RIP Raymond Bird: Designer of UK's first mass-produced business computer dies aged 101
(2025/02/11)
- Reference: 1739262793
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/02/11/hollerith_electronic_computer_designer_raymond_bird/
- Source link:
Obit Raymond Bird, who developed the UK's first mass-produced business computer, the Hollerith Electronic Computer (HEC), has died at the digitally apropos age of 101.
The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) [1]announced Bird's passing. A museum spokesperson, who was not immediately available to provide further details, told The Register family members had conveyed the news.
Prototyped near the end of 1951 but not publicly demonstrated until 1953, the HEC1, Bird explained in a 2011 [2]video interview , "was the first electronic computer that was used for commercial purposes [in the UK] other than the LEO machine," referring to the [3]Lyons Electronic Office , which debuted in 1951.
Dr Raymond Bird discusses the HEC1 computer ... Source: [4]British Library
Bird said [5]Andrew Booth , a lecturer at Birkbeck College, London University, at the time, needed computers for crystallographic calculations and was designing one in a barn in Fenny Compton, Warwickshire.
Booth struck a deal with Bird's employer, the British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM), to trade his Automatic Purpose Electronic Computer (APEC) design for punch-card machinery, which he needed to handle input and output.
[6]
So Bird, [7]a former technical officer with the Royal Air Force, was dispatched by BTM, along with two colleagues, to record the APEC design on paper – the circuits and layouts of the boards – so the machine could be reproduced at BTM.
[8]
[9]
“Previously I had only worked with analog technologies and I was mesmerized by seeing this digital door opening before me," he recounted, [10]according to TNMOC . "It was my job to get something working. I did the things that Booth thought were trivial – I engineered it!"
BTM was formed in 1902 under the name The Tabulator Ltd to sell tabulating machines based on patented designs from Herman Hollerith, licensed from the US Tabulating Machine Company, subsequently merged into IBM. The BTM name came in 1907.
[11]
During World War II, BTM made the [12]Bombe machines used to help crack the German Enigma cipher machines; its exclusive distribution deal with IBM ended in 1948.
Bird's [13]HEC design for BTM, completed in late 1951, six months before Booth's APEC, included extra I/O interfaces for punch card equipment. A subsequent iteration, the HEC 2M design, became the first commercial version in 1955.
[14]BASIC co-creator Thomas Kurtz hits END at 96
[15]BBS legend Ward Christensen logs off for last time at 78
[16]UK tech pioneer Mike Lynch dead at 59
[17]RIP: WordPerfect co-founder Bruce Bastian dies at 76
When we say the HEC series was mass produced, it's relatively speaking for the era. In an edited transcription of a presentation at the Punched Card Reunion in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in 1998, Bird [18]explained , "We delivered about seven or eight HEC 2M systems. Customers included GE Research Laboratories (Graham Morris sold that one), Thorn, Esso, Boscombe Down, ARA and RAE, Bedford (they had two for wind tunnel applications) and the Indian Mathematical Institute. We believe that one was whisked off to the Soviet Union – we certainly never saw it again."
In 1959, BTM merged with Powers-Samas under the name International Computers and Tabulators (ICT), whereupon the HEC 4 was renamed the ICT 1201.
Bird also designed the [19]ICT 1301 family of computers, which were sold in the 1960s. [20]A virtual version has been made available online.
[21]
The first iteration of the HEC, which used a magnetic drum storage system [22]designed [PDF] by Booth, can be seen at the TNMOC alongside the 1949 EDSAC computer and the original 1951 Harwell Dekatron / WITCH computer.
Some of Bird's technical work can be seen in his 1961 [23]US Patent 2970765A for a "data translating apparatus."
As he described the intellectual property situation back then during his 1998 presentation ...
We had a very good patent manager called Aldred Bowyer who was very supportive. He came round regularly asking for patents: Over my time at BTM I provided him with 27, which sounds very impressive. Looking back, I can see that most of them were trivial, but at the time I was thrilled by the glory of all this innovation.
One day I asked Aldred, "We've patented all these things, but we haven't had any royalties from anybody. Why not?" His response was, "It's not like that, lad. There's IBM over there, patenting like fury, and there's me over here, patenting like fury, and I meet with their patent manager, and we stack patents up in front of each other, measure how high they are, and if they're roughly equal, we cross-license." So the requirement was to get as many patents as possible. Aldred's response deflated me somewhat, which wasn't a bad thing for a cocky young bloke.
