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Early Computers

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preece67

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Greetings all, not really sure if this is the right section to post this but here goes!.

A family member worked at Longbridge in the 1950's, and used the first computer installed there around 1958 - I have found very basic details along with a couple of pictures in old Birmingham books, but would like to find out more info if at all possible, As far as I can gather it was the EMI CP407 which was the first installed, for payroll, and was said to be the first major computer installation in this country at the time. The relative was photographed with it when it was installed, though I doubt those pictures still exist.

Any ideas/suggestions on where I may find further information gratefully received.
 
I have a bit of an interest in early mainframe computers, well at least I used to work for a company in Toronto in 1965 that installed a huge Burroughs Mainframe in the building where I worked. I worked for Consultants who studied COBOL and FORTRAN endlessly. When this mammoth machine broke down it was days before anyone could come and have a look at it since the nearest repairman was in Detroit quite a good distance from Toronto.

In my next job at the University of Toronto in 1967 they had an early mainframe there. Could have been an IBM. They used to rent out time on it to other companies.

Before I went to Canada in July 1963, I worked on a temp job at Fort Dunlop. They had a considerable Computer Division on the ground floor of the Main Building. I believe the computers were Honeywell. I knew someone who worked there and the computers had to be manned 24 hours taking off information from all over the world.
 
I remember seeing the mainframe machine at Lucas Gt King Street,
they were understandably very proud of it.

Later i went to at BW3 at Shaftmoor Lane and spent a few weeks
in Data Processing with dozens of girls and about three men,
very scary it was. I was only sixteen at the time...
 
Yes, and it ate punched cards by the lorryload! It was my job at the time to authorise the invoices for those for payment, but frequently someone failed to sign for them at Goods Inwards and when they'd all been used up, no one wanted to sign for them! Then the fun & games began! :D

Regards,

Maurice
 
preece67,

In my younger days I was attached to the Air Training Corps (ATC), 492 Squadron, Stratford Road, Hall Green. I was at that time, in 1957, only 13 and to be able 'play' around in RAF aircraft was a school boy's dream come true!

Our Squadron leader at 492 was good friends with the commander of the 'V' bomber base at Gaydon in Warwickshire. Now through this connection a fellow cadet and I managed to wangle a visit to the then fully operational nuclear bomber station at RAF Gaydon, who were flying Handley Page Victor and Vickers Valiant bomber aircraft. On arrival we had to declare that we were not against nuclear armament and that we had no connections with the CND.

To keep this short and on thread we were allowed to sit in the 'V' bomber flight simulator, what a WOW feeling for a 13 year old! We learnt that the whole cockpit was driven by a thing called a computer and after the training session we were given a guided tour of the computers innards. Row upon row of relays and radio lamps, transistors were not yet in use, the noise and heat was almost frightening. We were told that when in use the computer used as much electricity as a small town.

I think that this computer must have been in use before the one at Longbridge and I'm sure that the MOD had many more like the one at RAF Gaydon.

Graham.
 
Fascinating story Graham. The early equipment was indeed very bulky
and took up loads of space. How far we have come with technology since those days.

Sospiri... you will be talking about Hollerith punch cards in your post. I can remember seeing ads in the Situations Wanted columns 40 years ago for Hollerith Punch Operators. I found this link about the Hollerith system. Were nt they using an offshoot system in the USA when everything went wrong with the Presidential Election in 2000..hanging chads, etc.

I expect in Brum in the early l960 s all the big companies would have had some rooms full of mainframes.
 
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Jennyann:

We have to be careful here to differentiate between computers and tabulators. Punched cards were used as an input medium for quite powerful computers such as the ICL 2900 series as late as 1980, but mainly for batch processing. By then teletypes were in common use as an interface to the machine in much the same way as we use a video screen today. Hollerith/Powers-Samas tabulators were certainly in use for maintaining stores records at Birmingham City Transport from the mid-1950s onwards, but true computers didn't start to appear until towards the end of that decade.

Maurice
 
In the early 1960's Midland Red had a giant of a computer in it's own building behind Vernon House in Edgbaston. It was used amongst other things to calculate wages. I remember taking despatch bags with wage information to the building and having to go through two sets of doors like an airlock with a special thick mat to walk on between them. Inside, the staff wore white cowgowns. Never dreamed I would have a computer of my own without a buiding the size needed in those days.
 
I read in Bham post yesterday that J Lyons had the first computer to keep track of all their teashops. It was called LEON from JOLYON
 
Jennyann:

Perhaps the best analogy I can give you for a tabualator is a fairground organ or a pianola, where there is a direct correlation between the position of the hole in the card and the note played. However, with a computer, the output for a given hole will vary depending upon the various rules embedded within the program, and the program (and therefore the rules) could be changed, though this was somewhat difficult on the early machines.

Maurice
 
Many thanks for the answers posted, lots of interesting stuff to follow up!

One further question which has come from one of the earlier answers is the existence of the BMC Magazine in the early 1960's. I can see copies for sale elsewhere, but none earlier than late 1960 - would anyone know when this magazine was started, by any chance?
 
After leaving school in '65, I went to work as a computer operator at Midlands Computing Company, on Smallbrook Ringway, and operated a Honeywell Computer, and yes, computers were very large back then. I then went to Foster Bros. in Bradford St, and operated an I.B.M. computer there, before moving on to N.C.R. in Broad St, where I was in charge of computer control. Information was inputed via the punched cards and punched tape. The punch operators used a typewriter style keyboard, that then punched out the cards/tape in the binary numerical code, that could be read by the computer. The computers then could only 'read' yes or no, or magnetised or not magnetised.
Turning to the size of computers now, just before I left computers in 1970, N.C.R. took delivery of a computer, that sat on a desk, that could 'talk directly' to the office in London. I tell you, the whole department gathered round and stared in awe and some disbelief. Look at us now!

Ann
 
Graham,

Oh good! Thanks for confirming that. I thought it was probably still the case. But I am not 'up' on today's computers at all.

Ann
 
Does anyone remember the computer at the Gas headquarters in Solihull? When I was working there it was behind a set of two doors with an airlock and as said earlier, everyone wore white overalls.The technician showed us how he fault founded, he opened the rows of cabinets and on the end of each PCB was a light, if it was on , you changed the board! He had a huge drawer of spares...
 
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