Product Description

At last - the secrets of Bletchley Park's powerful codebreaking computers. This is a history of Colossus, the world's first fully-functioning electronic digital computer. Colossus was used during the Second World War at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, where it played an invaluable role cracking enemy codes. Until very recently, much about the Colossus machine was shrouded in secrecy, largely because the codes that were employed remained in use by the British security services until a short time ago. This book has only become possible due to the recent declassification in the US of wartime documents. With an introductory essay on cryptography and the history of code-breaking by Simon Singh, this book reveals the workings of Colossus and the extraordinary staff at Bletchley Park through personal accounts by those who lived and worked with the computer. Among them is the testimony of Thomas Flowers, who was the architect of Colossus and whose personal account, written shortly before he died, is published here for the first time. Other essays consider the historical importance of this remarkable machine, and its impact on the generations of computing technology that followed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15412 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

Guardian, 29 July 2006
'formidably detailed'

Review
An engaging book that will be essential reading for historians of twentieth-century technology and warfare. (Nature )

formidably detailed (Guardian )

compelling compilation (New Scientist )

The Times Higher, October 6 2006
Copeland and the other contributors have rightly done Flowers and
the Tunney code-breakers proud.

Customer Reviews

Valuable part of the wartime jigsaw
This book contains numerous articles written by some of those invisible people who actually took part in this top secret project. Some of the accounts are those of frustration, from people not allowed to get the recognition that they and their colleagues deserve. The level of detail and understanding shown makes this a very interesting and unique picture. I would recommend it without hesitation. Their ability to inject humour in the most serious of stories gives you some idea of the luck and good fortune that resulted in the most important achievements.

Bletchley Park books
A very interesting book written by those who were involved. Much easier to read than Paul Gannon's book as it is personal rather than historical from documents. A very interesting book and I can thoroughly recommend it.

A great read!
Couldn't put it down. You are lectured by some of the worlds greatest scientists, who undoubtably save the western world from the Nazis; it is written with humour and in excellent style. What fortune that the release of this classified information was just in time (but only just) to allow contributions from those who really 'won the war'. The repetition of how Colossus worked by its many contributors allows non-techies to really understand what it did, and how the first computer was British not American! Da Vinci code - eat your heart out!