... it sounds like things haven't changed much. ®
PS: If you're into early digital computers, Usagi Electric recently got a [24]Bendix G-15 vacuum-tube system running code from punched-tape to [25]play music . The 1956-era computer's roots can in part be traced back to Alan Turing, who conceived Britain's Bombe.
Get our [26]Tech Resources
[1] https://x.com/tnmoc/status/1888891920388116773
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmjOJWQ6-8w
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/12/obit_mary_coombs/
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmjOJWQ6-8w
[5] https://history.computer.org/pioneers/booth-ad.html
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z6st0vUkJZjo34YU3DpRDAAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[7] https://dokumen.pub/software-rights-how-patent-law-transformed-software-development-in-america-9780300249323.html
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z6st0vUkJZjo34YU3DpRDAAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z6st0vUkJZjo34YU3DpRDAAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.tnmoc.org/news-releases/2016/4/4/britains-first-mass-produced-business-computer
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z6st0vUkJZjo34YU3DpRDAAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2018/06/19/tnmoc_bombe_gallery_opening/
[13] https://www.tnmoc.org/hec
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/20/rip_thomas_kurtz/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/15/ward_christensen_obit/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/21/mike_lynch_death/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/03/wordperfect_bruce_bastian/
[18] https://www.computerconservationsociety.org/resurrection/res22.htm#c
[19] https://www.tnmoc.org/virtual-flossie
[20] https://ict1301.virtualcolossus.co.uk/
[21] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z6st0vUkJZjo34YU3DpRDAAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[22] https://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/site/assets/files/1029/50yearsofcomputing.pdf
[23] https://patents.google.com/patent/US2970765A/en?oq=2%2c970%2c765
[24] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bendix_G-15
[25] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HibkocVn1U
[26] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) [1]announced Bird's passing. A museum spokesperson, who was not immediately available to provide further details, told The Register family members had conveyed the news.
Prototyped near the end of 1951 but not publicly demonstrated until 1953, the HEC1, Bird explained in a 2011 [2]video interview , "was the first electronic computer that was used for commercial purposes [in the UK] other than the LEO machine," referring to the [3]Lyons Electronic Office , which debuted in 1951.
Dr Raymond Bird discusses the HEC1 computer ... Source: [4]British Library
Bird said [5]Andrew Booth , a lecturer at Birkbeck College, London University, at the time, needed computers for crystallographic calculations and was designing one in a barn in Fenny Compton, Warwickshire.
Booth struck a deal with Bird's employer, the British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM), to trade his Automatic Purpose Electronic Computer (APEC) design for punch-card machinery, which he needed to handle input and output.
[6]
So Bird, [7]a former technical officer with the Royal Air Force, was dispatched by BTM, along with two colleagues, to record the APEC design on paper – the circuits and layouts of the boards – so the machine could be reproduced at BTM.
[8]
[9]
“Previously I had only worked with analog technologies and I was mesmerized by seeing this digital door opening before me," he recounted, [10]according to TNMOC . "It was my job to get something working. I did the things that Booth thought were trivial – I engineered it!"
BTM was formed in 1902 under the name The Tabulator Ltd to sell tabulating machines based on patented designs from Herman Hollerith, licensed from the US Tabulating Machine Company, subsequently merged into IBM. The BTM name came in 1907.
[11]
During World War II, BTM made the [12]Bombe machines used to help crack the German Enigma cipher machines; its exclusive distribution deal with IBM ended in 1948.
Bird's [13]HEC design for BTM, completed in late 1951, six months before Booth's APEC, included extra I/O interfaces for punch card equipment. A subsequent iteration, the HEC 2M design, became the first commercial version in 1955.
[14]BASIC co-creator Thomas Kurtz hits END at 96
[15]BBS legend Ward Christensen logs off for last time at 78
[16]UK tech pioneer Mike Lynch dead at 59
[17]RIP: WordPerfect co-founder Bruce Bastian dies at 76
When we say the HEC series was mass produced, it's relatively speaking for the era. In an edited transcription of a presentation at the Punched Card Reunion in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in 1998, Bird [18]explained , "We delivered about seven or eight HEC 2M systems. Customers included GE Research Laboratories (Graham Morris sold that one), Thorn, Esso, Boscombe Down, ARA and RAE, Bedford (they had two for wind tunnel applications) and the Indian Mathematical Institute. We believe that one was whisked off to the Soviet Union – we certainly never saw it again."
In 1959, BTM merged with Powers-Samas under the name International Computers and Tabulators (ICT), whereupon the HEC 4 was renamed the ICT 1201.
