[SIGCIS-Members] Living Pioneers

[Lean, Tom]

That's very sad. Geoff was my very first interviewee for An Oral History of British Science and a thoroughly interesting chap to talk to. His understated reflections on how little fuss there was when they got the Baby working "we congratulated each other and we went to lunch together, which we quite often did anyway" and the anticipated limited prospects of computing in the 1940s have stuck with me: "We thought there would be scope for another, one or perhaps two big computers in the UK and three or four in Europe and probably half a dozen in the US because they always have big ideas in the US, and the… that was the eventual scope of our invention, we thought." - https://www.bl.uk/voices-of-science/interviewees/geoff-tootill/audio/geoff-tootill-early-expectations-for-computers

Full interview (18 hours) plus transcript is at http://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Science/021M-C1379X0002XX-0001V0 if anyone is interested further...

Tom


Dr Thomas Lean
--
An Oral History of the Electricity Supply Industry / An Oral History of British Science
National Life Stories
The British Library
http://www.bl.uk/voices-of-science
________________________________________
From: Members [members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of Brian L. Stuart [blstuart at bellsouth.net]
Sent: 10 November 2017 15:52
To: members at sigcis.org
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Living Pioneers

I was suprised to learn of the recent passing of Geoff
Tootill who worked on the Manchester Baby.  I had
guessed that at age 101, Harry Husky was the last
living alum of the first generation projects when he
passed away earlier this year.  This raises the question
of whether Tootill was the last one.  To put a finer point
on the question, is anyone who was involved with the
original designs of the ENIAC, the Baby, the EDSAC,
the Pilot ACE, the Z1, or the Harvard Mark I still with
us?

BLS
_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org


******************************************************************************************************************
Experience the British Library online at www.bl.uk<http://www.bl.uk/>
The British Library’s latest Annual Report and Accounts : www.bl.uk/aboutus/annrep/index.html<http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/annrep/index.html>
Help the British Library conserve the world's knowledge. Adopt a Book. www.bl.uk/adoptabook<http://www.bl.uk/adoptabook>
The Library's St Pancras site is WiFi - enabled
*****************************************************************************************************************
The information contained in this e-mail is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended for the addressee(s) only. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this e-mail and notify the postmaster at bl.uk<mailto:postmaster at bl.uk> : The contents of this e-mail must not be disclosed or copied without the sender's consent.
The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the British Library. The British Library does not take any responsibility for the views of the author.
*****************************************************************************************************************
Think before you print