[SIGCIS-Members] Colossus at 80

Thu Jan 18 12:34:05 PST 2024

Hi Joris:

I told the story of the uncovering of Colossus in a lecture I gave at The National Museum of Computing about ten years ago – see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl6pK1Z7B5Q

Cheers

Brian

—

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, 16:54, "Joris van Zundert" <joris.van.zundert at huygens.knaw.nl> wrote:
Hi Brian,

Brilliant! Thanks for this firsthand account.

(Still a mystery why the British broadcast confusion then.)

All the best
--Joris

--
Dr. Joris J. van Zundert
Researcher & Developer in Humanities Computing

Dept. of Computational Literary Studies / DHLab
Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

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Mr. Gibbs: We figured they were more actual guidelines.

________________________________________
From: Brian Randell <brian.randell at newcastle.ac.uk<mailto:brian.randell at newcastle.ac.uk>>
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2024 5:19:55 PM
To: Joris van Zundert <joris.van.zundert at huygens.knaw.nl<mailto:joris.van.zundert at huygens.knaw.nl>>
Cc: Sigcis <members at sigcis.org<mailto:members at sigcis.org>>
Subject: Re: Colossus at 80

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/><https://computerhistory.org/blog/computings-woodstock/%3e>. (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><http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/Papers-Books/126.pdf%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

On 18/01/2024, 13:42, "Joris van Zundert" <joris.van.zundert at huygens.knaw.nl<mailto: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> <mailto: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> <mailto: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> <mailto: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%3e> <https://www.gchq.gov.uk/news/colossus-80><https://www.gchq.gov.uk/news/colossus-80%3e> <https://www.gchq.gov.uk/news/colossus-80%3e><https://www.gchq.gov.uk/news/colossus-80%3e%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> <mailto: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><https://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brianrandell.html%3e>

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