I am proud to say that I have actually seen this machine in operation. When you are actually there the clicking noise has more of a thud sound to it on top of the ticking noise. Sounds more like the heartbeat of the machine whilst it works. It was a great privilege to see this amazing piece of history working. What many of you don't realise is that many of those valves that are glowing away on that computer date back to the late 1940s!!!!
Let's remember Tommy Flowers, UK Telephone Engineer with UK Postal Service, for the design and development of Colossus. Colossus was the first programmable computer and it broke the code of Hitler's Lorenz encryption device used by Hitler and his high command. After WWII Tommy Flowers just disappeared into obscurity within the UK Postal Surface.
@deepblue69uk Yes, that was something. But there is something wrong about Flowers and his team being forced by State secrecy to forego what should have been the patent rights to a lot of the innovation they developed. Alan Turing got a lot less than he deserved too. What's odd is they gave Turing an OBE (when surely everyone at Bletchley Park pretty much suspected he was gay, but did not consider him a security risk) and chemically castrated him when it became officially known.
@GrizzlyRecoveryZone1 The bombe, a Polish design improved by Alan Turing and a college at Bletchly Park to break the Enigma Naval Code, used to make a ticking sound. Hence, the term "bombe". Also, an homage to the original Polish design that had been named after a European desert "the bomb.
Okay, some people claim that the COLOSSUS, which was made in England, was the first PC ever, while others think that the American ENIAC was the first one. I'm not sure.
@MacGyver920 The Poles developed a computer to break Enigma. I don't know if they lacked time to complete it before Hitler invaded Poland or why it was not completed. Alan Turing and a colleague at Bletchley Park improved on the Polish design so it could break the German Naval Enigma Code within minutes. This was "the bombe". Colossus was developed after "the bombe" by Tommy Flower, UK Postal Services telephone engineer, to break the Lorenz encryption used by Hitelr and his high command.
@MacGyver920 The distinction is not "the first PC," but the first programmable computer. The distinction accurately belongs to England's Colossus (design by Tommy Flowers with decryption expertise support from William Hutte). Eniac walked away with the distinction for many years, simply because Colossus was kept a very tight secret for more than 40 years after WWII because the Brits were using it to break the Sovierts' code similar to Lorenz.
Although primitive, this design is still incredibly complex and would take a good three hours or so for an uninitiated person to understand. It only goes to show how incredibly sophisticated pieces of engineering our everyday computers are.
@HisMight1. And so it's primitive. That's the point. Do you expect early technology to be all shiny & sleek? It was the the fastest computer in the world. It could read 5000 characters per second. Thermionic valves were the only hardware, along with other telephony equipment, available. What would you have built in those circumstances?
@mrmemanme do they really have a number for the moth? let alone a mentally challenged one? i like your comment.i thought the u-boat code was cracked cause they got there hands on an enigma machine,as i think they were called. the brits didn't just have a brainstorm session,they had an actual code machine they captured from the nazi's...i think hismight1 got his facts wrong.
@slowuroll2000 thanks :D yeah the royal navy captured an enigma machine on U boat, but once bletchely park had it they still had to work out how it worked and how to crack it, it took several brilliant minds to crack it. However that was only enigma, the Germans also began to use "tunny" which was a sort of super enigma which had 1.6 million billion different potential combinations, and the egg heads at bletchley park cracked it first by HAND! and then more efficiently with a computer.
@mrmemanme , actually Enigma machines in 1939 were already in the hands of the Polish and French secret services, which passed them over to the British, along with early codebreaking machines ("Bombs")
@mrmemanme, of course. The memoirs of general Bertrand (1973), "Enigma ou la plus grand énigme de la guerre 1939–1945" (Paris, Plon) ; Władysław Kozaczuk (1984), "Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher was Broken" ; Paul Paillole (1985), "Notre espion chez Hitler, Paris, Laffont (Paul Paillole was a senior officer in the French military IS in 1939, and kept working with the British under Vichy); and others.
@mrmemanme, The Poles and French' main concern was the German army and air force, much more than the Kriegsmarine – a big difference with the British islands! The French navy counted more on its radars and on its ships' superior speed to check the Germans and Italians. Yet, they would evidently have developed their own cryptanalysis machines… had they had the time!
@HisMight1 I have never been to America. I don't know what you are talking about. The british cypher crackers notably Turing however pretty much allowed shipping to re-establish by finally allowing the out-smarting of the U-Boats, and this in turn allowed the D-Day invasions to occur.With out them, the war might have been lost.
"1.4GHz laptop digested ciphertext at a speed of 1.2 million characters per second—240 times faster than Colossus. If you scale the CPU frequency by that factor, you get an equivalent clock of 5.8 MHz for Colossus. That is a remarkable speed for a computer built in 1944."
I would contend that the first practical computer, of any type, was the Antikythera Mechanism. In the modern era, the Mechanically Interlocked Lever Frame is arguably the first practical & widespread binary computing machine. They are an analogue device in a mechanical signalbox, that prevent conflicting traffic movements being set. The first mechanical interlocking was installed in 1843 at Bricklayers' Arms Junction, in the UK.
Contrast ENIAC with this, the yanks had a shit load of cash to throw at the problem, the Brits had some man in a shed at the GPO knock it up with a few valves (well 2400, compared to ENIAC's 18,000), on his tea break. The British Govt, then took the unfathomable step of keeping it secret 'till the mid 70's, where as the Yanks, de-classified their work, straight after the war, & very generously gave guided tour to anyone who was interested, thus helping kick start the whole IT industry.
@yakacm Minor amendment, as part of the war effort, the British Government gave the US the technology to build ENIAC free, gratis along with the Jet Engine, and in return the US Government charged the British Tax Payer for every rivet and every bullet supplied under the Lend Lease arrangement that was put in place before they were forced to get into the conflict by the Pearl harbour attack. The debt was finally paid off in 1997 every cent, and then they screwed us with useless mortgages.
Regarding Steve Jobs,he was an extrodinary individual,one might look back to his call,when he was 12yr old,toBill Hewlett,for spare parts;Steve Wozniak and Jobs were the buds of the start.Ever see a Apple1 Computer,Jobs sold 50 of Wozniaks computer, and Helett Packard soon discovered their mistake, to release Wozniak to the Micro world and Steve Jobs forcefulness. Free enterprise,They started the home computer run.
