American toilets

[Bob Eager]

I remember them! First machines I wrote assembler for...used two of them until 1976.

[Andy Hall]

Ah yes.

Then there was the 803 where you had to load the Algol compiler (4k IIRC) using paper tape.

This machine was everything that an art deco computer should be. - rounded corners, console with flashing lights and a speaker that would play tunes if the right paper tape was loaded.

[Bob Eager]

There is (was) a working 803 at Bletchley Park, in the Computer Conservation bit. They replaced the 803 at work with the 4130 just before I got there.

[Frank Erskine]

This "paper tape" reminds me of American toilets...

[Douglas de Lacey]

AFAICS none of you have mentioned EELM for which a friend of mine worked. Or was that just an internal name?

Douglas de Lacey

[Roger]

The message from Douglas de Lacey contains these words:

That abreviation didn't ring any bells so I did a quick google and found the following quote (at zdnet.co.uk) in an article headed "Alas poor ICL, we knew it well..."

"I actually worked for ICL, once. It was before it was called ICL; I had a job as a programmer for English Electric Leo Marconi Computers (EELM) in 1965".

Part of a sad tale of the ruination of the British computer industry.

[Brian Sharrock]

Once upon a time .... I worked in the nascent 'British Computer industry .... there was a huge ... huge... programme to update the UK's Air Traffic Control and ancillary systems ; - 'There'll be SST (Concord(e)s; Konkordskii plus the US SST - not to mention the hordes of Soviets Mig 25 et.all. swarming all over the airspace ... it'll be beyond the power of unaided man to comprehend (let alone control) ... something must be done!'

At that time nobody (aka Government) really knew who would be a winner so the Government made 'each way' bets. Any and every man-boy-and-dog with access to a soldering iron and the nous to connect two OC92 together and call it a 'bit store' instead of the more formal 'Eccles-Jordan bistable' could get a development contract for the super-project. Soon, Plessey, Elliots, Ericsson, Marconi, AT&E, ICT et.al, had little bits of the overall project .

Acting in the 'white heat' of the 'Technology Revolution' the (then) Post Master general - or was he Minister for Technology by then ? (one forgets) - sallied forth each week from the Ministry of Technology (MillBank) to a secret location and had a meeting with HighGalumphers from at least two of the involved companies and strove to make 'em 'team-up' (aka merge). Different weeks, different Highgalumphers, different merging . Out of these shenanigans, ICL was borne ... Plessey ceased to manufacture computer-systems ... whatever happened to EELM?

Meanwhile, away from the centralised control of the Minister of Technology ... [It's not the Viscount Stangate - it's not Anthony Wedgwood Benn - call me Toney!] .. in Sunnyvale ... . The rest, as they say, is history.

Had to dodge any Concordes lately? Cynic! Moi?