Notes by John Pinkerton dated 13th Feb 1953 on a visit to NPL (the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington) by T.R. Thompson and John Pinkerton on 26th January.  [The mentioned attached printing specimen was not filed with the notes].

Research comments: This document refers to Christopher Strachey (of the National Research Development Corporation), who gave TR Thompson and John Pinkerton an account of his recent visit to the USA. During the visit Strachey saw various early US computers including Whirlwind and SEAC. Most of the computers he saw were "of the parallel type using Williams [tube] storage" and although they were "very fast" machines that were capable of automatic division, they were slow to undertake multiplication.

Interestingly, Strachey reports a "dearth of programming staff" in the US at the time, summarising that the 100-150 computers in operation or planned in the USA would each need 30-50 programmers to enable it to run for 20 hours a day. However, he estimates that "there were probably not more than 200 experienced programmers altogether in the United States at the present time".

Strachey's comments then cover the intended use of Toronto's FERUT computer on calculations for the St Lawrence Sea-way and Power Project, which Strachey estimates would take 40 years by human hand. In the event, FERUT completed the calculations in 8 months. It isn't clear why this project was of interest to Thompson and Pinkerton. (LM)

Provenance :
From David Caminer's papers.