You guys mocking its lack of spec are just disrespectful. Without this computer and advent of valve technology, we may not have the advanced computer world we have today.
@AstuteClass We also would have had trouble reading the Lorenz cypher. As a large proportion of that is still secret, we can only imagine what information Colossus gave us, but if it's anything like the bombes breaking the Enigma, it would be pretty important.
Also, I think Colossus is one of the most beautiful pieces of engineering I've seen. Compare that to the relay machines of the thirties, and it's a stellar leap
Remember boys and girls , these old computers didn't just start the computer revolution, they where central to the defeat of the nazis, saving millions of lives and very possibly saving the jewish people , and maybe even democracy itself, from extinction.
@MrShayneOneill maybe. maybe. uh, the nazi agenda isn't defeated yet... nazi was a product of the Vatican and Monarchy, they funded it all, both those agencies still exist today, so, no, it wasn't defeated actually...
Being a computer pro since the mid 70's, I have such respect for those that understand these remarkable first machines, and can operate them just like those that invented them.
Those that were born after 1990 just have no idea what it took to develop and program these machines, you just had to be there. What we have today is testament to their incredible insight with such limmited technology by today's standards. The electronics in these machines were made from mostly tube technology!
why you insult the older computers this is the problem you insult old computer old people but why? you know that this is what led to the new fast computers you know that the old led to the new or are you just randomly insulting
@wassimzombi Its cool to have these old machines but you must admit its a waist of time and energy trying to keep them running for a very small group of human kind interested in the old machines.................i loved my pen 4 machine but its a heap of shit so i upgraded.
Simply amazing. I just cant imagine how much of a leap forward this was at the time. It would be like building a human level intelligence machine today staggering!
This is an amazingly complex electromechanical computer! To the present day user our modern day computers seem much simpler, but internally they are even a lot more complex.
@jerryg50 Yes, more complex in logic, but not building terms. The complexity of todays computers relies only on the amount of transistors on the die. The thing is that the computers we have today, doesn´t take advantage of "real" engineering and inventing, it is more "improve the given", like gasoline car engines. They got more horsepower, but the base is a nearly hundred years old design.
@Denvermorgan2000: No, it used mercury sound delay lines, an acousitic impulse was coupled into one end of a long mercury filled pipe, and when the wave appeared at the other end, it was amplified and reinserted at the beginning, so a 50msec latency hard disc track was emulated. There were several such lines in parallel, I'm not sure how many, so a "some track hard disc" was realised.
Haha - also interesting is that in about the last four centuries we've gone from defect-free computer hardware/software to over 3,000 defects is a software system.
@sivadfa Nah, it would have just taken too long and too much money to build it and required too much power and servicing.
Besides, code cracking doesn't require too much working memory, it's mostly serial processing. Some clever brains to work out what the cipher is in the first place and a fast enough machine that can continually re-run the job with different input codes to said cipher and therefore produce intelligible plaintext whilst the information is still usefully fresh is more important
@epcenter5hz Although it is old, this is a state-of-the-art computer. I bet that engineers today probably cannot remember how to build it. We in present-time do not have have the mechanical skills that we did in the past. It is all electronic.
Thus I said its not country specific, anyone can edit it and thus there are British English phrases, American English phrases, Australian and more, but no particular Wiki for an English country specifically.
Oh ... ok ... i see ... the British Wiki speak from electro-mechanical ... it is even shit, if foreigen people only know the propaganda of ther countrys ;-) ... so sorry, but British Wiki lie!!! The Z3 was electro-digital and not electro-mechanical!!! :-)
Sorry idiot, but every German knows, that the Z3 was digital. And if you do not want to believe it, than visit the Konrad Zuse Museum and you will see, that the Z3 is electro-digital and not electro-mechanical ... as i wrote, it is even shit, if you only belive the bullshit from the British Wiki, that is writen by other idiot. Only there you find this fals info :-)
And as i wrote, ABC = not free programmable, Z3 = free programmable ... think abou it ;-)
And sorry, if you will not belive my words, than come to Germany, go into the Konrad Zuse Museum and find out more. There you even can find a official plaque, that the Z3 was the frist real computer in history (it make no differens if the management occur by electromechanical or with electrical relays, becuase they do the same)
Sweethart, also a important fact, that make a calculator to a computer is, that the machine is FREE PROGRAMMABLE!!! If this is not given, than it is no computer!!! And sorry, the Colossus was not free programmable and, thimple reason, Colossus = no computer!!!
Next thing, the Z3 also was the first "computer", that works after the binary number system. And big sorry for you, i have investigated and the Z3 use relays. Compare pics of the Z3 and Colossus and you will notice the equals
It was programmable by switches and relays, I wont argue its the first computer but its the first programmable AND electronic computer. Z3 maybe first programmable, but its not the first electro'nic'.
Collosus uses vacuum tubes, there is not a single relay on the machine
The definition of computer is defined by Turing completess, Z3 was the first turing complete computer (but not electro'nic') however Babbages Analytical Engine would have been if it had been built.
@couteau86 the relays are plan as day -electro-mechanical
Collosus uses Vacuum tubes not relays, I have seen this this with my eyes, and I only need to see a pic of Z3 and its blatently clear that is uses relays.
You dont even need to be an electric engineer to know wat a relay and a valve is, just research it...
The German Zuse Z3 is electro-MECHANICHAL. I am talking about the real breakthrough that comes with the fully electronic-Digital computing. That can be traced back to the ABC. As to the prerequisite properties you suggest + general purpose, they can be entirely seen in ENIAC. And ENIAC is a result of Atanasoff-Berry Computer. A fact that is proven in court!
The Atanasoff-Berry Computer was the world's first electronic digital computer. It was built by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry at Iowa State University during 1937-42.
On October 19, 1973, US Federal Judge Earl R. Larson signed his decision following a lengthy court trial which declared the ENIAC patent of Mauchly and Eckert invalid and named Atanasoff the inventor of the electronic digital computer -- the Atanasoff-Berry Computer or the ABC.
