The Amazing Story of Tommy FlowersCreator of the First Programmable Computer:

1- Why was Alan Turing's work acknowledged and Flowers' work was kept secret?

2 - Why was it important that Flowers' work be kept secret?

3- How do you think Flowers came up with the idea to use electronic valves?

4- How did Colossus succeed in breaking the Lorenz codes where previous machines had failed?

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Case 2.1 Opening Case The Amazing Story of Tommy Flowers-Creator of the First Programmable Computer ian'Alamy Bock The History C If you were asked to name the father of computing you'd probably say, proposed a radical now design-the use of valves rather than electro- Alan Turing. And, if you were asked to name the first programmable mechanical switches. His new machine contained over 1,500 thermi- computer, you'd say ENIAC. In each case you would be wrong' To find onic valves rather than the 150 valves used in the most complicated out why, we need to go back in history to the Allied Forces D-Day Land. previous electronic device. This departure from electromechanical Ings of WWill. switches initially caused heated debate since glass valves had proved On June 6, 1944 Allied Forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, to be less reliable than the electromechanical switches currently in France, and ended German domination in France during WWIL Known use. Using his knowledge of electronic switching. Flowers proved that as Operation Overlord, the ambitious Allied Forces military operation large numbers of electronic circuits could be made to perform reliable engaged 150,000 troops from 12 countries, 5,000 ships, and 11,coo air. calculations at speed by creating a stable environment where the sys- planes in what is still the largest recorded military operation in history. tom ran continuously, rather than turning it on and off. The innovative The success of D-Day and other Allied operations during WWil can system also used one tape rather than two, thus saving more time by be attributed primarily to one man-telecom engineer and computer eliminating the need to synchronize the tapes. pioneer Tommy Flowers. Flowers designed and built Colossus, the Flowers had to use his own money to get the project off the ground world's first electronic programmable computer that broke complex when management at the Bletchley Park codebreaking center proved Gorman codes at lightning speed to enable the Allies to gain valuable skeptical and encouraged Flowers to continue along rather than prior- military information and significantly shorton the duration of WWill. itizing the project. Flowers' persistence paid off. He was soon assigned staff and priority access to resources that enabled his development of The Father of Computing Colossus, the first electronic programmable computer. Tommy Flowers was bom in London's East End on December 22, 1905. at the age of 16, he began an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering How Does Colossus Work? and earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at the Univer. When Colossus began operating at Bletchley Park in February 1944, It city of London. In 1926, he joined the telecommunications branch of the ran a startling five times faster than its rival, the Heath Robinson elec- General Post Office (GPO) and in 1930 he was moved to the research sta- twomechanical switch machine! tion at Dollis Hill on the northwest side of London and later to Bletchley To decode the German High Command massages, a system of Park in Buckinghamchine. Flowers was particularly interested in the use wheels on Colossus guided the single punched paper tape, contain- of electronics for telephone exchanges and by 1939, he was convinced ing the encrypted message, through an optical reader as a repetitive that an all-electronic system was possible. This background in switching loop of punched paper tape in 5-bit teleprinter code. Characters on electronics would prove crucial for his computer design in WWWIL the tape were repeatedly read into Colossus at an astonishing rate of 5,000 characters per second. The First Electronic Programmable Computer When the paper tape was set up and the machine configured, it Flowers was initially asked to build a decoder for the Turing-Welch- took no more than four hours to output the results of the statistical man relay-based Bombe system (http:://www.inmoc.org/bombe] analysis of the message. These useable results, together with further designed to break Enigma codes used by the Germans to send mes- work by the Bletchley Park codebreaker team, resulted in breaking sages within the Third Reich. However, when the Germans began the German Lorenz cipher to reveal the strategic message it disguised to use the far more complicated Lorenz 52 rotor stream cipher within an advantageous time frame. machines, the Bombe system proved to be ineffective. Since the Ger- mans changed their codes at midnight every day, it was essential Colossus in WWil and Beyond codes were cracked within a relatively few hours. If not, the informa- On June 1, 1944, when Allied commanders were trying to determine tion gleaned by the Allies was useless. The Bombe system assisted by when and where to launch Operation Overlord, a new version of Colos- the Tunny and Heath Robinson machines (https://www.tnmoc.org/ sus that contained 2,500 valves and used shift registers to greatly bunny-heath-robinson] could not decode the highly sophisticated increase processing speed, was pressed Into service. Colossus II Lorenz codes quickly enough for its results to be of use. So, Flowers immediately provided vital intelligence regarding the D-Day landings.Introduction 33 On June 5, 1944, the almost instant Information provided by Colos- of ENIAC, an electronic general-purpose computer designed by the sus revealed that Hitler was refusing to send troops Into Normandy U.S. Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory, led to their designation as because he was convinced that any Allied landings would occur at Pas- firsts In the information technology field. de-Calais, almost 500 km north of the Normandy beaches. This infor- mation prompted Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander-in-Chic Recognition of Operation Overlord, to immediately order the Allied Forces to land Today, however, the place of Colossus as the first electronic program- at Normandy the next day-June 6, 1944. mable computer is assured, and Tommy Flowers, who was awarded Colossus I and Colossus Il continued providing vital intelligence the prestigious distinction of Member of the Order of the British Empire until the and of the war and historians estimate that their use short- (MBE] for his groundbreaking work during WWil, has been officially aned WWill by as much as two years, saving thousands of lives. A total acknowledged as the legitimate Father of Computing. of 10 Colossus units were operational during World War II. All but 2 Tommy Flowers died on October 28, 1998 in London, England. He were dismantled after the war. was 92 years old. Colossus Il lives on through the Colossus Il Rebuild, Years of Silence displayed in the original room where Colossus 9 stood during Will, at the National Museum of Computing (https://www.inmoc.org/colos- During his lifetime, Flowersnever received full recognition for his mon- sus) in Block H, Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, England umental accomplishments. Flowers' work during WWill was a closely guarded secret. It was tied to the Official Secrets Act administered by Questions Britain's Secretary of Defense and all information related to his vital 1. Why was Alan Turing's work acknowledged and Flowers' work work for the war effort in WWW was kept secret until the late 1970s. was kept secret? At that time, Flowers was given limited permission to release a tech- nical description of Colossus. The British Govemment didn't release 2. Why was it important that Flowers' work be kept secret? any information about the functions that Colossus performed during 3. How do you think Flowers came up with the idea to use Will until June 2000, two years after Flowers died. Even Flowers' fam- electronic valves? ily didn't know the amazing achievements he had attained and the 4. How did Colossus succeed in breaking the Lorenz codes whore positive impact he had made on the duration of WWIL All Flowers was previous machines had failed? allowed to tell them was that his work was "secret and important." Consequently, the nonclassified work of computer scientist and Sources: Compiled from Mcfadden (3019), Centre for Computing (20154 6]. cryptanalyst, Alan Turing and the February 1946 public announcement Crypto Museum (2015), and Sparka (2015]