Manchester Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the First Stored-Program Computer

by Prof. Hillary Kahn (GB) and Dr. Brian Napper (GB)*

The 21st of June 1948 saw the birth of the first stored-program electronic digital computer, at the University of Manchester. The ability to store and run any program set this machine apart from all the special-purpose computing machines that had gone before and made it a universal machine, the first computer as we all know it today.
From this Small-Scale Experimental Machine, known as SSEM, or the "Baby," a more powerful machine was designed and built - the Manchester Mark 1 - which by 1949 was being used for computation in scientific research in the University. This machine, in turn, was the basis of the Ferranti Mark1, arguably the world’s first commercially available general-purpose computer, with the first machine delivered in February 1951.
The University and City of Manchester celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the birth of the Baby last summer, highlighted by a variety of events, including talks about the Baby, international conferences and seminars, musical entertainment, and the annual IEE MicroMouse competition.

One of the most exciting projects that was initiated for the June celebrations was the re-build of the original SSEM. The project was organized by the British Computer Society Computer Conservation Society, with sponsorship from ICL and the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester. The team for the SSEM Rebuild Project consisted of experienced engineers, many of whom made significant contributions in the early days of computing in Manchester. (Participants in the March 1998 IFIP Council meeting in Manchester had an opportunity to hear about the project.) The rebuilt machine has now been transferred to its permanent home in the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.
Also, a "Baby" Programming Competition was organised to find the most interesting new program written for the original computer. A documented down-loadable simulator was available, and the winner had the opportunity to run the winning program on the rebuilt Baby.

* from the University of Manchester

Professor N. J. Lehmann

1921-1998

Former IFIP vice-president Prof. Dr.-Ing. h.c. N. Joachim Lehmann passed away on June 27,1998 in Dresden, Germany, at the age of 77. He was a member of the IFIP General Assembly from 1970 to 1986, representing the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic (GDR-East Germany). From 1973 until his retirement from IFIP, he chaired the Statutes and Bylaws Committee. In 1976, he was elected as a trustee and in 1980 as a vice-president. In 1976, he hosted the Council meeting in Dresden. In recognition of his activities, he was awarded the IFIP Silver Core in 1972. He always spoke enthusiastically about IFIP’s mission and work, although he suffered personally in his endeavors to uphold IFIP’s principles.
Prof. Lehmann was one of the most well-known pioneers of computing in Germany. In particular, he laid the foundations for the development of informatics in the eastern part of Germany by scientific work, by educating a large number of scientists and professionals, and by many activities in science management, locally and internationally. And he was successful in spite of the political situation in the Socialistic block to which eastern Germany belonged until 1989.

His scientific development and professional career took place entirely in Dresden. Early in his career, he had the vision and the enthusiasm to fight for the creation of an institute for Techniques for Machine Calculation (Maschinelle Rechentechnik), which came about in 1956. He was its director until his retirement in 1986. In conjunction with this, he also created a special track for “techniques for machine calculation” within the curriculum for mathematics students at the Technische Hochschule in Dresden. Both activities resulted in that school being the foremost place for research and education in informatics in eastern Germany.
Prof. Lehmann’s research and development contributions in informatics and applied mathematics are numerous and varied - from the construction of computer hardware, programming methodology, algorithm development, and numerical and symbolic computation to the theory and numerical solution of differential equations. For example, he developed, independently of other researchers in the world, a magnetic drum, which he used not only as a memory device but also as the central control unit. Based on this and other ideas by Lehmann, the D1, the first computer in eastern Germany, was constructed - in the first half of the 1950s. A really visionary concept was Lehmann’s D4a computer. It was conceived, in 1959, as a desktop machine, to be used as a personal computer by engineers, and was operational in 1963. It served as a prototype for the Cellatron computer series, of which more than 3000 were produced in the GDR.

Prof. Lehmann’s important achievements in research and development were honored in many ways, including election as an ordinary member of the Saxonian Academy of Sciences and receipt of the Konrad-Zuse Medaille of the (West) German IFIP Member society, the Gesellschaft für Informatik.
He is survived by his wife, Dr. Dolly Lehmann, who often joined him at IFIP meetings.

Ute and Wilfried Brauer
former TC3 correspondent, and former vice-president

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