Poe, the Turk, and Babbage Oldest Working Computer Timothy Turtle
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It was never a record- photograph, and decided to breaker for speed, with a rescue it from storage. multiplication taking April After restoration, the museum between 5 and 10 seconds. began running Dekatron demos in Cooke-Yarborough justified 2012, and the Guinness Book of Poe, the Turk, and its slow operation as a tradeoff for reliability – from World Records recognized the machine as the world’s oldest May 1952 until Feb. 1953, it Babbage working digital computer in 2013. averaged 80 hours of running April 1836 time per week. For the oldest working analog computer, see [Jan 00]. In 1769, Hungarian author and Cooke-Yarborough went on inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen to design its successor, the unveiled his chess-playing Harwell CADET [Feb 00], automaton, the Turk. Although the perhaps the first fully Timothy Turtle machine was seemingly filled with transistorized computer. an elaborate arrangement of gears, the cabinet also April 1953 concealed a man controlling the Turk's movements. “Timothy Turtle” was a robot created by Jack H Kubanoff One of the most insightful which responded to flashing commentators about the light via two photocells in its device was by Edgar Allan Poe head. It could ‘search’ for food, in the article, “Maelzel’s Chess ‘play’, and also return to its Player” in April 1836. He ‘nest’ to recharge. Its shell was argued that if the automaton shaped wire covered in paper was real then it must be able maché. to use the result of an operation to make a decision Timothy's schematics were about the next (i.e. published in the April 1953 “conditional branching”). If the issue of the Radio & Television Turk had this feature then it News (online at would be far superior to Babbage's Difference Engine [June 14]. The Harwell Dekatron. Photo http://www.davidbuckley.net/DB by MichaelWilson78. /HistoryMakers/TimTurtle/TimT Conditional branching was one of urtleApr53.htm), probably the key element’s of Babbage’s The Dekatron was making it the first published robot Analytical Engine [Dec 23] which decommissioned in 1957, construction project. Kubanoff he'd started working on two years and the AERE ran a article supplied construction tips, before. competition to find it a diagrams and pictures for worthy new home. The building the tricky parts such as machine went to the the turtle’s head Wolverhampton and Oldest Working However, Timothy wasn’t the first Staffordshire Technical robot of this type; its use of College (later Computer photocells was quite similar to Wolverhampton University) Edmund C. Berkeley’s Squee [Aug April 1951 where it was used for 25]. Squee was described across teaching until 1973. The Construction started on the two issue of Radio Electronics in college also renamed it the Harwell Dekatron Computer in Dec. 1951 and Feb. 1952, but not WITCH (the Wolverhampton 1949 at the UK Atomic Energy in the great detail supplied by Instrument for Teaching Research Establishment (AERE) Kubanoff’. Instead, more Computing from Harwell). soon after the designers, Ted comprehensive plans for Squee Cooke-Yarborough, Dick Barnes, In 1973, the college donated could be purchased seperately. and Gurney Thomas, had visited the WITCH to Birmingham's The robot’s name was probably Maurice Wilkes’ [June 26] EDSAC Museum of Science and inspired by the 1946 children’s [May 6] in Cambridge for Industry, where it was put on book, “Timothy Turtle” by Al inspiration. The Dekatron became display until the museum Graham. operational during this month. closed in 1997. The computer's name referred to In 2009, Kevin Murrell from its use of 828 dekatrons (gas- the National Museum of filled flashing decimal counting Computing at Bletchley Park DYSEAC is Mobile tubes) for storage, but it also happened to catch a glimpse utilized 480 relays and 130 of one of its control panel in a vacuum tubes. 1 one had to travel a half inch April 1954 before making electrical The DYSEAC was a vacuum contact, and a key's resistance tube computer built by the to being pressed was National Bureau of considerable. Standards (NBS) for the US There were three versions, Army Signal Corps. It was the most common being the based, as the name suggests, Model 33 ASR, (Automatic on their earlier SEAC Send and Receive), which had machine [June 20]. It was a built-in tape reader and designed by Alan Leiner in tape punch. The “KSR” 1951, and became (Keyboard Send and Receive) operational this month. The BESK control panel. lacked a tape reader and punch, DYSEAC's claim to fame was that Photo by Liftarn. CC BY-SA while the RO (Receive Only) didn't it was housed in a truck, thereby 3.0. even have a keyboard. making it