Bird also designed the [19]ICT 1301 family of computers, which were sold in the 1960s. [20]A virtual version has been made available online.
[21]
The first iteration of the HEC, which used a magnetic drum storage system [22]designed [PDF] by Booth, can be seen at the TNMOC alongside the 1949 EDSAC computer and the original 1951 Harwell Dekatron / WITCH computer.
Some of Bird's technical work can be seen in his 1961 [23]US Patent 2970765A for a "data translating apparatus."
As he described the intellectual property situation back then during his 1998 presentation ...
We had a very good patent manager called Aldred Bowyer who was very supportive. He came round regularly asking for patents: Over my time at BTM I provided him with 27, which sounds very impressive. Looking back, I can see that most of them were trivial, but at the time I was thrilled by the glory of all this innovation.
One day I asked Aldred, "We've patented all these things, but we haven't had any royalties from anybody. Why not?" His response was, "It's not like that, lad. There's IBM over there, patenting like fury, and there's me over here, patenting like fury, and I meet with their patent manager, and we stack patents up in front of each other, measure how high they are, and if they're roughly equal, we cross-license." So the requirement was to get as many patents as possible. Aldred's response deflated me somewhat, which wasn't a bad thing for a cocky young bloke.
... it sounds like things haven't changed much. ®
PS: If you're into early digital computers, Usagi Electric recently got a [24]Bendix G-15 vacuum-tube system running code from punched-tape to [25]play music . The 1956-era computer's roots can in part be traced back to Alan Turing, who conceived Britain's Bombe.
Get our [26]Tech Resources
[1] https://x.com/tnmoc/status/1888891920388116773
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmjOJWQ6-8w
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/12/obit_mary_coombs/
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmjOJWQ6-8w
[5] https://history.computer.org/pioneers/booth-ad.html
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z6st0vUkJZjo34YU3DpRDAAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[7] https://dokumen.pub/software-rights-how-patent-law-transformed-software-development-in-america-9780300249323.html
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z6st0vUkJZjo34YU3DpRDAAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z6st0vUkJZjo34YU3DpRDAAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.tnmoc.org/news-releases/2016/4/4/britains-first-mass-produced-business-computer
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z6st0vUkJZjo34YU3DpRDAAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2018/06/19/tnmoc_bombe_gallery_opening/
[13] https://www.tnmoc.org/hec
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/20/rip_thomas_kurtz/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/15/ward_christensen_obit/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/21/mike_lynch_death/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/03/wordperfect_bruce_bastian/
[18] https://www.computerconservationsociety.org/resurrection/res22.htm#c
[19] https://www.tnmoc.org/virtual-flossie
[20] https://ict1301.virtualcolossus.co.uk/
[21] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z6st0vUkJZjo34YU3DpRDAAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[22] https://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/site/assets/files/1029/50yearsofcomputing.pdf
[23] https://patents.google.com/patent/US2970765A/en?oq=2%2c970%2c765
[24] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bendix_G-15
[25] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HibkocVn1U
[26] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
SnailFerrous
Makes his accomplishments all the more impressive.
b0llchit
Yes, he died in his fifth generation.
Anonymous Coward
A computer designed by a bloke called Bird? Don't tell me no-one came up with any birdbrain jokes.
Dave K
Maybe not, but back in the 1950s those systems sure did fly!
Ian Johnston
It's amazing, consider what computers can do nowadays, that people who invented the very first ones are - or were, until recently - still around. But then, Thomas Sopwith made it until 1989 and could therefore easily have travelled on Concorde. I wonder if he ever did?
Computers in the 1950s
Bebu sa Ware
"ARA and RAE, Bedford (they had two for wind tunnel applications)"
I find it utterly remarkable that these folk were doing any sort of computational fluid dynamics with a machine whose logic ran to 1000 odd vacuum tubes† which were little more than glorified incandescent light bulbs.
I am old enough to have mucked about with thermionic valves and realise 1000 of the blighters would be equivalent to herding cats.
These men and women were the giants on whose shoulders we stand and whose legacy we hold in trust.
† According to WikiP [1]6J6 dual triodes with [2]data sheet ;)
[1] http://www.r-type.org/exhib/aaa0399.htm
[2] http://www.r-type.org/pdfs/6j6-1.pdf
The HEC is not currently at TNMOC.
Andy Taylor
In case you're planning on making a special visit, the HEC is not currently on display at TNMOC it was returned to Birmingham Museums for a temporary exhibition and has not made it back yet.
He died aged 5?
I'm sure I'll not be the first to think of that.