Colossus - The First Electronic Computer - Pt1

Demonstration video of the rebuilt Colossus computer at the Bletchley Park Museum in action. This machine was designed during WWII to break the German Lorenz cipher. http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/lorenz/index.htm
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• codes
• bletchley
• park
• cipher
• lorenz
• world
• war
• 2
• wwii
• enigma
• computer
• valve

[dante314159]

RIP Tony Sale (1931-2011). Great work rebuilding Colossus and helping save Bletchley Park.  You'll be greatly missed.

[AstuteClass]

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.

[MacGyver920]

@MsTruNorth Wow, thanks.

[MsTruNorth]

@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]

@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.

[deepblue69uk]

@MsTruNorth At least he was present when they first switched on the rebuilt Colossus. :-)

[deepblue69uk]

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!!!!

[MacGyver920]

@MsTruNorth Interesting. Thank you.

[MsTruNorth]

@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]

@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]

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.

[slicker41]

paper clip pops up 11011101110010110101110011?

dont try to decode its just random