It took six years, but finally the National Museum of Computing has a working Tunny machine, identical to the one used by the Allies, which were recycled for spare parts after the war. Somehow, the original circuit diagrams were lost when the 12-15 machines were dismantled, with it rather comically believed that the diagrams were used as toilet paper. Luckily the circuit notes survived, and the team was able to build a machine from scratch, going by them and some of the engineers’ memories.
The video over on the BBC’s website shows an interview with one of the operators of the original Tunny machines, Helen Currie, who says that they weren’t allowed to tell anyone what their jobs were, until about 30 years after the war ended – such was the secrecy of their positions. In fact, some of the Nazi messages they intercepted actually led to D-Day, as it helped the Russians during the battle of Kursk. [BBC]
Image credit: Bletchley Park via ZDNet
Daniel
Saturday, May 28, 2011 at 5:41 PMWhen I was in Briton last July I visited the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. I saw their fully operational Colossus computer and it is absolutely amazing to see an operational electromechanical computer. The room is like an oven due to the vacuum tubes chugging away and all the various cogs and lights make you appreciate the complexity of the whole computing system.