Why can this nobody understand??? Yes, the Atanasoff-Berry-Machine was electrical, yes, the Atanasoff-Berry-Machine was digital, but they was NOT FREE PROGRAMMABLE. The German Zuse Z3, from the same year like the Atanasoff-Berry-Machine also was electrical, digital, but, and this is realy important, they was FREE PROGRAMMABLE ... and the 3 things, that make a calculator to a computer are 1. electrical 2. digital and 3. free programmable ... Zuse Z3 = first REAL computer!!!
@couteau86 not correct! z3 was mechanical-electro, also z4 and no real computer is mechanical! and programmable only with punchcard. punchcard was invented by IBM. zuse never earned a patent on computer! zuse is german tv, newspaper and political propaganda. german peoples very owned!
@couteau86 WRONG! z3 and also z4 was mechanical-electro and only operated with motor! and z1 and z2 was full mechanical and not worked! the first real digital computer was realy Atansoff Berry Computer 1937-1941.
Actually... The Jacquard Head is a computer. Babbage is a bit over rated all he did was use the punch cards he saw on the Jacquard Head however he is extremely brilliant... and Ada Lovelace wrote the first operating system (its just an algorithm!).
While Colossus and Eniac are primative compared to today's machines, The Brain power and intelligence that went into building Colossus is no less remarkable and amazing than the engineers and scientists that build todays machines...I wouldn't know where to start.
First Computer/Calculator is UK (Charles Babbage) (Ada Lovelace)! And first PC is USA, (Xerox) or Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak (Apple I). And Microchips (very important) is Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce. (Texas Instuments and Intel with first Chips). And dont forget Bill Gates, with first real great Operating-System.
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
Can tell me one person here, how the Colossus can be the first "computer", if he was in service at 1943 and if he was NOT free programmable, although the German Zuse Z1 is from 1937, 6 years earlier and the Zuse Z3, from 1941, 2 years earlier, who was electrical, like the Z1 and your Colossus, DIGITAL and FREE PROGRAMMABLE, what are the characteristics of a computer???
Sorry for you, the greandfather of all modern computers is the German Z1 and Z3 :-)
@couteau86 If it was so it would be known already. Read about John Atanasoff, he is the real inventor of the digital computer, in short, and no doubt. I am sorry that there is so much ignorance about computers' history.
It is not even the digital you nope. The 3 properties, that make a rake machine to a computer are: 1. electrical 2. digital and 3. free programmable. And the Colossus and even not the Atanasoff-Berry Machine was free programmable. The first machine, that meet all 3 properties of a computer was, is and will be the German Zuse Z3!!! Historical fact!!!
As you wrote, you are a ignorant idiot, that has no idea about the history of the computer :-)
@couteau86 The German Zuse Z3 is electro-MECHANICHAL. I am talking about the real breakthrough that comes with the fully electronic-Digital computing. That can be traced back to the ABC. As to the prerequisite properties you suggest + general purpose, they can be entirely seen in ENIAC. And ENIAC is a result of Atanasoff-Berry Computer. A fact that is proven in court!
The way you write and judge does not support your claim that I am an idiot but rather makes you look idiot.
@absoluutrecords The Enigma Machine was not German, it was made by the Lorenz Co Switzerland, in the 1920s and was sold on the open Market for commercial purposes there is nothing clever about a tranposition machine. in the days before electronics repeating the same Function over and over was only tedious
I think Lorenz was still making Teleprinters in the 1970s
@MrsJosephMerrick i live in bletchley within an hour of bletchley park where collosus is based and its great you go into this building and you walk round seeing stuff like the first ever pcs and industrial computers the sise of clothes cabinets unfortunetaly you can use colossus you hould defenetaly come and see it
@wasps21 You actually have me drooling...Sounds even MORE interesting place to visit! Youre really lucky to live so near! Im not a computer geek, but I really get excited by this sort of stuff ""seriously addicted to computers"".Who knows perhaps one day I'll have the chance*dreams*
It boggles me that these machines did real world work? I feel so dumb that I have this computer at my finger tips and I don't have a clue on how to build an H-bomb or crack a code? I guess it really depends on a knowledgeable operator and not just brute force number crunching.
Colossus was COMPLETE electronic (!), and was fully programmable, also ENIAC, Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, Modified ENIAC, EDSAC, Manchester Mark 1 and finaly CSIRAC, and some had even memory! This all Computers was the realy first Computers!
@Starfighterking Yes Colossus was fully electronic, etc. But the father, the pater of the fully digital computers is IINDESPUTABLY Atanasoff-Berry Computer. Don't overlook it.
went to bletchley this weekend to see this working....well clever how they rebuild this....if you think the front of the machine looks impressive the back is unreal....
I am proud to say that I have actually seen this machine in operation. When you are actually there the clicking noise has more of a thud sound to it on top of the ticking noise. Sounds more like the heartbeat of the machine whilst it works. It was a great privilege to see this amazing piece of history working. What many of you don't realise is that many of those valves that are glowing away on that computer date back to the late 1940s!!!!
deepblue69uk 4 weeks ago
Let's remember Tommy Flowers, UK Telephone Engineer with UK Postal Service, for the design and development of Colossus. Colossus was the first programmable computer and it broke the code of Hitler's Lorenz encryption device used by Hitler and his high command. After WWII Tommy Flowers just disappeared into obscurity within the UK Postal Surface.
MsTruNorth 4 weeks ago
@MsTruNorth At least he was present when they first switched on the rebuilt Colossus. :-)
deepblue69uk 4 weeks ago
@deepblue69uk Yes, that was something. But there is something wrong about Flowers and his team being forced by State secrecy to forego what should have been the patent rights to a lot of the innovation they developed. Alan Turing got a lot less than he deserved too. What's odd is they gave Turing an OBE (when surely everyone at Bletchley Park pretty much suspected he was gay, but did not consider him a security risk) and chemically castrated him when it became officially known.
