At the University of Manchester engineers such as Tom Kilburn, Freddie Williams, Geoff Tootill, Alec Robinson, Dai Edwards and others worked to create what became the Small Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM) or Baby.
The Baby was recognisably modern electronic computer because it could easily be re-programmed to carry out different tasks. By contrast older machines either just carried out one function or had to be re-wired to change what they did.
A replica of the original Baby now resides at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.
“When we wrote the proposal to build the replica machine an explicit goal which was to re-run the first program as a tangible tribute to the pioneers that brought this about,” said Chris Burton who led the effort to re-build the SSEM.
Mr Burton said none of them had any idea about the influence their work would have.
“They did it to help engineers, forecasters and scientists to do their calculations,” he said. “They had no idea of the fantastic proliferation that we have had since.”
