Google has posted a look back at Colossus, the world's first programmable electronic computer. Created by Tommy Flowers at the Bletchley Park decryption center in England, it was designed to intercept and interpret coded messages sent by German machines during World War II. Bletchley Park was where the Enigma codes were finally broken, but by 1943 the Germans were using a new and more complex system called Lorenz. With its messages taking up to eight weeks to decipher by hand and the codes changing every night, Flowers decided that the only way to break Lorenz quickly enough would be to develop a new electronic computer system.
The machine used around 1,600 thermionic glass valves, sparking fear of unreliability, but Flowers managed to...
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