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Computer Conservation Society Issue Number 88 Winter 2019/20 Computer Conservation Society Aims and Objectives The Computer Conservation Society (CCS) is a co-operative venture between BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT; the Science Museum of London; and the Science and Industry Museum (SIM) in Manchester. The CCS was constituted in September 1989 as a Specialist Group of the British Computer Society. It is thus covered by the Royal Charter and charitable status of BCS. The objects of the Computer Conservation Society (“Society”) are: To promote the conservation, restoration and reconstruction of historic computing systems and to identify existing computing systems which may need to be archived in the future; To develop awareness of the importance of historic computing systems; To develop expertise in the conservation, restoration and reconstruction of historic computing systems; To represent the interests of the Society with other bodies; To promote the study of historic computing systems, their use and the history of the computer industry; To publish information of relevance to these objectives for the information of Society members and the wider public. Membership is open to anyone interested in computer conservation and the history of computing. The CCS is funded and supported by a grant from BCS and from donations. There are a number of active projects on specific computer restorations and early computer technologies and software. Younger people are especially encouraged to take part in order to achieve skills transfer. The CCS also enjoys a close relationship with the National Museum of Computing. Resurrection The Journal of the Computer Conservation Society ISSN 0958-7403 Number 88 Winter 2019/20 Contents Society Activity 2 News Round-Up 9 The Data Curator 10 Paul Cockshott From Tea Shops to Computer Company: The Improbable 15 Story of LEO John Aeberhard Book Review: Early Computing in Britain Ferranti Ltd. and 26 Government Funding 1948 — 1958 Chris Burton The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures 29 Dik Leatherdale Obituary — Tony Brooker 30 Dik Leatherdale 50 Years Ago ….From the Pages of Computer Weekly 31 Brian Aldous Forthcoming Events 35 Society Activity IBM Museum — Peter Short Current Activities Following on from the busy period over the summer, things have quietened down at Hursley. We have been in “consolidation mode”, with lots of tidying up and cataloguing. We have also turned our attention to documenting some of those things we older ex-employees can remember while we still can! We are pulling together the story of the rise and fall of the punch card with some detail on the processes and hardware involved. This will appear on the Museum website, accompanied by a trifold summarising these processes as a lead-in for visitors. We do actually have a full suite of Unit Record hardware at Hursley. If only it was all in good working order! Also to be published imminently is a trifold of IBM’s involvement in the U.S. space programme and particularly Apollo. Other TNMoC’s Peter Vaughan has been approached by a film company looking to make a documentary about “Silicon Glen” with a main focus on IBM’s Spango Valley plant. He has passed this on to us to see if we can also help. I know they have an 1130 at TNMoC which was almost certainly built in Greenock. Peter Short spent 11 years based in Greenock so may be able to contribute memories. The Museum also has quite a number of artefacts made in Greenock. 2 Resurrection 88 Winter 2019/20 ICL 2966 — Delwyn Holroyd One of the 7181 terminals blew its internal 2A mains fuse, the culprit being a short circuit mains input filter capacitor. Luckily we had the spares on hand having replaced the same parts in the other 7181 a year or two ago. The ‘improvements’ to the self-learning noughts and crosses program have led to unintended consequences. It has now become so aware of its limitations that it has started to declare the opponent as winner after the first move! The data file has been reset, after taking a copy for analysis. SSEM — Chris Burton Demonstrations of the replica Baby computer continue regularly. There has been a slight fall-off of visitor numbers over the last few weeks, probably seasonal. On the rare days when only one demonstrator is able to attend, and the machine therefore cannot be switched on, visitors are usually satisfied to see the PC-based simulations together with the one-on- one interaction with the demonstrator. The museum has recruited more volunteers, specifically so that Baby can also be attended on Saturdays when there are more visitors. We are grateful for their commitment as they are trained in the story of Baby and its technology. The computer has been reasonably stable over the last few months. A long-term intermittent problem causing the occasional