| As
a follow on to our successful visit to Bletchley Park last year, a visit to
The National Museum of Computing is being arranged for Thursday 2nd June 2016
in the run up to MGLive! 2016. The work of the talented people in Bletchley Park
was enhanced by the creation of an electronic machine known as Colossus
during WWII, which was, whatever anyone may try to tell you differently, the World's
first electronic computer. It is the forerunner of all electronic computers in
use today - the USA's ENIAC only came into being in the immediate postwar years.
Although much larger than Colossus (ENIAC was about the size of a small semi detached
house) it was primarily used to calculate artillery shell trajectories. The National Museum of Computing or TNMOC as it is now known is situated in the grounds of Bletchley Park but is a separate organization with a wealth of interesting displays and information. It is not a dull place full of geeks, but a testament to the skill and capabilities of the people who collaborated to make the UK the leading codebreaker of all time. You may remember during our visit last year seeing the Enigma machine in Bletchley Park. The Germans had, they thought, an ace up their sleeve in case the Enigma machine was ever decrypted; it was but they didn't know it. Lorenz was a much more complex machine used by the German Naval High command. One man at Bletchley Park, Bill Tutte, was able to reverse engineer the Lorenz machine by imagination and deduction without ever having seen one and enabled the codebreakers to apply their extraordinary abilities to decrypt messages sent using the Lorenz Cipher. TNMOC now have a Lorenz SZ42 machine on long term loan from the Norwegian Armed Services. .More information on the National Museum of Computing at: http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/encrypt-decrypt-full-lorenz-story |  | |
| How
do I join the V8 visit to TNMOC? If you are interested please contact Nic Houslip at email or 07768 766315 as soon as you can, this looks like being an extremely interesting event. Information on The National Museum of Computing is available on their website. The event is open to members of the V8 Register - MG Car Club and their friends with MGV8s or other MGs. Cost estimate at this time is around £16 per head including a guide book for each couple, slightly more for non-seniors.  | Visit
to TNMOC on Thursday 2nd June 2016 Nic Houslip has a plan for the visit as follows: 10:30 Arrive at the TNMOC and take coffee in their cafeteria. 11:00 Gather in TNMOC meeting room to organise us into a Tour or Tours, depending on how many are coming. Tour guides like to limit the numbers to under 20 to ensure everyone gets the full detail. 11:30 Tour One. 12:00 Tour Two. Tours last approximately two hours. |
The National Museum of Computing Block H Bletchley Park Milton Keynes MK3 6EB SatNav users: please use the postcode for the railway station MK3 6DS on Sherwood Drive and then follow signs. The postcode for Bletchley Park will actually take you to an old entrance which is closed and you will end up at an unwelcoming brick wall! Event Organiser Nic Houslip 07768 766315 |
