Good news for Bletchley Park

[NickFitz]

My BBC staff id card got me into loads of places for free. "I'm with the production team dahling; where are we leaving our cars? Thankyousomuch."

It never occurred to me to blag anything with it when I had one - I thought wandering around the Blue Peter garden after lunch in the restaurant above CBBC's offices was the height of enjoyment at TV Centre

[RichardCranium]

I thought the Bletchley Park museum was quite interesting but I was a bit disappointed by the computer museum. The contents were interesting enough but I got told off for looking around without a guide and because the next tour wasn't for another hour I didn't get to see it all.

That's when you pull out your BCS membership card and say "It's OK, I'm in the restoration specialist group" or some such bulltulip and then they take you behind the scenes.

Membership does have its uses. (With a little bulltulip.)

My BBC staff id card got me into loads of places for free. "I'm with the production team dahling; where are we leaving our cars? Thankyousomuch."

[centurian]

I thought Babbage started to build an original, but didn't finish it or get it working for some reason.

That would be the Analytical Engine (more programmable than the Difference Engine), of which he attempted to build a simplified version - his son attempted to complete it - this is also on display at the Science Museum.

Both the Difference Engine and Analytical Engine were viable and would have worked, and could have been built with the materials/technology of the time. It was pure hard cash (or lack of) that prevented either from being built.

[bellymonster]

Absolutely. Had a great time when I went.

I thought the Bletchley Park museum was quite interesting but I was a bit disappointed by the computer museum.
The contents were interesting enough but I got told off for looking around without a guide and because the next tour wasn't for anouther hour I didn't get to see it all.

They seemed to have a bit of a chip on the shoulders, as if the vistors were in the way.

[Doggy Styles]

I'm thinking of going there...

Worth a visit?

Oh yes. And Milton Keynes is right next door.

[Zippy]

I'm thinking of going there...

Worth a visit?



Tone

Absolutely. Had a great time when I went.

[Doggy Styles]

Except that the one that was built a few years ago isn't a replica.

It's the "original" as it's the first one to be built to Babbage's design.

I thought Babbage started to build an original, but didn't finish it or get it working for some reason.

[Tingles]

I'm thinking of going there...

Worth a visit?



Tone

[centurian]

Great stuff

Did they ever get that replica Babbage "Difference Engine" working?

Except that the one that was built a few years ago isn't a replica.

It's the "original" as it's the first one to be built to Babbage's design.

[NickFitz]

Great stuff

Did they ever get that replica Babbage "Difference Engine" working?

That's at the Science Museum:

The Engine consists of 8,000 parts, weighs 5 tons and measures eleven feet long and seven feet high. It works as Babbage intended, and brings to a close an anguished chapter in the prehistory of computing.

<- how they put it together

[stek]

Pioneering Edsac computer to be built at Bletchley Park

And that's your PC that is, that's your state-of-the-art pimped-up Dell, that is....

[Doggy Styles]

Great stuff

Did they ever get that replica Babbage "Difference Engine" working?

[RichardCranium]

Pioneering Edsac computer to be built at Bletchley Park

The first recognisably modern computer is to be rebuilt at the UK's former code-cracking centre Bletchley Park.

The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (Edsac) was a room-sized behemoth built at Cambridge university that first ran in 1949. Creation of the replica has been commissioned by the UK's Computer Conservation Society (CCS). The three-year re-build will be carried out before visitors to The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley.

Edsac was one of several early British computers that pioneered the practical use of such machines.

It was conceived and created by Sir Maurice Wilkes as a machine that could carry out many different kinds of calculation for Cambridge researchers and scientists.

During its nine-year lifespan, Edsac helped two Cambridge researchers win a Nobel and aided many more try out approaches and get results impossible to even conceive without the machine.

The £250,000 cost of the re-build will be paid for from funds raised by a consortium led by entrepreneur Hermann Hauser.

However, one part of the original Edsac that is unlikely to be re-created is the 1.5m (5 feet) long tubes of mercury used as a memory store. Modern health and safety regulations preclude the use of mercury.