MsTruNorth 4 weeks ago
paper clip pops up 11011101110010110101110011?
dont try to decode its just random
slicker41 1 month ago
the repetitive chopping sound has a sinister, ominous quality to it
GrizzlyRecoveryZone1 1 month ago
@GrizzlyRecoveryZone1 The bombe, a Polish design improved by Alan Turing and a college at Bletchly Park to break the Enigma Naval Code, used to make a ticking sound. Hence, the term "bombe". Also, an homage to the original Polish design that had been named after a European desert "the bomb.
MsTruNorth 4 weeks ago
Okay, some people claim that the COLOSSUS, which was made in England, was the first PC ever, while others think that the American ENIAC was the first one. I'm not sure.
MacGyver920 2 months ago
@MacGyver920 COLOSSUS was 3 years before ENIAC so of the 2 it was the first.
quarkwrok 1 month ago 2
@quarkwrok And I think I read somewhere that people experimented with computers in Britain even BEFORE COLOSSUS!
MacGyver920 1 month ago
@MacGyver920 The Poles developed a computer to break Enigma. I don't know if they lacked time to complete it before Hitler invaded Poland or why it was not completed. Alan Turing and a colleague at Bletchley Park improved on the Polish design so it could break the German Naval Enigma Code within minutes. This was "the bombe". Colossus was developed after "the bombe" by Tommy Flower, UK Postal Services telephone engineer, to break the Lorenz encryption used by Hitelr and his high command.
MsTruNorth 4 weeks ago
@MsTruNorth Interesting. Thank you.
MacGyver920 4 weeks ago
@MacGyver920 The distinction is not "the first PC," but the first programmable computer. The distinction accurately belongs to England's Colossus (design by Tommy Flowers with decryption expertise support from William Hutte). Eniac walked away with the distinction for many years, simply because Colossus was kept a very tight secret for more than 40 years after WWII because the Brits were using it to break the Sovierts' code similar to Lorenz.
MsTruNorth 4 weeks ago
@MsTruNorth Wow, thanks.
MacGyver920 3 weeks ago
Although primitive, this design is still incredibly complex and would take a good three hours or so for an uninitiated person to understand. It only goes to show how incredibly sophisticated pieces of engineering our everyday computers are.
yoctocb 3 months ago
It has 15K of memory, you can barely write a Microsoft page per hour.
MenwithHill 3 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@MenwithHill , well, in 1943 the urgent problem was not to write a Microsoft page, but to win the war against Hitler…
Hippophilee 2 months ago
@MenwithHill It also happens to be the reason why Microsoft exists.
mrmemanme 2 months ago
@HisMight1. And so it's primitive. That's the point. Do you expect early technology to be all shiny & sleek? It was the the fastest computer in the world. It could read 5000 characters per second. Thermionic valves were the only hardware, along with other telephony equipment, available. What would you have built in those circumstances?
DickHBox 3 months ago
@HisMight1 I find it amusing that your IQ is lower than that of a mentally challenged moth.
mrmemanme 3 months ago 2
@mrmemanme do they really have a number for the moth? let alone a mentally challenged one? i like your comment.i thought the u-boat code was cracked cause they got there hands on an enigma machine,as i think they were called. the brits didn't just have a brainstorm session,they had an actual code machine they captured from the nazi's...i think hismight1 got his facts wrong.
slowuroll2000 3 months ago
@slowuroll2000 thanks :D yeah the royal navy captured an enigma machine on U boat, but once bletchely park had it they still had to work out how it worked and how to crack it, it took several brilliant minds to crack it. However that was only enigma, the Germans also began to use "tunny" which was a sort of super enigma which had 1.6 million billion different potential combinations, and the egg heads at bletchley park cracked it first by HAND! and then more efficiently with a computer.
mrmemanme 3 months ago
@mrmemanme , actually Enigma machines in 1939 were already in the hands of the Polish and French secret services, which passed them over to the British, along with early codebreaking machines ("Bombs")
Hippophilee 2 months ago
@Hippophilee evidence, PLEASE!
mrmemanme 2 months ago
@mrmemanme, of course. The memoirs of general Bertrand (1973), "Enigma ou la plus grand énigme de la guerre 1939–1945" (Paris, Plon) ; Władysław Kozaczuk (1984), "Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher was Broken" ; Paul Paillole (1985), "Notre espion chez Hitler, Paris, Laffont (Paul Paillole was a senior officer in the French military IS in 1939, and kept working with the British under Vichy); and others.
Hippophilee 2 months ago
@Hippophilee ok but i odnt think they had navy grade enigmas
mrmemanme 2 months ago
@mrmemanme, The Poles and French' main concern was the German army and air force, much more than the Kriegsmarine – a big difference with the British islands! The French navy counted more on its radars and on its ships' superior speed to check the Germans and Italians. Yet, they would evidently have developed their own cryptanalysis machines… had they had the time!
Hippophilee 2 months ago
I LOL at the USA who claimed they invented the worlds first computer in 1946... FACEPALM!
mrmemanme 3 months ago 4
@HisMight1 You would want to, dirty rag head.
aaronfowlowmusic 3 months ago
@HisMight1 I have never been to America. I don't know what you are talking about. The british cypher crackers notably Turing however pretty much allowed shipping to re-establish by finally allowing the out-smarting of the U-Boats, and this in turn allowed the D-Day invasions to occur.With out them, the war might have been lost.
MrShayneOneill 3 months ago
"1.4GHz laptop digested ciphertext at a speed of 1.2 million characters per second—240 times faster than Colossus. If you scale the CPU frequency by that factor, you get an equivalent clock of 5.8 MHz for Colossus. That is a remarkable speed for a computer built in 1944."
From Bletchley Par dot org
mohammmadtouchedboys 3 months ago
I thought the first electronic computer was seclidos.
EpicTwistedOne 3 months ago
@EpicTwistedOne. What's seclidos?
DickHBox 3 months ago
@DickHBox Sorry i was getting confused with colossus and on of the first network connections ever.
EpicTwistedOne 3 months ago
@EpicTwistedOne NP. But I still don't know what 'Seclidos' was. :)
DickHBox 3 months ago
@DickHBox It was one of the first network connections between modern computers.
