

in science, industry and commerce. The relative influence of Alan Turing in all of this, 

through his contributions both to the theory and the practice of computing, is sum-

marised in Chapter 8. The book concludes with a technical appendix that gives the  

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