On the tour at Bletchley we got to go in the room with the rebuilt colossus mark 2. This is not normal on the tour but the man who did the rebuild was there and invited us in. Last may he decoded a tape (actually found the keys) something that hadn’t been done since 1945. Not just this tape, no one had decoded any since the war. He said he was buzzing around the room. As a point of comparison, the colossus takes about 2.5 hours to find the keys. A current (2.0 GHz) pc would take about 2.5 hours
The rebuild was accomplished using a few photographs and 10 partial schematics.
When you go to Bletchley Park take the guided tour. It is included in the price and the guides have wonderful stories to tell. Our guide relayed a story of a woman on his tour group recently who declared she had sunk the Bismarck. A WREN who had worked at BP during the war is now one of the guides.
This post was written by
Jim – who has written 327 posts on UniBrain Trust.
Jim is the curator of UniBrain Motorsports, our resident photographer and the only one in the family to shoot a perfect 25. He enjoys eating Nadya's cooking and tries his best to stay out of her way while in the kitchen.