Harwell Computer

[Tom Nolan]

It's so beautiful!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20395212

Cheers,
Tom

[Michel van der Meij]

Truly amazing! It can store 90 numbers :-) It looks like he means 90 numbers
of program memory. I would like to see some examples of what this computer
has been used for and perhaps an example program.

Great work, and effectively only 60 years ago....

Michel

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[Quixotic Nixotic]

Is that the one Nicko donated tubes to and they never even said thank you?

John S

[Grahame Marsh]

Yep, I donated some tubes as well - no acknowledgement or thank you.

But I'm itching to get to the museum the next time I'm in the south.

Grahame
Highlands

[Nick]

On Tuesday, 20 November 2012 11:06:49 UTC, Nixcited delighted wrote:

Is that the one Nicko donated tubes to and they never even said thank you?

Yup - the WITCH project.

I was a bit miffed,,, took some of my best Dekatrons...

Nick 

[JohnK]

That is what I remember hearing.
I offered them tubes on their list and a lead on the trigger tubes they
needed - got the intial discussion and then nothing. At that stage the
message was that they needed a whole complement of tubes. BUT, they must
actually have had the bulk of them already and just needed a few
replacements and spares.

John Kaesehagen
Australia

[Adam Jacobs]

.. with 828 total dekatrons, maybe "a few replacements and spares" _IS_

a whole complement of tubes.

-Adam

[Tidak Ada]

Glad I did not spent my GDT120M's

 

eric

---

From: neoni...@googlegroups.com [mailto:neoni...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Nick
Sent: dinsdag 20 november 2012 15:30
To: neoni...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] Harwell Computer

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[Jon]

I'll (slightly) stick up for the WITCH restoration team... I too donated some dekatrons, but because I live only an hour away I used the donation as an excuse to go see the WITCH in person :)  This was 2+ years ago, and the machine was very definitely non-functional due to power supply problems. I spent a very happy couple of hours there chatting to the chap heading the restoration, sharing some dekatron knowhow and taking photos. At that time they were very approachable, grateful for the tubes & input etc. If I remember the blog entries correctly, the team had significant changes in personnel due to illness. Perhaps they dropped the ball in the changeover with respect to thanking others who were generous with their tubes...

 

It is just the most amazing device, and I'm impressed that they've managed to save it. BTW, you'll notice that there are a mixture of orange and purple dekatrons shown in the video - these are GC10B and GC10A respectively. They've deliberately replaced some of the GC10A with GC10B because the glow is much more visible for public display. The design does have one or two selector dekatrons also in control circuits, but the vast majority of the tubes are just counters.

 

Jon.

 

[JohnK]

So, did they actually have most of the tubes already?

I can't imagine them finding such a quantity of some of them.

 

John K

----- Original Message -----

From: Jon

To: neoni...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 6:43 PM

Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] Harwell Computer

I'll (slightly) stick up for the WITCH restoration team... I too donated some dekatrons, but because I live only an hour away I used the donation as an excuse to go see the WITCH in person :)  This was 2+ years ago, and the machine was very definitely non-functional due to power supply problems. I spent a very happy couple of hours there chatting to the chap heading the restoration, sharing some dekatron knowhow and taking photos. At that time they were very approachable, grateful for the tubes & input etc. If I remember the blog entries correctly, the team had significant changes in personnel due to illness. Perhaps they dropped the ball in the changeover with respect to thanking others who were generous with their tubes...

 

It is just the most amazing device, and I'm impressed that they've managed to save it. BTW, you'll notice that there are a mixture of orange and purple dekatrons shown in the video - these are GC10B and GC10A respectively. They've deliberately replaced some of the GC10A with GC10B because the glow is much more visible for public display. The design does have one or two selector dekatrons also in control circuits, but the vast majority of the tubes are just counters.

 

Jon.

 

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[Quixotic Nixotic]

Yesterday I wrote to Kevin Murrell, trustee of The National Museum of Computing, on behalf of those who donated tubes and did not perhaps receive acknowledgement of any kind. In my capacity as a moderator of the group - personally I had no dekatrons to donate.

Kevin has responded to me today as follows:

Dear John,

Thank you for your email and for pointing out this lapse on our behalf.

Firstly, I must apologise for not being aware of the kind donations from your members, but I am absolutely sure all of these donations is valued and welcomed. Please do pass on my thanks to your members.

I will investigate why we didn't respond sooner and get back in touch as soon as I can.

I hope we will see you at the museum and see the machine in full working order!

Kind regards and many thanks.

Kevin Murrell - Trustee
The National Museum of Computing - www.tnmoc.org