The reboot of the Harwell Dekatron / WITCH computer, the world's oldest working computer

The Harwell Dekatron / WITCH clattering back into life at The National Museum of Computing on 20 November 2012. The machine - the world's oldest original working digital computer dating from 1951 - can be seen at TNMOC, located on Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, UK. Opening times: www.tnmoc.org/visit
School groups and the public come to TNMOC to learn about computer heritage and it is hoped that students will be inspired to become the next generation of computer scientists and engineers.
More information on the computer at www.tnmoc.org
Video by TVUK for TNMOC and kindly sponsored by Google UK.

[@mr1enrollment]

Today we stand on the shoulders of these giants. Great video.

[@JamesTheBell1]

I've known about this machine since I was quite young, and it's fantastic to see it working after all these years. Not just because of it's age, but because it is wonderful to watch. Incidentally, Cecil Ramsbottom was also involved in the development of radar during WWII, and I've heard that he added the extra panel of Dekatron tubes on the far left during the machines's time in Wolverhampton, because he figured that it would run a lot faster (relatively speaking!). I know this because I'm one of his grandchildren, and pleased to be so! Cecil died in 2003, but I'm sure he'd loved to have been at this event. If he was still alive today he'd probably be thrilled at how far we've come with technology over gthe past decade.

[@ryugatsuchiya9018]

wow!

[@user-yw8sr3uj1w]

Rip to that awesome person

[@gooddayhuman]

"The original machine ran fantastically well until some bloke came along and tried to divide by zero, it caused the Great Fire of 1666."

[@irapk79]

he was the modern day tester

[@AbAb-th5qe]

A QA tester walks into a bar and orders -1 beers... :)

[@fullclipaudio]

This is a monument to our heritage. You men are heroes.

[@s.s.85]

I come back to this video every so often to remind myself how far we've come as a civilization, and how brilliant were the people of the past to have created such amazing things with such harsh constraints and lack of supporting technology we all take for granted. And I always feel sad when I see these old scientists. They're all giants who paved the way for every piece of tech we enjoy today, but time will claim them all, and did for many of their contemporaries. Imagine what amazing things they would've done if they lived to our days! Unfortunately, death is one of things that will be the hardest to beat, but science will prevail in the end, and thanks to the efforts of brilliant people like these cool old scientists!

[@whoopjohn]

I salute a number of private collectors who gave their rare dekatron tubes free of charge to get this working, yet received not a single word of thanks. One was made to pay to enter the museum in order to donate. It was an appalling situation.

[@dokbob5795]

That is disgusting. I am keeping mine.

[@sparkplug1018]

Not sure which Dekatron tubes this machine was built around, but they're not exactly rare.

[@davidigra]

Awesome clip, I watched it on my iPad. My gratitude and admiration for those two pioneers present who trailblazed computing for us all. Good job!

[@poil27]

superb work ! those machines are part of history and needed to be kepted alive. your museum is awsome !

[@BartSmaalders]

Happened to stop by Bletchley Park about a week later - fascinating machine.... thank you for the video!

[@sparkplug1018]

I wonder if 66 years from now we'll be watching a similar video about the early Quantum computers, the engineer's that built them and the people who operated them.

[@kfl611]

They will laugh at how primitive are.

[@ZTTINGS]

Fantastic old gents! So important to keep these machines for our heritage. If you think how quickly this tech has disappeared. I only wish more of the billion dollar tech companies contributed to the TNMOC so that more of our history remains with us.

[@mr.mysteriousyt6118]

Richard Soos it did not disappear we just made smaller, faster, smarter. and lot more but if you knew how computers work you would understand, and i am not saying i understand everything.

[@StampStories]

+mr.MYSTERIOUS,YT to be honest, modern computers have absolutely no resemblance to tube and relay based computers from the 1950s

[@dokbob5795]

It did disappear, because of the Amstrad adverts, showing people throwing their old calculators and other machines out of the office windows into a skip.

[@GrBiEdits]

The first computer is more than 2100 years old: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXLWiHmdpduMnqM

[@candicemorrison304]

What a great event! What a great story! So interesting to see the gentleman there who created and used and saved this great machine! 💙🤗💙 Makes my heart so happy! Because of men like them and machines like this, we have the technology that we enjoy and use today! One day a group of school kids will be staring in awe of at an iphone of the past with someone of our generation touting the benefits of such a device! 😂 History CAN and SHOULD be interesting at it's core! Well done to everyone involved! Sending Love From Boston, MA USA!

[@GerardoM]

Fascinating... Thanks for sharing this video!

[@PopeLando]

The mechanical calculator Bart Fossey uses is a Danish machine called a Facit. I own one. This was a development of the original pinwheel handle-driven calculators, but designed to fit a smaller footprint, and was also uniquely the first calculating machine which used a single set of digit buttons 0 to 9 for input. This actually had disadvantages for certain operations (such as square roots) but the cause was the design requirement for a small footprint. Overall it was physically harder and much clunkier to use than a Comptometer or an Original Odhner.

