The COLOSSUS by Brian Randell

The First International Research Conference on the History of Computing was a milestone in the history of computing, drawing a global elite of computer pioneers from the first generation of electronic digital computing. Most talks are approximately 45 minutes in duration and feature a lecture with a brief question and answer period afterwards. This lecture was a bombshell when presented. In what was the first public and most complete unclassified discussion of unknown secret wartime computers developed in Britain, Randell stunned the audience with the implication that a significant part of the history of computing would from that point on need to be re-written. Randell’s focus is on the COLOSSUS, a series of electronic digital computing engines used during World War II to decrypt enemy messages; their ability to decrypt German codes quickly saved untold lives. This lecture’s transcript was included in the edited volume from the conference, viz. Randell, B., “The COLOSSUS,” in Metropolis, N., and Howlett, J., Rota, Gian-Carlo, A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, New York: Academic Press, 1980, pp. 47 – 92. Catalog Number: 102695476