A Grand Day Out …

Phew!

I think I’m going to be saying a big ‘Thank You’ to Sue and her Partner, Andy; they asked me along to the Bletchley Park Heritage site, near Milton Keynes, today!

Fascinating place to actually visit, after all this time!

Especially for a rabid geek boy, like me!!

It’s just a shame we missed out on the National Computing Museum part of the complex, but there you go …

What we could get to was great to see; ranging from the original Enigma machines, themselves, and the Turing designed Bombes used to decrypt the messages. And the British TypeX machines, used to encrypt our coded messages; something I know I’d only heard of.

On top of that, there’s a reconstruction of the Lorenz machines, that the Germans used for their seriously top level communication; which lead to the real star of the show.

The Colossus …

The panoramic shot at the bottom?

That’s Colossus.

The worlds’ first modern, programmable computer.

And, my word, it’s amazing to see it in action …

Mostly because, according to the guide it’s as fast as a modern PC, at decoding the messages.

Feel free to imagine my response …

But, on a serious note, that’s because the Colossus we saw — which is a reconstruction, as the originals were destroyed after the war — was what’s known in the business as a dedicated computer.

It’s like a DVD player, or mobile phone; it’s just doing one thing!

Which is what gives it the comparative speed!

Now, before I settle in to watch Waters Of Mars, there’s one quick thing.

Bletchley Park needs help.

They had a collection, which I think everyone put into.

But, if you’ve got any spare valves, they need ’em.

Do they ever … !