Raymond Bird, the architect behind the UK's first mass-produced business computer, the Hollerith Electronic Computer (HEC), has died at the age of 101. His work began in the early 1950s when he was tasked with capturing the design of Andrew Booth's computer for practical application. Bird transitioned from analog to digital technology and contributed significantly to commercial computing in the UK. His efforts were instrumental in making electronic computers accessible for business operations, paving the way for advancements in the industry.
Bird said Andrew Booth, lecturer at Birkbeck College, needed computers for crystallographic calculations and was designing one in a barn in Fenny Compton, Warwickshire.
Previously I had only worked with analog technologies and I was mesmerized by seeing this digital door opening before me,
The HEC1 was the first electronic computer that was used for commercial purposes [in the UK] other than the LEO machine,
It was my job to get something working. I did the things that Booth thought were trivial - I engineered it!
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