The world's oldest original working digital computer has undergone a reboot and is now set to appear on display at The National Museum of Computing in Buckinghamshire, England. The machine, otherwise known as the Witch, has taken three years to be resorted to its original form, which saw it distinguished by flashing lights and incessant whirling sounds.
Unveiled in the 1950s, the computer was seen as a critical player in the UK's atomic energy research programme. Weighing 2.5 tonnes, it was designed to help ease the strain on scientists by doing electronically the calculations that previously were done using more simplistic machines. However, the decision to reboot the computer was only taken after it was discovered in a municipal storeroom, where it had spent the previous 15 years.
Organisers of the event have confirmed that it will be made available to the public at The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, where British scientists cracked German enigma codes during the height of the Second World War. Although the computer takes up to ten seconds just to multiply two numbers, it proved to be very reliable for the team of scientists during the period of time it was in active operation. In fact, it often registered as many as 80 hours of running time in a week before it was replaced by faster, smaller machines in 1957.
Having become obsolete among the science and research community, the computer was donated to Birmingham's Museum of Science and Industry in 1973. The Witch remained on show at the museum until 1997, which is when it was put in the municipal store.
Thankfully, Kevin Murrell, one of the trustees of The National Museum of Computing, recognised its parts in the background of a photograph during a trip to Bletchley Park. He said that he was fascinated by the machine when he was a "geeky teenager" and was determined to see it restored to its former glory.
"It's important for us to have a machine like this back in working order as it gives us an understanding of the state of technology in the late 1940s in Britain," Mr Murrell remarked.