misbehaviour of running programs seems to have been cured following the discovery of a dry joint on a valve holder on one of the high-up chassis. The machine now no longer stops if we stamp on the floor! A blitz on repairing faults in the power supply system is taking place. There is a suspicion that the half dozen 25 years old Farnell units are feeling weary and need some TLC. For example little Trimpot variable resistors could be prone to loss of good contact and require a refreshing tweak occasionally. A discovery that the documentation for one of the module types inside the power units is incorrect has led us to undertake retrospective creation of the actual circuit diagram. Two of the main buildings at the SIM are now encased in scaffolding. The Power Hall in particular appearing to be swaddled in a steel lattice as it prepares for extensive roof repairs and parts of the site are unreachable. The Revolution Gallery where Baby is housed is unaffected, but visitors have a long walk between some exhibits. Resurrection 88 Winter 2019/20 3 Our Computer Heritage — Simon Lavington The revision of the delivery-list of Ferranti Sirius computers is now complete and a new version has been uploaded to the Our Computer Heritage site. Thanks are due to the late Brian Parker and to Steve Poulton and John Feist (all members of the CCS), and to Barbara Ainsworth of Melbourne, for their invaluable help with tracking down Sirius delivery dates and for providing interesting background notes on many of the sites. National Museum of Computing — Kevin Murrell We are pleased to announce that we have appointed Dr Mark Priestley a research fellow. His recent work on Colossus and the development of programming has won him a prestigious history prize. Work is underway with our publishers for two new books: one on EDSAC and the rebuild, and the other on the Bombe and its construction. Recent lectures have included Mark Priestley & Gavin Clarke on Colossus, and one on Apollo by Robert Wills. Both were popular and over-booked. Two Electro-Jumble events were held to dispose of non-computing items held by the museum. The events have raised over £1,400. The museum has also taken part in external events, such as BigData London and TechConnect, and they continue to attract a lot of attention. Of course, the hope is that interested parties will make their way to the museum! To mark the 50th anniversary of the Open University, a new display celebrating its early computer technology and courses is open until the end of the year. From January to June 2020 we will open a new display on British Home Computing. CCS Website Information The Society has its own website, which is located at www.computerconservationsociety.org. It contains news items, details of forthcoming events and also electronic copies of all past issues of Resurrection, in both HTML and PDF formats, which can be downloaded for printing. At www.computerconservationsociety.org/software/software-index.htm can be found emulators for historic machines together with associated software and related documents all of which may be downloaded. 4 Resurrection 88 Winter 2019/20 Software — David Holdsworth Leo III I have been co-operating with Leo Society members in updating their LEOPEDIA, and it now contains links to our stuff both on sw.ccs.bcs.org and Resurrection. I am looking for information on early assembly language programming, in an attempt to comprehend the state-of-the-art at the time that Intercode was designed. My amazement at Intercode is documented in Blow By Blow. It may be that I was not properly aware of the programming conventions of an era that slightly pre-dates my own entry into the world of computing. KDF9 My request for volunteer proof readers for the Oxford KDF9 Director fell on deaf ears. Here it is again: I have photographed and copy-typed the Oxford University Director, and it can be seen at sw.ccs.bcs.org/KDF9/FAX43CD/. It could use some volunteer proof reading. We have resolved the KDF9 Algol library issue from September, and Bill Findlay has succeeded in running the Kidsgrove compiler and resulting compiled programs under the Time-Sharing Director. Harwell Dekatron/WITCH — Delwyn Holroyd Readers may recall that we ran into problems with some of the high speed trigger tubes last year. Although we have plentiful unused spares, the vast majority either don’t work, or stop working very shortly after being pressed into service. Two possible solutions were considered — a solid state circuit to replace the function of the trigger tubes, or conversion to the much more reliable lower speed trigger tubes used elsewhere in the machine. The former introduces more non-period technology but with no modification needed to existing circuitry, whereas the latter would require more substantial and not easily reversed modifications.
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