The unknown father of computing

[crazylegs]

This information is just coming to light...Watched this at 04:00 this morning as couldn't sleep.
It was on the other day and I missed it so thought I would catch up, glad I did as it was brilliant!
Everyone thought Alan Turing was the man to invent the first computer but it was in actual fact one of these men..Watch and learn.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b016ltm0/CodeBreakers_Bletchley_Parks_Lost_Heroes/

 

[nivrip]

It's a wonderful story. Tommy Flowers was the man who designed and built the first programmable computer. He was an engineer at the Post Office. The machine had thousands of valves and streams of paper tapes which fed in information. It first ran in 1943 in London before being moved to Bletchley Park in early 1944.

It's a great day out to go there and see the conditions in which the cryptogaphers worked and to see a replica of the original machine. I took my late Mum there a few years ago as she had worked there during the war. She was not a code breaker - she made the sandwiches but still felt part of the set up.

If you get the chance to go and visit, go, because you will enjoy every minute.




Here is a pic of the Heath Robinson type First Computer.

 

[Abarbarian]

A good find

 

[muckshifter]

what happened to Babbage then? 1812 ... Considered a "father of the computer" ...

Babbage's machines were among the first mechanical computers

... was it because his 'computer' was never fully built until 1991?

you do know that me & Flops are now considered fathers of computing, we go back before time itself.

 

[crazylegs]

what happened to Babbage then? 1812 ... Considered a "father of the computer" ... ... was it because his 'computer' was never fully built until 1991?

you do know that me & Flops are now considered fathers of computing, we go back before time itself.

 

[Urmas]

Mucks & Flops, fathers of distilled computing -- segfaulted in every pub.

 

[historian]

I saw thay program.Came as a surprise to me. I thought at the end rather sad where Flowers was never recognised for his work,only a road and a shut down center to his name,both those in his beloved east end. It`s typical of this country in not giving him the recognition he needs.
My be it`s because of his "lowly" birth
historian

 

[bootneck02]

You have to remember that still in the 40's &50's social class was still important but thankfully social class was given the boot in the 60's and now replaced by a financial class the more you earn and if you are a manager/Director etc the higher up the ladder you are. Thinking about one evil has now been replaced by another avarice.

 

[historian]

You have to remember that still in the 40's &50's social class was still important but thankfully social class was given the boot in the 60's and now replaced by a financial class the more you earn and if you are a manager/Director etc the higher up the ladder you are. Thinking about one evil has now been replaced by another avarice.

I think that the class system is still with us,but much more subtle ways. Witness how university people go from uni` into a political job and then get them selves elected to parliament with the help of the person who gave them a job. And of course there is family connections,bussiness connections. Then there is sporting connections.A game of golf,squash or tennis. Dinner at an exclusive club later. A long chat, a slap on the back and shake of the hand--job done. Then of course there is donor ship. The giving of money to the party to help you up the greasy pole.In other words bribery,but o so "legal" But if we the "ordinary" did such a thing it`s called a crime. Yes I think class is still around.
historian

 

[bootneck02]

I agree with you completely historian with the greasing of the palm and the old boys club in politics. The scandals over 10 years and longer has shown politics is without morals . We need more who have real life skills rather than those who have been to uni, been a parliamentary researcher and then become a MP. But I guess that we the voters will not have much of a choice as they are all in it for their advancement and power and we the plebs do not really matter.