The world's first digital computer, a machine of more than two tons christened 'The Witch' (The Witch), has re-ignited in the UK, where it will be exposed as a museum piece after repair of three years.
In a ceremony at the National Computer Museum in Buckinghamshire (central England) several of the creators of the historical piece, and students who learned to program with it, struck the button 'on'.
In the fifties, during its heyday, "The Witch", whose construction began in 1949, was the centerpiece of the British Atomic Energy Research. Its mission was to facilitate the work of scientists performing mathematical operations electronically until then should be done by simple calculators.
Centerpiece of the British nuclear program
Despite the slowness of his early work, it took ten seconds to multiply two numbers, soon became an indispensable and became used eighty hours a week, a record for the time.
When in 1957 was superseded by faster and smaller computers, now moved to the University of Wolverhampton (East of England), which was used to teach programming to students first computer. From there he went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Birmingham, but at the end of this machine was dismantled and taken to a municipal warehouse in 1997.
Three years ago, Kevin Murrell, a member of the board of the National Computer Museum, taken by an antique computer.
After numerous trips to the store, the restoration team went to work and three years of work have been able to save up to 1390 original pieces.
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