The Computer Conservation Society (CCS) is a British organisation, founded in 1989. It is under the joint umbrella of the

British Computer Society Sir Maurice Wilkes served as the first President of BCS in 1957 BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, known as the British Computer Society until 2009, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in infor ...

(BCS), the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

and the

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Museum of Science and Industry.

Overview

The CCS is interested in the

history of computing The history of computing is longer than the history of computing hardware and modern computing technology and includes the history of methods intended for pen and paper or for chalk and slate, with or without the aid of tables. Concrete devices ...

in general and the conservation and preservation of early British historical computers in particular. The society runs a series of monthly public lectures between September and May each year in both London and Manchester. The events are detailed on the society's website. The CCS publishes a quarterly journal, ''Resurrection''. The society celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2014. Dr Doron Swade, formerly the curator of the computing collection at the London Science Museum, was a founding committee member and is the current chair of the society. David Morriss, Rachel Burnett, and Roger Johnson are previous chairs, also all previous presidents of the BCS.

Projects

The society organises a number of projects to reconstruct and maintain early computers and to conserve early software. For example: ;Restorations * Elliott 401 *

Elliott 803 The Elliott 803 is a small, medium-speed transistor digital computer which was manufactured by the British company Elliott Brothers in the 1960s. About 211 were built. History The 800 series began with the 801, a one-off test machine built in ...

* Elliott 903 and 905 * DEC Systems *

Pegasus Pegasus ( grc-gre, Πήγασος, Pḗgasos; la, Pegasus, Pegasos) is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as hor ...

ICT 1301 The ICT 1301 and its smaller derivative ICT 1300 were early business computers from International Computers and Tabulators. Typical of mid-sized machines of the era, they used core memory, drum storage and punched cards, but they were unusual in t ...

Project * Harwell Dekatron Computer *

Differential Analyser The differential analyser is a mechanical analogue computer designed to solve differential equations by integration, using wheel-and-disc mechanisms to perform the integration. It was one of the first advanced computing devices to be used operat ...

* HEC 1 ;Reconstructions *

Colossus Colossus, Colossos, or the plural Colossi or Colossuses, may refer to: Statues * Any exceptionally large statue ** List of tallest statues ** :Colossal statues * ''Colossus of Barletta'', a bronze statue of an unidentified Roman emperor * ''Col ...

Rebuild *

Manchester Baby The Manchester Baby, also called the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), was the first electronic stored-program computer. It was built at the University of Manchester by Frederic Calland Williams, Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn, and Ge ...

Bombe The bombe () was an electro-mechanical device used by British cryptologists to help decipher German Enigma-machine-encrypted secret messages during World War II. The US Navy and US Army later produced their own machines to the same functiona ...

Rebuild *

EDSAC The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was an early British computer. Inspired by John von Neumann's seminal ''First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC'', the machine was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the Universi ...

Replica Project * Babbage's Analytical Engine ;Other projects * Software preservation * "Our Computer Heritage" website *

Tony Sale Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leag ...

Award for computer conservation and restoration

Locations

London Science Museum The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

: * Ferranti Pegasus (Not currently being displayed working)

Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, England, traces the development of science, technology and industry with emphasis on the city's achievements in these fields. The museum is part of the Science Museum Group, a non-departmental pub ...

: * Manchester Baby * Hartree Differential Analyser

The National Museum of Computing The National Museum of Computing is a museum in the United Kingdom dedicated to collecting and restoring historic computer systems. The museum is based in rented premises at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire and opened in 2007. ...

: * Colossus * Harwell Dekatron or WITCH * ICL 2966 * Elliot 803 * Elliott 905 * EDSAC Replica Bletchley Park Trust: * Bombe Currently not on public display: * ICT 1301 (Currently in storage at The National Museum of Computing) * Elliott 401

References

External links

CCS website

Our Computer Heritage
– a project led by the CCS {{authority control Scientific organizations established in 1989 Information technology organisations based in the United Kingdom History of science organizations History of computing in the United Kingdom BCS Specialist Groups Science Museum, London 1989 establishments in the United Kingdom