We're Gonna Have a look at the [Elliott] 903
It's a machine that we did have a very quick look at when we did our last video here when we had a look around
generally at the Museum
But what we're going to do is actually turn it on
Have a closer look at it and see what it does [and] talk about how how useful it is to us here at the [Museum]
because the reason why I like this machine so much is because it's it's from 1966 and it's pretty much the
Earliest machine in the Museum that we can still have up and running and reprogramming it just as it was then we do have some
Older kit around here as well
But for the most part we don't quite have the expertise yet to get it back up and running
So they're kind of inanimate objects, but this particular machine
we have great fun with we're going to turn it on we're going to see what it does and
So I think we'll go straight into that
[I] heard a big noise when you started. What was that? Yeah? Well, we have fans kicking normally, but the really big noise
That sounds like a motor revving is
Coming from if I just move these things around
It's coming from in here. Which is the punch tape printer?
because we're going to load new programs on this using punch tape and
This is the original printer with it of course, so you're just running out blank tape here punching the new programming
Which is also another fun thing that I like explained to school kids when we have in that this is
exactly the same as copy pasting a file onto a cD is just a way of
Putting a new program onto a portable storage medium now. We're cheating a little bit with this computer originally
It would have been running with a teleprinter where we've got a video screen here, because [it] keeps running costs a little bit lower
So that's not quite authentic
but all the actual
Workings of the Hardware is exactly as it was so it should all be set up and ready to run the program
And there we are
Well this one is at the moment. It's not playing the most mathematically advanced program in the world
It's playing noughts and crosses for us
This was actually written in 2013 this program so again, not quite
Authentic to the time, but of course the hardware is still as original as [it] ever was although
We have some people who say we should do more serious computing applications with these machines, and we totally agree with that
We do so do some more serious stuff. We find that for guided tours with school groups and so on
It's really good just to have little fun distractions
They can more immediately engage with alongside the kind of more serious number-crunching stuff, so I'm on this one
We can play a little game with lots and [cross's] will set it off
the computers going to decide where to move
Sure enough it's going to take the classic Gambit of going right in the middle
Which now means that it's impossible to win, okay?
And we can choose let's go at this point. So I'm going to go in the bottom-left Corner down there
Now although it is impossible to beat the machine at this game
We have lots and lots of school kids who will nevertheless try and do just that they will play [the] game through completion
They'll inevitably draw or lose and then most of them all want to try and have another go at [it] unfortunately
I have to move the guided tours on there at that moment really
So yeah, we we could play a lot of games of noughts and crosses if we just left them to it
The grid is just numbered one to nine
And you just select the appropriate number of depending on where you want to go. So here. I'd better block him off
So that's number eight down there. So there we go it could take a while
It could yeah when I first started doing these these guided tours
We are actually using the elliot and turning it on and so on
I
Was a bit concerned at first that this would be a bit slow and the kids would lose interest
and they'd run off and go and play on the snares instead and
But actually no they find it quite entertaining, and they do immediately engage with it
[especially] the younger kids as well
And in fact you know going right up to
Teenagers who we'd expect to be a bit a bit more surly a bit more grumpy about the whole thing but um but no
it's surprisingly engaging a little bit of software this and yeah as I mentioned lots of people will try and beat the computer and
Inevitably fail, so I'll make one last move
We'll go in the top corner, and then we might try another program on it. I think
Firstly, I need to reset the [machine] so we'll stop this simulation going here
Fiddle with the switches [in] it. It's relatively straightforward. It's just switching it
Previously we have all of these ones up and these two down to change it into a mode where we can read new tape
We're just switching it [around] and that's relatively simple
It's a good thing as well because I can just say to the kids [you]
Get in touch you press that switch for me you do this and that because it's quite straightforward
So that's always nice letting them get hands-on with it
So what we then need to do is pick a new program, so I think well