EpicTwistedOne 3 months ago
I would contend that the first practical computer, of any type, was the Antikythera Mechanism. In the modern era, the Mechanically Interlocked Lever Frame is arguably the first practical & widespread binary computing machine. They are an analogue device in a mechanical signalbox, that prevent conflicting traffic movements being set. The first mechanical interlocking was installed in 1843 at Bricklayers' Arms Junction, in the UK.
DickHBox 3 months ago
Contrast ENIAC with this, the yanks had a shit load of cash to throw at the problem, the Brits had some man in a shed at the GPO knock it up with a few valves (well 2400, compared to ENIAC's 18,000), on his tea break. The British Govt, then took the unfathomable step of keeping it secret 'till the mid 70's, where as the Yanks, de-classified their work, straight after the war, & very generously gave guided tour to anyone who was interested, thus helping kick start the whole IT industry.
yakacm 3 months ago
@yakacm Minor amendment, as part of the war effort, the British Government gave the US the technology to build ENIAC free, gratis along with the Jet Engine, and in return the US Government charged the British Tax Payer for every rivet and every bullet supplied under the Lend Lease arrangement that was put in place before they were forced to get into the conflict by the Pearl harbour attack. The debt was finally paid off in 1997 every cent, and then they screwed us with useless mortgages.
TheTomtompiper 3 months ago 2
cool story bro.
yakacm 3 months ago
can it run crysis?
robertrocks4 3 months ago
Stfu apple fanboy. This vid is about the colossus. Go spam elsewhere!
keoni29 3 months ago
Regarding Steve Jobs,he was an extrodinary individual,one might look back to his call,when he was 12yr old,toBill Hewlett,for spare parts;Steve Wozniak and Jobs were the buds of the start.Ever see a Apple1 Computer,Jobs sold 50 of Wozniaks computer, and Helett Packard soon discovered their mistake, to release Wozniak to the Micro world and Steve Jobs forcefulness. Free enterprise,They started the home computer run.
starview1 3 months ago
You guys mocking its lack of spec are just disrespectful. Without this computer and advent of valve technology, we may not have the advanced computer world we have today.
AstuteClass 4 months ago 17
@AstuteClass We also would have had trouble reading the Lorenz cypher. As a large proportion of that is still secret, we can only imagine what information Colossus gave us, but if it's anything like the bombes breaking the Enigma, it would be pretty important.
Also, I think Colossus is one of the most beautiful pieces of engineering I've seen. Compare that to the relay machines of the thirties, and it's a stellar leap
jonboyjon1976 3 months ago
Remember boys and girls , these old computers didn't just start the computer revolution, they where central to the defeat of the nazis, saving millions of lives and very possibly saving the jewish people , and maybe even democracy itself, from extinction.
MrShayneOneill 4 months ago
@MrShayneOneill maybe. maybe. uh, the nazi agenda isn't defeated yet... nazi was a product of the Vatican and Monarchy, they funded it all, both those agencies still exist today, so, no, it wasn't defeated actually...
pamaspamas 3 months ago
Were's the mouse? And the computer screen? and the key board? and the dvd drive ?
ghizzywhizzy 4 months ago
so freaking cool
teedot 4 months ago
Being a computer pro since the mid 70's, I have such respect for those that understand these remarkable first machines, and can operate them just like those that invented them.
Those that were born after 1990 just have no idea what it took to develop and program these machines, you just had to be there. What we have today is testament to their incredible insight with such limmited technology by today's standards. The electronics in these machines were made from mostly tube technology!
charlyvvvvv 4 months ago
why you insult the older computers this is the problem you insult old computer old people but why? you know that this is what led to the new fast computers you know that the old led to the new or are you just randomly insulting
wassimzombi 4 months ago
@wassimzombi Its cool to have these old machines but you must admit its a waist of time and energy trying to keep them running for a very small group of human kind interested in the old machines.................i loved my pen 4 machine but its a heap of shit so i upgraded.
Floppy2Blueray 4 months ago
Sick computer! Will it handle me playing Crysis?
aaronfowlowmusic 4 months ago
Simply amazing. I just cant imagine how much of a leap forward this was at the time. It would be like building a human level intelligence machine today staggering!
elwood173 4 months ago
RIP Tony Sale (1931-2011). Great work rebuilding Colossus and helping save Bletchley Park. You'll be greatly missed.
dante314159 5 months ago 23
This is an amazingly complex electromechanical computer! To the present day user our modern day computers seem much simpler, but internally they are even a lot more complex.
jerryg50 5 months ago
@jerryg50 Yes, more complex in logic, but not building terms. The complexity of todays computers relies only on the amount of transistors on the die. The thing is that the computers we have today, doesn´t take advantage of "real" engineering and inventing, it is more "improve the given", like gasoline car engines. They got more horsepower, but the base is a nearly hundred years old design.
TheMCMXXL2 5 months ago
@lotUsCherry27 Sorry but you just didnt said what you had to say well you have to say it in the AVGN style
Holy piece of dog with an amount of chess on the bottom shit this is how Angry video game Nerd would have said !
darkdevil905 5 months ago
does this have a hard drive.
Denvermorgan2000 6 months ago
@Denvermorgan2000: No, it used mercury sound delay lines, an acousitic impulse was coupled into one end of a long mercury filled pipe, and when the wave appeared at the other end, it was amplified and reinserted at the beginning, so a 50msec latency hard disc track was emulated. There were several such lines in parallel, I'm not sure how many, so a "some track hard disc" was realised.
MyLadygaga1 6 months ago
ENIAC > Colossus
omgz0rtbh 7 months ago
@omgz0rtbh fat lot of good Eniac was in the war effort though, having being completed in 1946 .
PurplePunisher69 5 months ago
This video gets much better with CC on...
Kilen81 7 months ago
colosus would also run a created algorithm to find the correct key crack.
websuspect 8 months ago
History of modern computer
1936- Z1 created, first freely programmable computer in world
1941- Z3 created, first working programmable,fully automatic computer
1942- ABC computer created, first electric digital computer
1943- Colossus computer created, first combining digital, programmable, and electric computer
1948- BABY created, first stored program computer
checkouttimecali 8 months ago
OHEMGEE THIS IS SOOO COOLL!!
dontbeabroad 9 months ago
This makes me want to watch the twilight zone.
jaymorpheus11 9 months ago
hmm this sure seems populay on YT but i must say AheM POSHIE!!
