Q&A: Tony Sale, the man who rebuilt Colossus

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Wasn't it kept secret for many years after the war so people didn't really know just how important it was?

It's unfortunate that it was kept a secret until the 1970s. So the Americans got away with claiming that their ENIAC computer was the first. I had great pleasure in telling them [about Colossus] and the Americans finally agreed.

If there is any argument, we say "OK, this was the first production computer [of its kind]" as there was 10 of them here and there was only one ENIAC. That's a convincing argument if nothing else.

So what's involved?

It takes eight kilowatts to run this. And if people go to the website they can operate a virtual Colossus. It's in the anoraks and nerds corner.

The website took seven or eight years to build. The British Library asked me if they could archive the website and that was an accolade I was very pleased to receive.

The museum and its exhibits only live on because of volunteers like you. How much time do you spend here now?

I only spend 23.5 hours a day here now! Six days a week, nine to five. I'm now trying to work out how the mathematics [of Colossus] was done and spend a lot of time giving talks.

Click here or on gallery above for more pictures of the gems on show at the Museum of Computing.

(Colossus image credit: Stephen Flemming)

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