Simon Lavington 
Alan Turing and his Contemporaries 
Building the world’s first computers

Secret wartime projects in code-breaking, radar and ballistics produced a wealth of ideas and technologies that kick-started the development of digital computers. This is the story of the people and projects that flourished in the post-war period.

By 1955 computers had begun to appear in the market-place. The Information Age was dawning and Alan Turing and his contemporaries held centre stage. Their influence is still discernable deep down within today’s hardware and software.

Table of Content

1. The ideas men.
2. Ivory towers and tea rooms.
3. The Manchester machines
4. Meanwhile, in deepest Hertfordshire
5. One man in a barn
6. Aces and Deuces
7. Into the market place
8. Hindsight and foresight: Turing’s legacy
9. Bibliography and references
10. Timeline: Alan Turing’s life with computers.
11. Index.

About the author

Chris Burton is one of the world’s leading restorers of historic computers. Professor Martin Campbell-Kelly is the UK’s foremost computer historian. Dr Roger Johnson is a past President of the British Computer Society. Professor Simon Lavington is the Computer Conservation Society’s digital Archivist. All are committee members of the Computer Conservation Society.