151 people are either old or POSHIE!!
djkid9 9 months ago
"Has Hitler a big bratwurst?"
"Colossus says no."
TheFinlandnator 9 months ago 2
mehhh...the Z3 was the first one
waddlerobloxxxx 9 months ago
Haha - also interesting is that in about the last four centuries we've gone from defect-free computer hardware/software to over 3,000 defects is a software system.
nathandelane 10 months ago
@nathandelane You forgot to mention premature hardware failures as well. ATi graphics adapters suck!!!
MIKON8ERISBACK 7 months ago
interesting..in less than a century went from a room size computer to a palm size one....
ultramegatrion 10 months ago
@ultramegatrion Yeah, and using its power for watching Videos on Youtube. A very useful improvement..
TheMCMXXL2 9 months ago
i tht that eniac was the first computer a
wellivea1 10 months ago
@wellivea1
Colussus came out 3 years earlier..
nevermind ...
LordGeorgeRodney 10 months ago
upgrade it to trillions muiltiplyed by trillions of fast switching relays and it mite be close to a slow computer
u should try make it play some music
soulmasterdw 11 months ago
@soulmasterdw yeah but it at least it was faster than any American computer at the time..
LordGeorgeRodney 11 months ago
more importantly... Will it blend?
1NC3P7ED 11 months ago 3
they sure aint make em like they used to
roofy2k 11 months ago
Please also look for Konrad Zuse - he build the first binary computer.
myoldmac 11 months ago
"Why do we all have to wear these RIDICULOUS ties?"
curadomovies 1 year ago 3
@curadomovies "Do you know who ate all the donuts?"
baso88 11 months ago
hahahaha at 5 mins u can see it does 1 calc per second ahahahaahh rofl
hubzcaps 1 year ago
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@hubzcaps that's more than you can do
Keh0ol 1 year ago
@hubzcaps The colossus machines were capable of around 3000 calculations per second.
SericX 8 months ago
@SericX is that like 3khz?
gtr500able 8 months ago
dude this is so awsome u have no idea
hubzcaps 1 year ago
This thing blows my mind how it can actually compute anything. it's crazy where we came from
jacosmith86 1 year ago
takes 5 years to start. (five years later)
A PROBLEM HAS BEEN DETECTED AND WINDOWS 18 HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN SO GO FUCK YOURSELF
devhook23 1 year ago
I think the person talking is the Curator of the museum, If you want to see whom I suspect to be the same person, search for a TV programme Called
The Secret Life of: The Word Processor. Channel 4 UK.
Mikej2156 1 year ago
@Mikej2156 Tony Sale (I think)
Mikej2156 1 year ago
windows seems to have made little progress since then..
lanswipe 1 year ago
... and it has a top ram of 1kb!
Justeazy8 1 year ago 26
@Justeazy8 nope more like .0000000000000005 bytes
devhook23 1 year ago
@devhook23 Maybe you should Google just how much a byte actually is.
Justeazy8 1 year ago
@Justeazy8 its actually a decent estimation, being that one kilobyte would be about 2 million electrical pulses.
devhook23 1 year ago
@Justeazy8
OH GOD NO
it would have WAAAAAAAAAAAAY less than THAT.
(maybe)
ChessPieceRook 11 months ago
@ChessPieceRook
Horray for uncertainty! xD
Justeazy8 10 months ago
@Justeazy8 les.
basbas63 9 months ago
@Justeazy8 At the time, no-one couldn't think of anything that could ever take any more than 1kb of ram.
sivadfa 9 months ago
@sivadfa Nah, it would have just taken too long and too much money to build it and required too much power and servicing.
Besides, code cracking doesn't require too much working memory, it's mostly serial processing. Some clever brains to work out what the cipher is in the first place and a fast enough machine that can continually re-run the job with different input codes to said cipher and therefore produce intelligible plaintext whilst the information is still usefully fresh is more important
TahreyUK 9 months ago
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@Justeazy8 At the time, no-one could think of anything that could ever take any more than 1kb of ram.
sivadfa 9 months ago
@Justeazy8 more lik -1 byte
624gamer 9 months ago
@Justeazy8 infact that wasnt even possible on the colosus i think, cus the apple II had 1 or 2 KB RAM, and was made in 1981 or so
ZwamTek 4 months ago
@Justeazy8 NOOOOOOOOOO 1 BYTE!
ghizzywhizzy 4 months ago
HE'S TALKS AS CONFIDENT & ELEGANT AS, THIS COMPUTER IS STATE-OF-THE ART IN PRESENT TIME...
epcenter5hz 1 year ago 19
@epcenter5hz Although it is old, this is a state-of-the-art computer. I bet that engineers today probably cannot remember how to build it. We in present-time do not have have the mechanical skills that we did in the past. It is all electronic.
ScioFantasia 11 months ago
@ScioFantasia
its a relay computer we have more skills to build it
soulmasterdw 11 months ago
@animesis
One times the Z3 is not digital, now they is not electrical ... what is the next execuse??? Next time they is not real or what???
couteau86 1 year ago
In 1942 russians hade a electronic computer to calculate distance for guns to shoot against germans
sanderrodijk 1 year ago
@sanderrodijk
The German Z3 is from 1941 ;-)
couteau86 1 year ago
@sanderrodijk that were analog computers -.-
@wikipedia wiki/Analog_computer
QBMan 1 year ago
@QBMan a computer is a computer
sanderrodijk 1 year ago 2
@QBMan Any device that can compute numbers is technically a "computer". Even analog computers still do their job.
madjimms 1 year ago
@madjimms But theres no electronic. its electric ;)
QBMan 1 year ago
@QBMan -_- Who says it has anything to do with electricity?
madjimms 1 year ago
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@madjimms
In 1942 russians hade a electronic computer to calculate distance for guns to shoot against germans
sanderrodijk
QBMan 1 year ago
@animesis
And by the way, American English is a little bit different from the British English. This you even learn in the school ... ok, in a German school ...
couteau86 1 year ago
@couteau86
Thus I said its not country specific, anyone can edit it and thus there are British English phrases, American English phrases, Australian and more, but no particular Wiki for an English country specifically.
animesis 1 year ago
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if you type in porn it prints out a booby where,s the USB port ?
xxkil 1 year ago
if you type in porn it prints out a booby
xxkil 1 year ago
@Starfighterking
Oh ... ok ... i see ... the British Wiki speak from electro-mechanical ... it is even shit, if foreigen people only know the propaganda of ther countrys ;-) ... so sorry, but British Wiki lie!!! The Z3 was electro-digital and not electro-mechanical!!! :-)
couteau86 1 year ago
@couteau86 Wrong! And please, go in Kindergarden!
