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ICL and Computer history
The aim of this section is give information on where to look for information on this subject, and also tell you about activities that you can get involved in. The scope of the section ranges from general historical interest matters through to `proper history’ - as so defined by professional historians.
ICL History – How the company evolved - Charts Over the years there have been a variety of ICL evolution charts, showing the original UK companies, and the computer systems that they produced. We have obtained one such chart in electronic form for this website. Thanks to Virgilio Pasquali for this – it was originally produced for a seminar in 1996 on the 1900 series. There is another chart – from the ICL Double Majority Association (DMA) - which has more tie in with events outside ICL and with the companies involved – and not so much on the computer systems. This chart is published in the members area, to view it use the link given in the DMA section. There are other charts that were produced over the years within ICL. We would like to track down copies to publish (or to link to). Specifically we are looking for a poster produced by ICL in the 90’s, which also had photos.
ICL History – Books The definitive work on the history of ICL is a book, which was commissioned by ICL, and written by a professional historian - Dr Martin Campbell-Kelly. The reference is: ICL A Business and Technical History; M Campbell-Kelly; 1989; Oxford Clarendon Press, ISBN 0-19-853918-5 This was until recently out of print, but is now available again through the publisher’s `Print on demand’ service. We are discussing making this available to members at a discounted price – more tba. Also if you have a copy of the book that you wish to dispose of (or sell) please contact the Pensioner Topics Editor.
The Computer Conservation Society (CCS) Many former ICL staff take part in the activities of this society. Notable rebuild projects include the Manchester Baby (Chris Burton ) and the Bletchley Bombe (John Harper). There is a real working Pegasus in the London Science museum, which is looked after by members of the society. See the CCS website at: http://www.bcs.org/sg/ccs/ There is an ongoing programme of meetings in London and in Manchester – good presentations and an opportunity to meet people interested in computer history. Attendance at CCS meetings is open to all. The CCS also publishes a bulletin for members, titled `Resurrection’. Many ICL people have contributed articles, on a wide range of topics. There are over 30 issues, and all can be viewed online (with patience, but work is in hand revamp the site – for now go to the CCS website as above, then to the site map, then scroll down and you will find `Resurrection’ under `More Information’). The CCS is a specialist subgroup of the British Computer Society, in association with the London Science Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.
Our Computer Heritage This is a project initiated by the CCS in 2003, to capture for posterity source information on the early UK computer systems, and to record that information in a database. It is a major undertaking, and has sections for each family of machines developed in Great Britain before 1970. A one page description of this project is viewable at: http://www.ourcomputerheritage.org/ Several former ICL staff are prominent in this activity, specifically Virgilio Pasquali is looking after the 1900 section, and John Buckle looks after the Atlas section. The list of sections, and the coordinators for each, is given in a table at the end of this page – see below. There is quite a lot of material which can be browsed on the initial (pilot study) database and website at: http://www. ourcomputerheritage.org/wp Warning- be patient – this developing site is not very user friendly, but has some very interesting material on it. Note that, for the 1900 Range, to make access more user friendly, the same information, in a more up-to-date form, is available at http://www. pasquali.org.uk/ This became necessary for the 1900 Range project to facilitate the large number of interactions, contributions and reviews from many ICL colleagues. This is an evolving project, and you are welcome to contact the co-ordinators if you have material to add – see the list of co-ordinators below.
Early UK Computers - References and links The aim is to give starting points for historical writeups on the major developments and manufacturers which merged into ICL. It is hoped that this section will be added to in time. Early British Computers - early book by Simon Lavington This book is available online by agreement with the author and copyright holder at: Leo – the World’s First Business Computer The history of Leo Computers is well documented, and is well worth looking at - much is available on the web. There is a `Leo Society’ which has an active website at:http://www.leo-computers.org.uk/ A recent general historical and very readable book about Leo, and also about the UK computer industry world at the time, is : A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Tea Shops and the World's First Office Computer; Georgina Ferry; IBSN 1-84115-185-8; 2003; HarperCollins Fourth Estate Hardback. A paperback edition also available at £7.99.
Notes on ICL history related writeups and events This website is happy to publish material which is not available elsewhere, and that is of interest to ICL Group pensioners. The following section will contain history related material. If you wish to provide additional entries please contact the Pensioner Topics editor. The list of notes is:
ICL Documentation Archive Some of the ICL Company documentation has been stored. The original company history archive was transferred to the Science Museum . It is in storage, and work has been done to provide an on line index - thanks to Hamish Carmichael . For a description of the Archive, and the index see the page on the CCS website at: http://129.11. 152.25/iclarch/ If you wish to see a document that is in the archive, then arrangements can be made, and it facilitates that if you have some intention to add to the historical record – please contact the pensioner topics editor in the first instance, using contact. There is also a national archive of the history of computing held at the Museum of Science and Technology in Manchester , which has many ICL documents – see http://www.chstm.man.ac.uk/nahc/index.htm
Our Computer Heritage – list of machines and co-ordinators If you wish you can contact one of the co-ordinators directly, or if you need their email address please contact the Pensioner Topics Editor.
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