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Early Computing in Britain pp 225–237Cite as

The Mark I* at the Armaments Research Development Establishment, Fort Halstead

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Part of the book series: History of Computing ((HC))

Abstract

Fort Halstead in Kent was the first defence establishment to become interested in acquiring a computer, primarily because the UK’s early research into nuclear weapons was carried out there. Ministry of Supply (MOS) priorities were then re-adjusted so that GCHQ got the first Mark I* and the nuclear weapons calculations were transferred temporarily to the Ferranti Mark I at Manchester University. Fort Halstead got its Mark I*, called AMOS, in the summer of 1954. We describe the applications of AMOS over its long and useful life—a life so useful that Fort Halstead decided to build a successor computer in-house that provided a programmers’ interface that had the look and feel of AMOS. The result was COSMOS, about 50 times faster than AMOS. During January 1967 all work was smoothly transferred to COSMOS and AMOS was switched off.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Pattison, Gordon. 2015. Playing Chess with Turing: How Computers Came to Fort Halstead. DSTL Fellow. Lecture given at Fort Halstead on 11th Dec 2015. The author had many helpful e-mail discussions with Gordon Pattison during the summer of 2017.

  2. 2.

    Service of Brigadier G. H. Hinds, Royal Artillery, with the Ministry of Supply in Germany, 1945–1947. Imperial War Museums catalogue item HU 103674.

  3. 3.

    Reiners, C.A. 1953. Survey of Computing Facilities in the UK. Published by the Ministry of Supply. NAHC document MIS/D3act. The Foreword, written by Brigadier G. H. Hinds, contains statistics on the numbers of Differential Analysers, desk calculators, etc., available at various establishments.

  4. 4.

    NRDC Internal memo (Note for File from the Managing Director (NRDC): Electronic Computers). 1st May 1952. NAHC file NRD C9/1. This is a two-page typed foolscap document, summarising a long discussion that had taken place between Halsbury, Hennessey, Crawley and Bowden on 29th April 1952.

  5. 5.

    NRDC Internal memo, Crawley to Hennessey, dated 2nd August 1952. In NAHC file NRD/C9/1. The group of documents catalogued as C9 are labelled Computers, Manchester University/Ferranti, Development, Vol 2, Correspondence 1952–1967.

  6. 6.

    Swann, B.B. 1975. The Ferranti Computer Department: A History. This 1975 document was initially circulated privately and marked ‘confidential’. A copy is held at the NAHC, catalogue number FER/C30.

  7. 7.

    Pattison, Gordon. 2000. Early Computers at the Fort. DERA News, Oct 2000. This paper’s source reference for the largest program on AMOS, the battle intelligence system, is: TNAK DEFE 15/1995.

  8. 8.

    Pattison, Gordon., Playing Chess with Turing: How Computers Came to Fort Halstead.

  9. 9.

    Ellson, Allan. 2015. Ferranti MkI* Commissioning and Installation: Some Recollections, 14th Oct 2015. Two typed pages. Allan Ellson was a Ferranti engineer who rose to be in charge of commissioning Mark I* computers at Moston and Gem Mill.

  10. 10.

    Pattison, Gordon., Playing Chess with Turing: How Computers Came to Fort Halstead.

  11. 11.

    Armament Research Establishment Annual Report 1954, p. 18.

  12. 12.

    Dodd, K.N. 1953a. The Ferranti Electronic Computer (Parts 1 & 2: the Mark I Model). Armament Research Establishment, report 10/53. Manual containing 90 pages of text and about the same number of pages of logical diagrams, line diagrams and photos. The machine described became known as the Ferranti Mark I. K. N. Dodd spent time at Manchester, using the University’s Ferranti Mark I.

  13. 13.

    Dodd, K.N. 1953b. The Ferranti Electronic Computer (Parts 3, 4 7 5: the Mark I* Model). Armament Research Establishment, report 11/53. Manual containing 101 pages of text and about the same number of pages of circuit diagrams, logical diagrams and line diagrams. The machine described became known as the Ferranti Mark I*.

  14. 14.

    E-mail dated 25th October 2015 from the former Ferranti programmer Joan Travis (neé Kaye) to the author (SHL).

  15. 15.

    Pattison, Gordon., Playing Chess with Turing: How Computers Came to Fort Halstead.

  16. 16.

    Pattison, Gordon., Playing Chess with Turing: How Computers Came to Fort Halstead.

  17. 17.

    Pattison, Gordon., Early Computers at the Fort.

  18. 18.

    Berry, F.J. 1959. Intercode, A Simplified Coding Scheme for AMOS. Computer Journal 2 (2): 55–58.

  19. 19.

    Pattison, Gordon., Playing Chess with Turing: How Computers Came to Fort Halstead.

  20. 20.

    Pattison, Gordon., Playing Chess with Turing: How Computers Came to Fort Halstead.

  21. 21.

    Issue 6 of the in-house journal known as The Fort, published in 1961. TNAK DEFE 15/943.

  22. 22.

    Gawlik, H.J. 1963. MIRFAC: A Compiler Based on Standard Mathematical Notation and Plain English. Communication of ACM 6 (9): 545–547. See also: Gawlik, H.J., and F.J. Berry. 1967. Programming in MIRFAC, 2nd ed.; The quotation “MIRFAC’s central aim … ” comes from the second source.

  23. 23.

    Pattison, Gordon., Playing Chess with Turing: How Computers Came to Fort Halstead.

  24. 24.

    Gawlik, H.J., MIRFAC: A Compiler Based on Standard Mathematical Notation and Plain English. See also: Gawlik, H.J., and F.J. Berry., Programming in MIRFAC.

  25. 25.

    Quotation from Fort Halstead’s D1 Branch Annual Report for 1967.

  26. 26.

    Pattison, Gordon., Playing Chess with Turing: How Computers Came to Fort Halstead.

References

  • Berry, F.J. 1959. Intercode, A Simplified Coding Scheme for AMOS. Computer Journal 2 (2): 55–58.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Dodd, K.N. 1953a. The Ferranti Electronic Computer (Parts 1 & 2: the Mark I Model). Armament Research Establishment, report 10/53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dodd, K.N. 1953b. The Ferranti Electronic Computer (Parts 3, 4 7 5: the Mark I* Model). Armament Research Establishment, report 11/53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellson, Allan. 2015. Ferranti MkI* Commissioning and Installation: Some Recollections, 14th Oct 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gawlik, H.J. 1963. MIRFAC: A Compiler Based on Standard Mathematical Notation and Plain English. Communication of ACM 6 (9): 545–547. See also: Gawlik, H.J., and F.J. Berry. 1967. Programming in MIRFAC, 2nd ed.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pattison, Gordon. 2000. Early Computers at the Fort. DERA News, Oct 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pattison, Gordon. 2015. Playing Chess with Turing: How Computers Came to Fort Halstead. DSTL Fellow. Lecture given at Fort Halstead on 11th Dec 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reiners, C.A. 1953. Survey of Computing Facilities in the UK. Published by the Ministry of Supply.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swann, B.B. 1975. The Ferranti Computer Department: A History. This 1975 document was initially circulated privately and marked ‘confidential’. A copy is held at the NAHC, catalogue number FER/C30.

    Google Scholar 

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  1. School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, Colchester, UK

    Simon Lavington

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Lavington, S. (2019). The Mark I* at the Armaments Research Development Establishment, Fort Halstead. In: Early Computing in Britain. History of Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15103-4_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15103-4_11

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-15103-4

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