Starfighterking 1 year ago
@Starfighterking
Sorry idiot, but every German knows, that the Z3 was digital. And if you do not want to believe it, than visit the Konrad Zuse Museum and you will see, that the Z3 is electro-digital and not electro-mechanical ... as i wrote, it is even shit, if you only belive the bullshit from the British Wiki, that is writen by other idiot. Only there you find this fals info :-)
And as i wrote, ABC = not free programmable, Z3 = free programmable ... think abou it ;-)
couteau86 1 year ago
@couteau86 thanks for idiot and now go to Kindergarden.
Starfighterking 1 year ago
@Starfighterking
The only answer??? And than you say to my, that i shall go into a kindergarten???
couteau86 1 year ago
@couteau86
the Z3 uses relays, an electromechanical switch
the Z4 also uses a mechanical memory -thus they are electromechanical not electronic
and the first electronically programmable was the BABY (Manchester)
the first programmable automatic was the Z3
animesis 1 year ago
@couteau86
can you please stop calling it the British wiki, it is NOT British and anyone from ANY country can write on it and edit the submission if it is wrong,
if you are correct about the Z-series, put it on wiki, and im sure a few million people will either accept it as correct or fix it for being wrong
animesis 1 year ago
@animesis
I speak from the British languages Wiki :-)
And sorry, if you will not belive my words, than come to Germany, go into the Konrad Zuse Museum and find out more. There you even can find a official plaque, that the Z3 was the frist real computer in history (it make no differens if the management occur by electromechanical or with electrical relays, becuase they do the same)
couteau86 1 year ago
@couteau86
it is not British.... it is International English, IE a mix of both and is done by speakers of English worldwide
there is only an English version and toher languages, no specific English country one
There is No such thing as the first computer, its originally a term to mean someone who works numbers
First Programmable Automatic - Z3 - NOT electronic ; electromechanical
First electronic - Berry
First electronic/programmable - Baby
and what of Babbages Difference Engine? or an abacus?
animesis 1 year ago
@couteau86
it makes a huge difference to being firsts in lines of computing! one is eletronic the other is electromechanical
put a motor on Babbages difference engine - its an electromechanic computer
animesis 1 year ago
@animesis
Sweethart, also a important fact, that make a calculator to a computer is, that the machine is FREE PROGRAMMABLE!!! If this is not given, than it is no computer!!! And sorry, the Colossus was not free programmable and, thimple reason, Colossus = no computer!!!
Next thing, the Z3 also was the first "computer", that works after the binary number system. And big sorry for you, i have investigated and the Z3 use relays. Compare pics of the Z3 and Colossus and you will notice the equals
couteau86 1 year ago
@couteau86
It was programmable by switches and relays, I wont argue its the first computer but its the first programmable AND electronic computer. Z3 maybe first programmable, but its not the first electro'nic'.
Collosus uses vacuum tubes, there is not a single relay on the machine
The definition of computer is defined by Turing completess, Z3 was the first turing complete computer (but not electro'nic') however Babbages Analytical Engine would have been if it had been built.
animesis 1 year ago
@couteau86 the relays are plan as day -electro-mechanical
Collosus uses Vacuum tubes not relays, I have seen this this with my eyes, and I only need to see a pic of Z3 and its blatently clear that is uses relays.
You dont even need to be an electric engineer to know wat a relay and a valve is, just research it...
animesis 1 year ago
@animesis
Clear, not eletronic, clear, right :-D
couteau86 1 year ago
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The German Zuse Z3 is electro-MECHANICHAL. I am talking about the real breakthrough that comes with the fully electronic-Digital computing. That can be traced back to the ABC. As to the prerequisite properties you suggest + general purpose, they can be entirely seen in ENIAC. And ENIAC is a result of Atanasoff-Berry Computer. A fact that is proven in court!
Lepsaeus 1 year ago 2
The Atanasoff-Berry Computer was the world's first electronic digital computer. It was built by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry at Iowa State University during 1937-42.
On October 19, 1973, US Federal Judge Earl R. Larson signed his decision following a lengthy court trial which declared the ENIAC patent of Mauchly and Eckert invalid and named Atanasoff the inventor of the electronic digital computer -- the Atanasoff-Berry Computer or the ABC.
Lepsaeus 1 year ago 2
@Lepsaeus Yes, ABC is also very very important and Eniac too! And yes, ABC was the first full electronic digital computer!
Starfighterking 1 year ago
@Starfighterking
Why can this nobody understand??? Yes, the Atanasoff-Berry-Machine was electrical, yes, the Atanasoff-Berry-Machine was digital, but they was NOT FREE PROGRAMMABLE. The German Zuse Z3, from the same year like the Atanasoff-Berry-Machine also was electrical, digital, but, and this is realy important, they was FREE PROGRAMMABLE ... and the 3 things, that make a calculator to a computer are 1. electrical 2. digital and 3. free programmable ... Zuse Z3 = first REAL computer!!!
couteau86 1 year ago
@couteau86 not correct! z3 was mechanical-electro, also z4 and no real computer is mechanical! and programmable only with punchcard. punchcard was invented by IBM. zuse never earned a patent on computer! zuse is german tv, newspaper and political propaganda. german peoples very owned!