Yeah, we'll go for this one [there] way up, so we start off with the black bit
And then we get to the actual code at the end there, so [what] we're going to do is put it through that
I'm wrap it
Yeah, we've got a bit of a squirrel going on here
I did once have a tape [that] got so
Twisted and tangled that we couldn't run it through the little motor. We've got here to wind it back up again and
A colleague, and I literally had [to] spend about an hour
Just undoing each little crease in the tape so we could get it wrapped back up [again]
[and] it's safe to say we haven't used that tape since
Right now we should be a bit sake us so they aren't so we set the machine this light sugar mum
Hurry up, so we got the red lamp. That's appeared there which means we're all ready to go
I press read and and as soon as this tape is finished running throw the new program will launch on BDU there, so
This is exactly the same in [principle] as plugging in UsB stick plugging in a cD
It's just a way of reading new programs from from a storage medium so it gets to the end and new program starts
Just beneath the end of knots and crosses there, so this one as you can see is the countdown numbers game solver
We've moved away from lots and crosses. We're into a bit more complicated mathematics now so I can just pick
Six numbers give it a target [it] will compute those numbers to try and hit the target just as in the countdown numbers game
So let's pick something at random
And it's going to try and get
937 [away] out
So now it's going to try and work out how to do it
It can't do it using just one number or two what's going to happen now is
The big thing that we've got here the noise which sounds like the machine is horrendously broken is in fact fine
this is just the noise that the machine makes when it's
Computing same as just any old strange beeps you might get from your computer when it's working something [else]
So but the problem with this machine is that because it's from 1966
It's not quite as powerful as something we have today it takes a long time to crunch these numbers
So if I've given it something quite difficult it can't do it using using four of the numbers
it's trying to do it with five now and
It gets longer and longer [the] more of those numbers it has to use
so if it can't do it with five it will try and do it with six and that could take I
Could take anything up to two or three minutes. I think for it to work out the the calculation
The beeping is it's just the speaker on the back
It does have audio capacity, but it's it's just yeah, it's kind of like the beeps you get on a motherboard
It's just to signify that the machine is currently functioning is trying to crunch those numbers
It doesn't like it this one is too hard what we'll do instead is we will stop that program running
I need to reset it now because I need to put it back in the mode to
read the program that's already in there rather than running from a new tape so we'll switch it round again and
[the] Countdown program starts again, I'll give it something easy this time. I'll give it some nice big even numbers five ten
to six three and
fifty and it's got to try and get
480 that seems like a nice round set of numbers for it to try and work out
So this time hopefully it's going to manage it for us
There we go. It's done it
Works out how to do that [ten] times 50 minus [2] so 10 times 48 equals 480 there you go
So that one was a bit simple at that time
I should have [given] it something a bit easier [to] work out first time around
But you did get to see just how hard this machine finds it to do
numbers that modern computers would just do instantaneously and
so that's one of the more interesting kind of mathematical programs that we have it doing and I think we'll run one more and
We'll get it to do something fun again. This one's going to come out. I need to wrap it up of course
So put it in here
Turn this on
Here we go. [I] haven't got a paper cut yet from this one day. I probably will
And there we are that's that one all sorted out for us
So I will leave that there feel it probably in a minute, and we'll put one last tape in to line up the tape again
Change it back into the mode where it's reading programs instead of reading from memory
the Red Lamp comes on and
There we go
Once again, it will launch straight into the program as soon as this is done this time
It's not going to appear on the monitor. It's a slightly different form of output this time round. We'll find out in just a moment
And a real that hole-punch tape is just used to make it play the entertainer
[say] we like to change from the serious programs that kind of crunch numbers show kids how the computer is doing some serious
Mathematics and so I'll give them an idea of what it might have done in its proper function
When it was in use in 60s and 70s
but then we also like to show them through kind of fun music and through little games and so on and
Give them an idea of how engaging this sort of stuff can be so there we are. That's the elliott 9:03
Move to Bletchley park here in early 1944 and came into action pretty soon thereafter