Research Seminar - July 30, 1999

Abstract

What do the Chemical Brothers, the Hacienda night club, vintage computers, and the first stored programs have in common?

Like a tiny sub-surface probe, we shall delve into the not so distant past and uncover an era when computers were human and their replacements filled rooms. Submersed in the catacombs of recent time, Manchester Computing shall explore the relationship between early computer research and industry, the perceptions of the machine in the atomic era, and the development of key technologies such as cathode ray tube storage. This seminar shall search for significance and meaning in embryonic digital electronic computation.

Who were the key figures in the development of computing in Britain? Where were the centres of research located? How were the experimental prototypes and subsequent models financed? To what extent was technological transfer fueling computer development? How did the non-specialist general public perceive these machines? Why Manchester, home of the dark mills of the industrial revolution? Manchester Computing shall investigate these links, weaving a web of material to illustrate why Manchester is significant as a computing centre.