Day 18: Bletchley Park and The National Museum of Computing

 Bletchley Park Mansion and the National Museum of Computing

About the Museum

It was a very interesting day visiting the National Museum of Computing. I learned more about England in War World II and a bit about the history of computers in the UK.  There was a lot of technical material to digest and  there was a lot of history to absorb. At the end of the exhibit, I reflected about the significance and the complexity of preserving these types of artifacts. Emulators are one of various preservation strategies, as we observed in our Archives and Manuscripts class earlier.  The original machines used in World War II displayed here were destroyed or phased out as soon as the war was over as these were used for a top secret mission and there were fears of these being in the wrong hands.

I found it really interesting to see the evolution of computers since we live in such a sophisticated digital era and are becoming more app-dependent. It is hard to imagine what it was like back then to run a program, or do computations in gigantic machinery that would spit out punched paper, and you the human, had to interpret the results. Boggles the mind, but it was effective to beat the enemy.

While 18 cities in London were being bombed by the Germans, the British intelligence services were working feverishly  and secretly, crafting intricate machines, systems, and algorithms to intercept enemies' (Germany, Japan, Italy) encrypted codes and decrypt them with machines such as the Enygma, the Lorenz, and the first computer machine, the Colossus. A successful team endeavor, that reduced the length of a grueling war,  led  to victory on D-day, and paved the ground for the digital age.

 Some of the Codebreaking machinery:

The Colossus first computer programmable machine

The Turing Bombe

The Lorenz

The Enygma

At the end of the tour, we went to the mansion side and walked around the beautiful gardens.

About Bletchley Park

The Bletchley Park is a beautiful mansion located in the Buckinghamshire neighborhood. It was constructed in gothic and victorian style. It belonged to the Leon's family in the 1800's. In 1938  an Admiral purchased the estate. The mansion itself was the main offices of Commander Denniston. To this day it is preserved as it looked.  At the peak of WWII, the Bletchley Park complex became the top secret bunker where about 10,000 employees, 75% of them women, worked around the clock.

Codebreaking huts were constructed in such a way so employees would not  have much contact even when crossing from one room to another. No one could know what exactly what each one was doing.   Currently, Hut C is the Visitor center, and the actual museum of electronic artifacts.  We spent a good two hours listening to our guide completely mesmerized by learning about the people who invented the decrypting devices and computing machines.  Thanks to a number of international and local institutions, corporations, and donors (Google  on of them), Bletchley Park Trust began restoration of the huts.  By now various huts are available to the public view, including the Block C  (Visitor Centre).



References:
Bletchley Park Museum Website. https://bletchleypark.org.uk/

Women Codebreakers. Bletchley Park Research Website.  Retrieved from https://www.bletchleyparkresearch.co.uk/research-notes/women-codebreakers/