[SIGCIS-Members] Early Computing in Britain

[Brian Randell]

Hi:

I’ve now seen and started to read Simon Lavington’s new book “Early Computing in Britain: Ferranti Ltd. and Government Funding, 1948 - 1958” (Springer, 2019) ISBN-13: 978-3030151027, 410 pages.

I don’t think it has been mentioned yet on SIGCIS, though it certainly deserves to be!

From the Preface:

There is a tendency to view computer history either from a top-down or a bottom-up. perspective. Enthroned at the top of the historical landscape are the policymakers: government mandarins and board-level industrialists who view each new generation of computers through their shifting requirements of economics, politics: and national defence. Far below these policymakers, and secure at the foundational. level, are the technology researchers and developers: the creators of theories and laboratory prototypes, whose motivation is the satisfaction of responding to challenges issued by their fellow academics. In between these two extremes is a largely unsung and heterogeneous collection of engineers, programmers and marketing staff who turn ideas into products, features into benefits and problems into solutions. Theirs is the song that you'll hear throughout this book. The focus of the story is particularly on those who worked for one manufacturing company, Ferranti Ltd., and for the nine end-user organisations who purchased the first Ferranti computers in the period 1951-1957. It is a story grounded in technology but brought alive by personal experiences and practical compromise. Here you’ll read of short-term social impacts and longer-term evolutionary adaptations, as new and untried equipment began to have an impact. 
Why is this story of relevance to the emergence of modern computers? The 10-year period 1948-1958 was of great significance. The first Ferranti computer, which was prosaically called the Mark I, was the first production machine to have been delivered anywhere. A copy of this and improved versions called the Mark I* (Mark One Star) were the first substantial computers to have been delivered in Canada, Holland and Italy. And whilst American companies such as UNIVAC and IBM were selling tens of computers to their home market during the early 1950s, Ferranti seemingly had the rest of the world to itself. 
<snip>

Cheers

Brian Randell


School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, 
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG
EMAIL = Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk   PHONE = +44 191 208 7923
URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html