[SIGCIS-Members] Colossus at 80

[Brian E Carpenter]

Brian,

Given that the GCHQ release confirms that at least one Colossus was still in active use in the 1960s, it's in fact a bit surprising that they cleared anything as early as 1975. There's at least one well-known case (the Venona material) of intercepts having great value many years later.

When was the rumour about Churchill ordering all the machines to be destroyed first circulated?

Regards
    Brian Carpenter

On 19-Jan-24 05:19, Brian Randell via Members wrote:
> Hi Joris:
> 
> I was shown the photographs, and given permission to interview the developers, in mid-1975. A set of photographs, and a single-page description, were released to the Public Record Office in 1975. My (cleared) paper revealing the Colossus was given at the splendid Los Alamos conference in June 1976 – see https://computerhistory.org/blog/computings-woodstock/ <https://computerhistory.org/blog/computings-woodstock/>. (I had previously, in 1972, published such few facts as I could discover about the project  in my 1972 paper “On Alan Turing and the Origins of Computers” - http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/Papers-Books/126.pdf <http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/Papers-Books/126.pdf>.)
> 
> 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 =  https://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brianrandell.html
> 
> On 18/01/2024, 13:42, "Joris van Zundert" <joris.van.zundert at huygens.knaw.nl> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Any ideas on this puzzling sentence in the press release? “The Colossus computer was created during the Second World War […] but its existence was only revealed in the early 2000s after six decades of secrecy.” As far as I know the existence of Colossus has in no way been a mystery at least since the early 1970s, right?
> 
> Best
> 
> --Joris
> 
> From: Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org <mailto:members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org>> on behalf of Brian Randell via Members <members at lists.sigcis.org <mailto:members at lists.sigcis.org>>
> 
> Date: Thursday, January 18, 2024 at 12:50
> 
> To: Sigcis <members at sigcis.org <mailto:members at sigcis.org>>
> 
> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Colossus at 80
> 
> Hi:
> 
> Here is the official GCHQ press release:
> 
> https://www.gchq.gov.uk/news/colossus-80 <https://www.gchq.gov.uk/news/colossus-80> <https://www.gchq.gov.uk/news/colossus-80> <https://www.gchq.gov.uk/news/colossus-80%3e>
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Brian Randell
> 
> —
> 
> School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG
> 
> EMAIL = Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk <mailto:Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk> PHONE = +44 191 208 7923
> 
> URL = https://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brianrandell.html <https://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brianrandell.html>
> 
> 
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