Re: The Bombe Rebuild is now working

Dear Mr. Harper,

As one who had the privilege of knowing some of the people who worked on 
or with the Bombes during World War II, I find it heartwarming indeed 
that your reconstruction has been so successful.  My sincere 
congratulations!

Ronald Wyllys
(a 1950s NSAer)


John Harper - Bombe Rebuild Project wrote:
> The Bombe Rebuild at Bletchley Park is now capable of reliably 
> repeating real jobs as originally carried out in W.W.II.
>
> An 'official' 'Switch On' took place by His Royal Highness the Duke of 
> Kent the day before yesterday. The British Computer Society has been a 
> major sponsor of the Project as has been the Bletchley Park Trust. 
> Many local dignitaries were in attendance plus many senior members of 
> the BCS. Also Bletchley Park management and Trustees were well 
> represented.
>
> His Royal Highness is patron of both the British Computer Society and 
> the Bletchley Park Trust so this was most appropriate.
>
> Important to our team was that almost 50 of those who contributed in 
> some way or another were also invited.
>
> In addition last Thursday was the first day of a conference to mark 
> the 50th anniversary of the BCS. This was held at BP and our machine 
> performed for the whole afternoon. Obviously we were all a little 
> anxious that the Bombe should not go wrong during either of these 
> events. We were all relieved when it never even missed a beat. However 
> there were a couple of incidents but these were quickly traced to 
> 'operator error' and not visible to the visitors.
>
> In addition we have our Checking Machine working and part of an 
> overall demonstration. We have also modified a BP owned Typex machine 
> to act as an Enigma machine in the same manner as was done at BP for 
> use in the Decode Room.
>
> We are now in a much larger area at BP with many displays for people 
> to read.
>
> We are going to 'catch our breath' for the next month or so and then 
> consider how we might put together more regular demonstrations but 
> meantime the displays and the machine just there to see in its 
> finished state are well worth a visit.
>
> I am now in the process of updating our WEB site which is almost 4 
> years out of date. I will let this forum know when it is up and running.