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Those in search of more light on the debate might care to look into the work done on cracking the Enigma and other cyphers by Alan Turing and others at Bletchley Park with firstly mechanical and then electronic computing devices.

Who you think created the first computer depends to some extent on how you define a computer of course, so the debate will never have a 'final' resolution.

Three years ago when the IETF met in London (UK), the crypto geeks took a little excursion north on a train to Bletchley Park. It was good fun to visit, particularly in that company. There is also a small computer museum there, too.

For those of you who are in/around Europe, I recommend it.

-Erik

I don't know - they opened Xscape just after I left Milton Keynes for Edinburgh to research my PhD.It's not a bad place to live but they weren't very hot on irony.

After all there are not many places that could, with a straight face, have allowed Cliff Richard to rollerskate around the shopping mall making the Wired for Sound video (google cache as the original page seems to have gone).

Of more interest to the Slashdot crowd is probably the nearby Bletchley Park of WWII Station X codebreaking fame. Well worth a visit if you're in the area.

No, it wasn't While we're at it, Edison did not invent the lightbulb, a Scotsman invented the Television.

What about Colossus?

As for the first electronic digital computer, that wasn't ENIAC, either. I know you USAns like to think that you invented everything, but Colossus here in the UK beat you by a few years.

The first binary electronic digital computer was German: Konrad Zuse's Z1.

And ENIAC wasn't even the first stored-program electronic computer: while ENIAC had to be programmed by plugboard, the Manchester Mark 1, aka `Baby', was storing programs in memory along with data, just as all current machines do.

Credit where it's due, please :)

really it all started with a liitle game called guess what the germans are saying

fly over find out what the weather is then PROGRAM your computer to crack the code

now thats a computer
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/
bad website but donate there

picture

http://www.retrobeep.com

have fun but really dont forget where it all came from

regards

john jones

And as far as the digital computer part goes, the work at Bletchley Park gets too little praise, because it was conducted during World War II under conditions of extreme secrecy. They did, however, use a computer to crack the "unbreakable" Enigma code, enabling many victories for the Allies.

They're running low on funding, by the way, and it's a great museum--you should consider helping.

Jouster

And as far as the digital computer part goes, the work at Bletchley Park gets too little praise, because it was conducted during World War II under conditions of extreme secrecy. They did, however, use a computer to crack the "unbreakable" Enigma code, enabling many victories for the Allies.

They're running low on funding, by the way, and it's a great museum--you should consider helping.

Jouster

The BBC article was kinda light on details . . . care to give more in-depth info about the Enigma Machine?

The Engima story is quite interesting and complex; volumes can and have been written about it and it's beyond the scope of a Slashdot post to relay the full history. But I've provided some links if you're curious.

It should be noted that Bletchley Park's work in deciphering the Enigma codes - used by the Germans to direct operations including U-boat attacks on Allied convoys - proved vital to the outcome of the WWII.

Bletchley Park, code-named Station X, employed teams of mathematicians, linguists and chess champions during the war.

By the end of 1945, 10,000 people worked there.

With the help of decoding machines, the army of experts were able to crack the German code Enigma, which Berlin believed to be unbreakable.

The work carried out at the top-secret centre is believed to have shortened the war by several years and was kept secret until 1967.

The stolen device, an Abwehr Enigma G312, is a rare four-rotor version, one of only three still known to be in existence.

Bletcheley Park, where Alan Turing and others defeated the German Enigma (as well as other codes) during WW2 is also in some financial trouble. If you find yourself in England, it's worth a trip. Until then, they could use your support (or you can buy stuff from them).

Having visited Bletcheley Park for the first time last year, I highly recommend the trip. If you have any interest in WW2, code breaking, or the history of computing, it is a great place to visit. You can really feel the history as you walk past the huts where Turing and others worked. If you've read Cryptonomicon or The Code Book, it's even cooler.

Bletcheley Park, where Alan Turing and others defeated the German Enigma (as well as other codes) during WW2 is also in some financial trouble. If you find yourself in England, it's worth a trip. Until then, they could use your support (or you can buy stuff from them).

Having visited Bletcheley Park for the first time last year, I highly recommend the trip. If you have any interest in WW2, code breaking, or the history of computing, it is a great place to visit. You can really feel the history as you walk past the huts where Turing and others worked. If you've read Cryptonomicon or The Code Book, it's even cooler.

Bletcheley Park, where Alan Turing and others defeated the German Enigma (as well as other codes) during WW2 is also in some financial trouble. If you find yourself in England, it's worth a trip. Until then, they could use your support (or you can buy stuff from them).

Having visited Bletcheley Park for the first time last year, I highly recommend the trip. If you have any interest in WW2, code breaking, or the history of computing, it is a great place to visit. You can really feel the history as you walk past the huts where Turing and others worked. If you've read Cryptonomicon or The Code Book, it's even cooler.