[@infinitecanadian]

That thing is awesome! What a great machine.

[@newforestobservatory9322]

Totally and utterly brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@bastardtubeuser]

amazing. thanks master yoda.

[@corkkyle]

Thank you!

[@Arabhacks]

And, it used stepper units like what was used in telephone service. So, not only were the hundreds of tubes a problem, but so were the 1000 contact pairs. But, it was a marvel in its era.

[@dokbob5795]

And those stepper units were used in bomb release controllers.

[@DanafoxyVixen]

As stated in the video, the stepper units were reliable... just slow

[@ThEORiGaNALTroLL]

Good Work!

[@SilverSpoon_]

>machine start printing stuff on its own >"upgrade to windows 10 today" >one of the old scientists dies of a heart attack.

[@mabel8179]

It's got a face! ( the far right section). What a cute, charming and excellent computer! It reminds me of the one in the Twilight Zone episode called Agnes.

[@MrSidMan]

Good news Harrell Dekatron / WITCH owners running older software, APPLE and MS is coming out with a new update API Library to interface these machines, so all your old code can now harmoniously integrate with newer software. ;)

[@wisteela]

Superb. I used to see it at Birmingham Science Museum, and always wondered if it still worked. I have a Guinness Book of Records from either 77 or 78 with it in. The photo shows it in the museum.

[@stmartinsguildsmgcbr4258]

Hope you don't mind the correction but the photo in the Guiness Book of Records was taken in what was then Wolverhampton Polytechnic (later University) around the early 70's prior to it being moved to Birmingham Science Museum. It's my father in the photo.

[@wisteela]

@@stmartinsguildsmgcbr4258 Thanks for the info

[@BigMacOrange]

But can it run doom?

[@JohnnyWednesday]

Utterly wonderful - I owe my entire career to these pioneers and others. I sit in awe - knowing full well that if we engineers today had to build one with the same technological limitations? we'd likely fail where they succeeded.

[@DavideNastri]

I love this!

[@jimmykelley883]

Interesting video. Oh my...how far we have come!!! Just think...in 50 years...people will be watching a video about our iPads and our quad-core computers and laughing. lol Maybe...some of us well be there, with grey hair, explaining how it all worked!

[@wisteela]

Jimmy Kelley Quantum computers will be common then

[@kevinmonceaux2101]

I'd love to see this machine in person, but I'm on the wrong side of the pond.

[@kristhompson8112]

When I watch the Dekatron's dance and do their thing, I can't help but think I am seeing the Blonde in the RED dress from the The Matrix movie

[@douro20]

This computer is still faster than an automatic stepped-drum calculator.

[@tobeugbele5450]

...no words

[@Dcook85]

*types programming code for Crysis for 4.3 years* *inserts Crysis paper tape* *Crysis.exe has crashed* *Cries*

[@ufoengines]

Iran across this old digital computer patent 3190554 where it ran on compressed air instead of electricity. Was this computer ever built and used for anything? Could one be built today using 3D printing? Thanks for the post.

[@radiofun232]

Where can I buy c.q. find info about the book that the conservator talks about on 21.06?

[@GodmanchesterGoblin]

I love the storage modules in the left most racks - each one being 10 memory locations storing 9 decimal digits. Quite literally a case of "what you see is what you get". :)

[@PhilipM9]

I remember those old dekatron display tubes as one of my University teachers had a radioactivity counter that used them.

[@GrBiEdits]

The first computer is more than 2100 years old: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXLWiHmdpduMnqM

[@EgoShredder]

RIP Ted Cooke the genius from West Yorkshire.

[@alanmartinezbrito]

Amazing piece of history!

[@GrBiEdits]

The first computer is more than 2100 years old: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXLWiHmdpduMnqM

[@alanmartinezbrito]

@@GrBiEdits buddy, please read the title again

[@raypitts4880]

any telephone engineer of the 50's would know all about these tubes also in usa the ibm used miles of those teletype machines to pass sicnals to each other over the phone lines.tape was read and pulses passed down the line a receiver printed out a punch tape that was fed in to the tele typer and printed out as a typewriter would.

[@rileywallace1132]

back in the day i used to play black ops zombies all the time on one of these bad boys

[@ezragonzalez8936]

Ted Cooke Yarborough died 5 weeks after this upload Rip!

[@Cassia-Aurea]

Amazing, i still works! i wonder, how did they dealt with cathode poisoning in dekatron tubes.

[@SpiralDiving]

Don't think that's a problem as all the digits are constantly used

[@SugaNggaDigg]

Better than my pc

[@knazoo105]

Machine comes to life at 13:10 :)

[@loverslush]

so this is the first printer calculator? am i not under standing this correctly ?, even so ,so awesome to see the worlds oldest computer , to think now this function is a simple application on our mobile phone's ,

[@robinwells8879]

I like to think that there are other giant intellects like these that are still striving away in quiet corners continuing the beautiful work of pushing the frontiers not to be recognised until they retire. It never ceases to amuse me that if you met one of there number in the street you would have no concept of the superhuman individual that you were in the presence of. The existence of such people reassures me that the human race is not just “mostly harmless“ but has promise. 😉

[@UTUBESUCK666]

Rendering 1 frame of Crysis on this would take years. lol. Still very impressive for the time.

