Nov 20, 2025
Postcard featuring the Oak Ridge Automatic Computer and Logical Engine (ORACLE). From my ephemera collection.
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Postcard featuring the Oak Ridge Automatic Computer and Logical Engine (ORACLE). From my ephemera collection.
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IAS Machine-tan & Whirlwind-tan
Lots of visual references to their respective computers, putting them under the cut in case you want to find them yourself:
John von Neumann & the Institute for Advanced Study computer.
MANIAC I with operators, 1952. Note the horseshoe on the right pillar, hung for good luck.
Attempting a historical study of the early British electronic computers and it's making me want to invest in a corkboard, pins and strings to keep track of everything.
I've spent the last several days alone trying to get a straight answer on whether the Manchester Baby (and subsequently, Manchester Mark 1) was derived from the First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC / EDVAC itself.
I thought I read that Manchester received a copy of the report, though I don't have the source for that on hand so I'm not going to put too much weight on that. I'll update if I find it.
A representative working on behalf of Max Newman was present at the Moore School Lectures. Thus we know the Manchester team was at least exposed to design concepts from the EDVAC.
In Automatic Digital Computers (1956), Maurice Wilkes (inventor of the very-much-derived-from-the-First Draft EDSAC) offhandedly groups the Manchester computers together "with other machines of the EDVAC-type". Unclear to me is whether he's using that as shorthand for stored program computers, or pointing to a stronger thread of influence.
Finally, University of Manchester itself has this to say:
A second U.K. project, the Manchester Mark 1, was not directly influenced by the lectures, but Freddie Williams, while visiting a number of places in the US in June 1946, saw the ENIAC, and he was impressed at the evidence that such a large electronic machine could be kept error free for long enough to make useful calculations.
Followed by this a few paragraphs later:
Williams and Kilburn immediately wanted to develop a basic computer as the only way of fully testing their proposed storage mechanism. Tom Kilburn led the design and construction, and the "Small Scale Experimental Machine", the Manchester "Baby", was up and running by June 1948. Although small and primitive, it was the first working machine to have all the basic ingredients we would regard as essential to the von Neumann computer, in particular it had a true Random Access Memory and used the stored-program principle. The Baby so successfully demonstrated the effectiveness and potential of the von Neumann computer that Williams immediately embarked on developing the Baby into a full-sized usable machine, the Manchester Mark 1 [...]
Making the rather circular (IMO) case that the Baby / Mark 1 was both unrelated to the EDVAC, but related to the "von Neumann computer", which itself was the "idealized" form of the EDVAC laid out in the First Draft. (And yes, I know the reasoning for this is likely the IAS Machines using the same Williams Tube memory as the Manchester machines, but it's still weird to see it framed this way.) I feel like I'm going nuts, which is only bolstered by the ever-growing list of early British computer history books I'm compiling.
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On the 80th anniversary of the First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (June 30, 1945), a moment of appreciation for the first generation of computers it inspired:
EDSAC (via Computer History Museum - image ca. 1948)
Manchester Mk. 1, evolved from the earlier Baby (via University of Manchester - image ca. late 1940s)
IAS Machine (via Institute for Advanced Study - image ca. 1952)
John von Neumann and Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) Director J. Robert Oppenheimer in front of the IAS Computer in Princeton, New Jersey. Ca. 1952 — Via CHM
From what I've read of their friendship/rivalry, this picture's always cracked me up. Particularly the way von Neumann is looking at Oppenheimer.
Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC)-tan
General facts: Automaton, though it's hard to tell at first glance - Refined ideas pioneered in ENIAC. Physically active - Smaller, simpler and faster than its predecessor. Her body was incomplete for a long time, worked around it with prostheses - Slow development, changed significantly over course of project. Proud of her advancement, but disappointed she didn't have the freedom to be weird and different like ENIAC-tan - More formalized design, less piecemeal and experimental. Fantastic memory - Stored program computer. Pressured by high expectations from the start - Project ran concurrently with ENIAC compensating for its shortcomings. Sociable, met and worked with many outsiders, not shy about discussing the nature of computers. (Which she came to regret.) - Foundational computer, inspired the creation of others of its era. Trust issues. - [waves broadly at EDVAC history] Glory stolen by her half-sisters - EDSAC and Manchester Mk. I completed before EDVAC, and IAS Machine remembered as "the originator". A bit aimless, has ambitious ideas but has trouble applying herself - Big ideas, implementation issues. Recruited into the army as a 2nd Lieutenant. Military service gave her the direction she'd lacked all her life. Pragmatic and hard working, loves her job in ordnance and the army. Badly hurt in a spontaneous combustion, but recovered fully. - Suffered an electrical fire in 1952. Retired(?) at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel - Used and upgraded until 1962. Aware of her influence on future generations of computers but seems to gain no fulfillment from it. Status: Exceptionally dead
"Today nothing remains of the EDVAC except a few small plug-in circuit elements stored carefully away in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and a larger section of electronics in the basement of the Moore School of Electrical Engineering. said to have been part of the original construction effort. The EDVAC - the machine that launched us into the computer age - is no more, and many who worked on her would say, "Just as well.""
Relationships: Close, but complicated relationship with ENIAC-tan - Though EDVAC was directly inspired by ENIAC, it's defined mostly by its differences from its predecessor. Has a large, dysfunctional human "family" - EDVAC development committee frequently in conflict. Initially got along with her uncles, but soured after the creation of IAS-tan ... - von Neumann & Goldstein contributed to EDVAC, but fell out with the team after the First Draft controversy. Intense, one-sided enmity with IAS-tan, who she blames for her misfortunes. Forced to work with her niece(s) ORDVAC-tan and BRLESC-tan(?). - Other computers at the BRL Aware of, but ignores, her half-sisters EDSAC and Manchester Mk. I Feels abandoned by her "fathers", has a strained relationship with the Univacs - Eckert & Mauchly departed the project and formed their own company. Appearance & personality: - Bears resemblance to ENIAC-tan and IAS-tan: slender, olive skintone, short silver worn in curls, silver eyes and soft features. Fuller figure than ENIAC, but leaner than IAS. - Doll-like features present but less pronounced. Mechanical trappings (wires, plugs) hidden. - Disheveled, contemporary 40s attire in black, hat with short black veil. Carries around counting tools and artillery tables. - WAC uniform when on duty. - Reflects her mother's pride and primness, with none of her graciousness or patience. Bitterly wounded, though she's gotten better at hiding her regrets she'll bare her feelings when the conversation turns to her past. Despite her scientific acumen she's less academic than others in her family, very hands-on and happiest when she has a practical problem to solve. Sabotaged by obsessive tendencies. Well-regarded and respected in the army/ordnance computer community, but tends to go unnoticed by the wider world of -tans.