[SIGCIS-Members] Colossus at 80

[James Cortada]

However the information got out, I heard about it in the late 1970s,
although obviously not to the level of detail that we all acquired by
2000.  Jim Cortada

On Thu, Jan 18, 2024 at 2:13 PM Brian E Carpenter via Members <
members at lists.sigcis.org> wrote:

> 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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-- 
James W. Cortada
Senior Research Fellow
Charles Babbage Institute
University of Minnesota
jcortada at umn.edu
608-274-6382
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