[@yourotherleft42]

It’s probably still faster than school computers

[@irvinparcon]

So what does this machine actually do? a massive calculator?

[@Crosshair84]

Yes, it's a massive AUTOMATED calculator. It may have been slow even for its day, a human with a mechanical calculator could keep up with it, but it made up for it by being very reliable. It could be left for long periods of time unattended. It was supposedly left running for 10 days unattended with a couple miles of input tape and was still running when someone came to check on it.

[@RonJohn63]

+Crosshair84 A massive AUTOMATED calculator that doesn't call in sick or get in catty arguments with other WITCHes in the computing room.

[@bashkillszombies]

It's the machine spirit keeping it alive because it pleases the machine gods! My armor is contempt. My shield is disgust. My sword is hatred. In the Emperor's name, let none survive!

[@RonJohn63]

+BaSH PROMPT (ಠ,ಠ) :eyeroll: Just stay in your basement, nerdboy.

[@mirroredguitarist]

Still more powerful than the Xbox one.

[@mirroredguitarist]

Haha, yeah..

[@mirroredguitarist]

Michael0075 Nothing can run crysis, such a computer is a complete myth.

[@clintspence6753]

The baby computer with monitor is older then this machine isn't it.

[@douro20]

Yes, but the one at the National Science Museum is a replica.

[@ryugatsuchiya9018]

wts a dekatron tube

[@nb7466]

so its a huge calculator? or does it do more?

[@garyharrison4915]

Thats all a modern computer is.

[@bryede]

Well, there's a range of devices between what we would call a calculator and a computer. This can be thought of a programmable calculator where it can be set up to perform calculation after calculation with very limited branching ability. The Computer Conservation Society website has some demo programs.

[@maxwellbutler4184]

it can enable blast processing

[@davedogge2280]

Can it do 4K graphics ?

[@454muddaubercbradiooperato3]

Hell no ididot

[@davedogge2280]

@@454muddaubercbradiooperato3 ok Bubba

[@quantumcomputer]

Hello Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather! I see you are awake. :-)

[@HappyHauptwerk]

Can you play games on it?

[@MrSidMan]

No but it does allow you to play games around or beside it. You might be able to place chess with a friend sitting on top of it. So Yes, you can I guess.

[@rippspeck]

This thing doesn't run on electricity, it runs on blood, sweat and tears.

[@TCGProductions03]

But can it run Crysis?

[@miles2378]

The Boom boxes (hearing aid) they have in their ears have more computing power than the WITCH!

[@iBullets]

Can it run minesweeper?

[@outsidetesseract6389]

can it run crysis?

[@sputtnikk11]

+Agent 333 Yes... With about 0.2 FPY (Frames per Year)

[@zachsmith1731]

Throw Linux on it. Should run fine

[@MrSidMan]

This does run one of the early distros of *nix systems... Binary Operations. lol

[@harthenry]

It is amazing what can be done with Bear Skins and Stone Knives!

[@MrJames9999899]

Isn't the Jacquard loom the oldest computer!???

[@Arabhacks]

A pocket calculator is thousands of times faster, and I am talking a TI-58. Reliable? until a tube goes out, that is why they ran known calculations both before and after anything important. Tube failure rate was measured in hours as there were just such a number of them.

[@richfiles]

Arabhacks Actually, the beauty of the dekatron tube is that it is NOT a vacuum tube. It's a cold cathode gas filled tube. It's filled with neon, and has no filament to burn out. The ionization of the neon causes both the glow, and keeps a path open for electrons to flow. As long as you don't keep tubes on and unchanging (and look at that thing blink away...) you should be fine a very nice chunk of time! Even the very worst USSR made dekatrons at least were rated for thousands of hours. the GC10B was a legendary tube. Not sure what the WITCH uses, but those tall tubes could be them. Those tube are notoriously resistant to outgassing. and proper maintenance should clear cathode poisoning due to sputtering (metal actually being deposited by the ions).

[@donmoore7785]

I don't believe the Dekatron has a significant failure rate.

[@firstnamelastname9657]

1:08 Chewbacca

[@MrDbzguy]

Am I looking at the world's oldest computer or world's oldest man?

[@rp8033]

1:16 will someone please do this guy a favor and......

[@pascalillustration3650]

3:12 “All these digital camera / devices have processors in them which are much much more powerfull than this Harwell Dekatron… And what are the millenials doing with it? Sending text messages and selfies…

[@user-yw8sr3uj1w]

Shut up. You're using one to comment on THIS VERY VIDEO! Just because of my age does not mean I couldn't care less. In fact I am extremely interested! But no, your artistic ass just had to be ageist. So here is my response: Ok boomer!