The criminal mind and stupidity more than often go together. The in-duh-vidual that lifted the machine is almost certainly the idiot who is trying to extort GBP25K from a charitable organisation that looks after Bletchley Park.

My guess is they'll prosecute for extortion once they've got the machine back.

Actually, a lot of those very unsung heroes were Turing and the work done at Bletchley Park ... it wasn't until the enigma was stolen that a lot of people actually knew what Bletchley was and their (large) contribution to the war effort.

As for another unsung hero, a guy called Ellis who worked at GCHQ in the 50's actually developed public key crypto way before the RSA/Duffie etc. It sometimes helps to look outside the box, the NSA museum is very interesting, however you have to bear in mind these places are extremely jingoistic, there are many other great people (from other countries) that have made massive contributions over the years who haven't received any recognition.

P.S. Don't rely on Hollywood for your history either.

I can only assume that this machine was stolen to order. They are of limited usefulness for cryptographic purposes these days.

I think it's very sad. This is one of only three Enigma machines left. It was used by the Abwehr (SS), so it a particularly well-engineered machine. It's hard to imagine who would want one. The Bletchley museum was opened recently after a huge amount of work, largely by volunteers.

If any good can come from this, it may draw attention once again to the astonishing work done at Bletchley Park. As part of their efforts to break the Enigma cipher, they built some of the earliest electronic computers (some would say *the* first electronic computer)

Check here for more information.

At Bletchley Park they used to have this wonderful card index system. The only problem was that the table legs used to give out on account of the weight.

According to *The Code Book* by Simon Singh, the folks at Bletchley Park independently invented public key encryption before RSA did. Unfortunately it could not be publicised or patented, as it was a military secret.

Strictly speaking, there are several innacuracies in the above two posts...

GCHQ was not formed until 1946. The Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS) preceded it in 1919. In 1939, it was GC&CS staff who moved to Bletchley Park.

The machine used to help with the daily task of decrypting Enigma-coded information was called bombe, and Alan Turing (as in Turing Machine) was one of the main architects of this system. If I remember correctly Enigma was decryptable 'by hand' but it took too long to be useful until this system was invented. Bombe was an electro-mechanical system to decrease the encryption time drastically. Alan Turin later committed suicide because of intolerance towards his homosexuality.

Colossus was not built or designed at Bletchley (actually at the Post Office Research Laboratories at Dollis Hill in North London), and appears to have been designed for a different cipher system ( Lorenz SZ42). Strangely, Ive seen several dates listed for the building of Colossus, including 1939, 1941 and 1945. Im not sure which is correct, although the information at this page is, I think, most accurate.

There's also some "more info on Bletchley Park.

Can be found at:

The Colossus of Bletchley Park - The German Cipher System

Computer History (1940-1944)

The Turing Bombe Rebuild Project

Official Bletchley Park Website

The Colossus Rebuild Project

Mr. Flowers Death Announcement in 1998

I visted bletchley park and they had alot of but not much money

to their credit they had set out alot of old machines !

and no you DID NOT JUST LOOK you can play with them touch them and pick them up they had examples of puch card mainframes which you may use also they had all the code machines and explained all the maths very well
this was all done by volenteers

this is because BT (the largest telco in UK and right up their with AT&T for size and profits)and they most greedy !!

had part of the site they have had to give it up as it now preserved for us all but they had wanted to turn it into an exchange and help center

but now they need money

please visit them and see for yourself if you are in the uk @ any time they are very open but like I said they are volenteers

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/

have fun

john


a poor student @ bournemouth uni in the UK (a deltic so please dont moan about spelling but the content)

It's just outside of Milton Keynes, about 30 miles north of London. Their website has information about getting there, and also a collection of interesting photographs of Turing, Colossus, Ultra, and general war photos.

Okay, the reason I put the word "allegedly" into my story quote is because I expected there to be some considerable disagreement about which was the "first" computer. Particularly since Germany, France, the UK and the USA all claim this honour (plus a few others I expect).

The problem is: what is a computer? Do you mean a calculator? So does an abacus count? Something that runs a program? So does a weaving loom count? Something electronic that runs a program? So does a washing machine count? Something digital? Something that has a modifyable program? Something that stores its program in the same way as its data?

As you can see, there are many definitions of "computer". Stop bickering!

And to add to that, early computers were often an international effort. Certianly Bletchley Park relied heavily on US involvement towards the end of the war.

That doesn't detract from the fact that Bletchley Park was a major contributor to both cryptography and modern computing.

Anyway, here's a few more British historical computing links for those who like nostaligia. If anyone would like to add some links to sites about other historical computers- of any nation- I'd be most interested.

Colossus I
The LEO - Lyons Electric Office (my dad worked on this)
The WITCH (my dad worked on this, too!)
The Baby

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