Starfighterking 1 year ago
@Starfighterking
Stupid nope, get your facts right!!! The Zuse Z1 was mechanical, the Z3 was digital!!!
couteau86 1 year ago
@couteau86 WRONG! z3 and also z4 was mechanical-electro and only operated with motor! and z1 and z2 was full mechanical and not worked! the first real digital computer was realy Atansoff Berry Computer 1937-1941.
Starfighterking 1 year ago
@Starfighterking
punchcard has been used on musical instruments and old mechanics such as powerlooms for over a century before IBM!** but yes, this German is a fool
animesis 1 year ago
Actually... The Jacquard Head is a computer. Babbage is a bit over rated all he did was use the punch cards he saw on the Jacquard Head however he is extremely brilliant... and Ada Lovelace wrote the first operating system (its just an algorithm!).
Tex259 1 year ago
While Colossus and Eniac are primative compared to today's machines, The Brain power and intelligence that went into building Colossus is no less remarkable and amazing than the engineers and scientists that build todays machines...I wouldn't know where to start.
mikenorman66 1 year ago
First Computer/Calculator is UK (Charles Babbage) (Ada Lovelace)! And first PC is USA, (Xerox) or Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak (Apple I). And Microchips (very important) is Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce. (Texas Instuments and Intel with first Chips). And dont forget Bill Gates, with first real great Operating-System.
Starfighterking 1 year ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Can tell me one person here, how the Colossus can be the first "computer", if he was in service at 1943 and if he was NOT free programmable, although the German Zuse Z1 is from 1937, 6 years earlier and the Zuse Z3, from 1941, 2 years earlier, who was electrical, like the Z1 and your Colossus, DIGITAL and FREE PROGRAMMABLE, what are the characteristics of a computer???
Sorry for you, the greandfather of all modern computers is the German Z1 and Z3 :-)
couteau86 1 year ago
@couteau86 If it was so it would be known already. Read about John Atanasoff, he is the real inventor of the digital computer, in short, and no doubt. I am sorry that there is so much ignorance about computers' history.
Lepsaeus 1 year ago
@Lepsaeus
It is not even the digital you nope. The 3 properties, that make a rake machine to a computer are: 1. electrical 2. digital and 3. free programmable. And the Colossus and even not the Atanasoff-Berry Machine was free programmable. The first machine, that meet all 3 properties of a computer was, is and will be the German Zuse Z3!!! Historical fact!!!
As you wrote, you are a ignorant idiot, that has no idea about the history of the computer :-)
couteau86 1 year ago
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Lepsaeus 1 year ago
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@couteau86 The German Zuse Z3 is electro-MECHANICHAL. I am talking about the real breakthrough that comes with the fully electronic-Digital computing. That can be traced back to the ABC. As to the prerequisite properties you suggest + general purpose, they can be entirely seen in ENIAC. And ENIAC is a result of Atanasoff-Berry Computer. A fact that is proven in court!
The way you write and judge does not support your claim that I am an idiot but rather makes you look idiot.
Lepsaeus 1 year ago
its funny how the allies breg about breaking the German Cyper look at what they needed to decode something soo small, the size of a cashregister
absoluutrecords 1 year ago
@absoluutrecords The Enigma Machine was not German, it was made by the Lorenz Co Switzerland, in the 1920s and was sold on the open Market for commercial purposes there is nothing clever about a tranposition machine. in the days before electronics repeating the same Function over and over was only tedious
I think Lorenz was still making Teleprinters in the 1970s
keirfree 1 year ago
None of the buttons you have to turn on because ladies waited by the doors, for such smart geek's like colossus operators.
Viljamus 1 year ago
Did you happen to be a guest on the show "The Secret Life of Machines" back in 1993 giving a demo of a computer called 'Pegasus'?
16mmDJ 1 year ago
Excellent video. Fascinating and amazing computer. Jealous of anyone who can go to see it. I wish I could ''have a go on it''...Great stuff.
MrsJosephMerrick 1 year ago
@MrsJosephMerrick i live in bletchley within an hour of bletchley park where collosus is based and its great you go into this building and you walk round seeing stuff like the first ever pcs and industrial computers the sise of clothes cabinets unfortunetaly you can use colossus you hould defenetaly come and see it
wasps21 1 year ago
@wasps21 You actually have me drooling...Sounds even MORE interesting place to visit! Youre really lucky to live so near! Im not a computer geek, but I really get excited by this sort of stuff ""seriously addicted to computers"".Who knows perhaps one day I'll have the chance*dreams*
MrsJosephMerrick 1 year ago
It boggles me that these machines did real world work? I feel so dumb that I have this computer at my finger tips and I don't have a clue on how to build an H-bomb or crack a code? I guess it really depends on a knowledgeable operator and not just brute force number crunching.
granddad2002 1 year ago
Colossus was COMPLETE electronic (!), and was fully programmable, also ENIAC, Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, Modified ENIAC, EDSAC, Manchester Mark 1 and finaly CSIRAC, and some had even memory! This all Computers was the realy first Computers!
Starfighterking 1 year ago
@Starfighterking Yes Colossus was fully electronic, etc. But the father, the pater of the fully digital computers is IINDESPUTABLY Atanasoff-Berry Computer. Don't overlook it.
Lepsaeus 1 year ago
Its amazing that now we can probably shove this whole computer on a single chip or command. WOW.
The2BillionthOne 1 year ago
this reminds me of my computer that i am using right now
petehall347 1 year ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
the firs elektonik compute was invented by Zuse ! - The computer is a manly german invention !!!!!!!
CapitanoGUC 1 year ago
@CapitanoGUC
zuse was a mechanical affair using relays. Colossus was the first *electronic* computer.
please don't assert what you don't know.
XtalQRP 1 year ago
@XtalQRP i dont - but you are rigth, that the first woking and programable computer th Z3 was of elektromechanikal nature. - i give you that ....
CapitanoGUC 1 year ago
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and what about Z1, Z2, Z3 by Conrad Zuse ????
CapitanoGUC 1 year ago
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Happy Birthday
Konrad Zuse
The genius from Z1-THE FIRST COMPUTER
TheTarantula2010 1 year ago
went to bletchley this weekend to see this working....well clever how they rebuild this....if you think the front of the machine looks impressive the back is unreal....
jpalmz1978 1 year ago