the first 'mobile' For a short time, the BESK Over a half-million Model 32s and computer. The vehicle's was the fastest computer in 33s had been made by 1975. The dimensions were approximately the world, able to perform an 500,000 th was gold-plated and 39 x 7 x 9 feet (i.e. RV sized), and addition in 56 μs and a placed on display. Serial Number weighed 12 tons. multiplication in 350 μs. 600,000, manufactured in 1976, The DYSEAC actually required the US Bicentennial year, was It performed its first two trucks: the computer, control painted red-white-and-blue and calculations this month, and console, input-output, and toured the country. remained in use until 1966. refrigeration units were in van no. From 1930, the Teletype 1, while vehicle no. 2 contained “BESK” is quite similar to Corporation was a part of AT&T’s the DC power supply, more “bäsk”, the name of a Western Electric manufacturing refrigeration capacity, and 1,700 traditional alcoholic drink arm, and so linked to Bell Labs cubic feet of space for cabling, and local to the Lund area where [Jan 1]. This is reflected in how spare parts. This second van only the UNIX [Oct 15] labels serial ports weighed 8 tons. Matematikmaskinnämnden as /dev/tty…; tty is short for was located. Nevertheless, the DYSEAC proved “Teletype”. useful, and another 'mobile' Before BESK, the Other influential terminals from machine, the MOBIDIC [Dec 1], Matematikmaskinnämnden the minicomputer days were the was completed in 1959. had funded the construction ADM-3A [May 19], and the DEC of the BARK (Binär For the world’s first ‘portable’ VT100 [Aug 00]. Aritmetisk Relä-Kalkylator), computer, in the sense of being Sweden’s first computer, ‘liftable’ by a human being (or which employed around two), see the RECOMP II [Jan 00]. 8,000 relays and 80 km of ALPAC Formed cable. April 1964 BESK Calculates The ALPAC (Automatic Language The Teletype Processing Advisory Committee) April 1954 was made up of seven scientists The BESK (Binär Elektronisk Model 33 led by John R. Pierce [March 27]. SekvensKalkylator, or “Binary It was set up by the US Electronic Sequence Calculator”) April 1963 government to evaluate the progress of research in was Sweden’s first electronic Teletype Corporation’s Model computational linguistics and computer, with around 2,400 33 became one of the most machine translation (MT). As part vacuum tubes and 400 popular terminals of the of their investigation, the group germanium diodes. 1960’s and 1970s, primarily considered the Georgetown-IBM as an IO device for It was developed by the MT experiment from [Jan 7] 1954, minicomputers. Matematikmaskinnämnden (the and examined Gilbert King's [Jan Swedish Board for Computing One reason was its low cost 13] Mark I and II translators. Machinery), modeled on the IAS (around $700) compared to The report, issued in 1966, was machine [June 10] which the other teleprinters and intensely skeptical of MT, and design team had studied during a terminals of the time. instead emphasized the need for visit to Princeton. The chief Another was its use of the basic research into computational engineer was Eric Stemme, and newly introduced ASCII code linguistics. This led to a drastic his team were known as the [June 17]. In addition, reduction in funding for MT that "BESK Boys". pushing the keys was a good lasted for nearly two decades. form of exercise since each 2 One infamous (and probably Mori later remarked: “Since I Instruments (TI) to build a apocryphal) MT example was the was a child, I have never version. Intel’s chip was called the phrase, “the spirit is willing but liked looking at wax figures. 1201, and TI called theirs the TMX the flesh is weak.” Translated into They looked somewhat 1795 [Aug 31]. Russia and back to English, it creepy to me.” The 1201 ended up being became “the vodka is good but the meat is rotten.” Similarly, “out of Separately from Mori, the somewhat different from the CTC first use of the phrase “the specification. For instance, Ted sight, out of mind” became “blind uncanny valley” came in a Hoff [Oct 28] and Stan Mazor [Oct idiot”. popular robotics book by 22] preferred to use RAM-based Jasia Reichardt called register memory, and added an “Robots: Fact, Fiction, and interrupt facility. Prediction”, published in GOB Intel's Hal Feeney handled the 1978. April 1964 detailed logic design and physical By the time an English layout of the 1201 under Faggin’s The Lawrence Livermore National translation of Mori’s article supervision, and his initials, HF, Lab (LLNL) (actually called the was due to appear in 2005, were etched on the top right of Lawrence Radiation Lab at the the phrase “uncanny valley” every chip. time) received the first four CDC had become so familiar to For a variety of reasons, Datapoint 6600s [Sept 00].