14 Aug
2004
14 Aug
'04
8:39 a.m.
On Fri, 2004-08-13 at 23:21, Paul Williams wrote:
I went to Bletchley for the first time on Wednesday.
Tony Sale was there
and he let us into the machine room.
Tony's a good guy - far as I know, most of the plans for Colossus are in
his head only and nowhere else :) (Worrying, yes, but technically it's
still all classified info anyway)
It was fascinating to be stood
right next to Colossus's "bedstead" as the tape whirred around at 30
miles per hour, and to see the blinkenlights and valves.
It gets very warm in the room from all those valves during the day if
the doors aren't left open :)
I bought my cheap return ticket, so I'll make the
next trip on a
Saturday to see the Retrobeep collection. (Sorry, I've been repeating
that name to myself in an effort to get used to it, and it _still_ sucks!)
I *know*! It was probably the single thing putting me off from starting
to help out there way back when :-) Still makes me cringe...
cheers
Jules