[GreenKeys] Bletchley Park...

[Don Black]

You might be interested in Australia's SCIRAC computer 
<http://museumvictoria.com.au/CSIRAC/>, the oldest complete computer 
remaining in the worls. It was first built in 1949 and used up to 1966, 
when it was stored away. A few years back some of the people who worked 
on it restored it back into working condition and it's now on static 
display in Melbourne's museum. A very impressive machine, sadly the 
other first generation computers have been scrapped.
Don Black.

Don Robert House wrote:
> Hi Craig,
>
> I just received my 2009 Bletchley Park Calendar.  It is good that  
> someone had the foresight to photograph the WWII operations.  It is  
> not hard to imagine the hours of boredom behind pulled black curtains,  
> punctuated by adrenalin when solutions were found.
>
> While looking through the calendar the photo of Tech Sergeant Hurley  
> brought back several memories of my time at the Computer Museum of  
> America in San Diego.  For about 2 years we were lucky enough to be  
> able to display at a former art deco bank building on the edge of the  
> Gaslight District. The location had some problems because across the  
> street started the area of the homeless and drug dealers.  So the  
> museum normally operated during daylight hours only.
>
> Eventually of our funding dried up when so many American companies  
> decided to outsource computer programming and software support.  The  
> college that gave us 90 percent of our funding was a school for  
> computer programming.  So we moved the museum in three semi-trailers  
> back to the college in what was their old bowling alley.  We moved  
> everything three times in three years.  Very frustrating.  So in the  
> end we deeded everything to the San Diego State University Library in  
> the hopes that someday they will reopen the museum.
>
> Anyway, back to the glory days when we still had funding...  I served  
> as the docent for all of the communications equipment and also the  
> ENIGMA that is on a semi-permanent loan from the National Security  
> Agency Museum.  One day an older gentleman showed up who had flown in  
> from the east coast specifically to see our museum.  I spend the  
> better part of a day showing him all of the Teletype equipment and the  
> ENIGMA.
> His enthusiasm never dropped the whole day.  In our conversation I  
> discovered that he was one of the Tech Sergeants at Bletchley Park and  
> worked as Sgt. Hurley is shown on the April 2009 Calendar page.  He  
> also confided that most of the Sergeants were unhappy because they  
> were enlisted men and their British counterparts were either officers  
> or civilians paid much more than U.S. Army Sergeants.
>
> He mentioned that he and other U.S. Army men were allowed to observe  
> the British operations and assist with them, but the US Army  
> commanding officer would not let the British officers into the U.S.  
> Army encampment.
> It was really nice to make this Veteran's day but I had talked so much  
> that I lost my voice for about 24 hours.
>
> Memories.
>
> THANKS for all you do.  It is really neat when many people appreciate  
> the work you do.
>
> Don
> K9TTY
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