The text below is from a UK National Daily newspaper, the Guardian 11.5.95. It is an extract from an article "Colossal contribution to the war effort" by Chris Long. The article is illustrated by a large picture of Tony Sale peering through the Colossus replica at Bletchley Park, across a small forest of electronic valves - or tubes if you insist. Tony for several years led the splendid Computer Conservation Project at the Science Museum.
Note the way the reporter chose to end the article! :-)
Cheers
Brian Randell
The irony is that Colossus was made largely out of standard Post Office parts, and when it was stripped down, the parts went back into the spares bin at the PO laboratories at Dollis Hill. Indeed, some telephone exchanges around the country may still be using some of these parts, salvaged from one of the world's first computers.
The new Colossus is being pieced together with the aid of a few handdrawn plans, some photographs, and the reminiscences of the staff that worked with it. A caveat to getting permission from the authorities including the current GCHQ which had two Colossus machines in use until around 1960, is that "the general public would not be allowed direct hands-on access to the replica". Our masters move in mysterious ways ..
Bletchley Park is itself a museum of the whole code-breaking effort in the war. There are exhibits of how the code-breaking was achieved, for example, and some of the buildings have been restored to show how they looked when 12,000 people worked at the site. There is also a section that reflects the presence of the US Army staff that were stationed there: hence the tank.
But perhaps the most interesting part is the computer museum. At the moment it is still under construction, but there's a DEC PDP-11 mini in one corner, looking like something out of Dr Who, and a bench showing later developments: various IBM desktop PCs, an Amstrad 1512 and a Sinclair QL.
Also on display is a 1962-vintage Elliot 803 computer. It looks rather like a row of undersized vending machines, as it quietly hums to itself, still working after all these years. Sale says it was rescued after languishing in a barn for twelve years, and is now being looked after by the same engineer that tended it 30 years ago when it was gainfully employed.
Though far from finished, the museum is opening at weekends throughout the summer. Sale hopes to have the replica Colossus running by early next year, when the Americans will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of their computer. Sale wants to join in with a 52-year-old computer of his own.