Papers for Committee on Electronic Computer – 2 May 1956
Letter to Ferranti – 5 May 1956
Letter from University Grants Committee – 23 May 1956
Further Particulars, Directorship of the Computer Laboratory – 9 June 1956
Ewan Page’s Application for the Directorship – 23 June 1956
Announcement of Appointment as Acting Director – 10 December 1956
Confirmation of Directorship – 16 December 1957
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UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM
COMMITTEE ON ELECTRONIC DIGITAL COMPUTER
(Meeting to be held on Friday, 4th May 1956, in the Postgraduate Seminar Room, Medical School, King’s College, Newcastle upon Tyne, at 4.0 p.m.)
In connection with the meeting on Friday the following papers are attached:
- To members of the Committee who have not already had a copy – a draft statement of information about prices of machines (Document “A”).
- A first draft of requirements in terms of equipment, staff and accommodation (Document “B”).
- A note on a possible organisation of the laboratory and on some of the points to be covered in the conditions of service of members of staff (Document “C”).
E.M.BETTENSON
Registrar.
2.5.56.
B/J.
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DOCUMENT “B”
UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM
ELECTRONIC DIGITAL COMPUTER LABORATORY
- Equipment suggested:
| £ | |
| Pegasus Calculating Machine | 35,000 |
| (plus installation) | 1,750 |
| One package tester | 1, 900 |
| Tape editing equipment | 2,500 |
| (incl. teleprinter, comparator, reproducer) | |
| Second tape reader | 255 |
| (one reader included as standard with Pegasus) | |
| Punched card-tape converter | 2,500 |
| Calculating machines (one electrical, two hand) | 600 |
| Spare packages | 750 |
- Staff
| Director (at Reader level) | 1,450 |
| 2 Mathematicians | 1,500 |
| (increasing to three during the quinquennium) | |
| 1 Grade III Clerk | 416 |
| 2 Grade II Clerks (I typist, 1 machine minder) | 600 |
| 1 Junior | 182 |
| 1 Senior Technician | 600 |
Provision should also be made for at least one Research student during the quinquennium, and for a contract with the manufacturers to provide maintenance probably at a rate of £1,400 to £1,500 a year.
- Other expenses:
| Insurance, rates, etc. | ? |
| Power | 300 |
| Departmental grant (e.g. printing, postage …. Stationery, telephones, staff travel, hospitality) | 500 |
- Accommodation
Much will depend on what is available either in existing buildings or in the way of a site. Ideally, the computer, including the console at which the operator sits, together with the electric motors and other machinery which can conveniently go with the computer, should have 700-800 sq.ft., less if the room is high, possibly more if the room is low since the machine generates considerable heat. A minimum requirement is one room 22’ x 16’ plus another room at least 10’ x 10’. These should be near each other.
Tape editing equipment should either be in one room of about 700 sq.ft., or in two or three rooms.
Machinery, therefore, requires between 1,000 and 1,500 sq.ft.
Other rooms
| sq.ft. | |
| Director | 300 |
| Mathematicians | 300 (plus 150 during the quinquennium) |
| Director’s Secretary | 125 |
| Clerical ? | 300 |
| Workshop and Storeroom | 220 |
| Library, combined with visitor’s workroom | 300 at least |
| Seminar room | 400 |
| Stationery store | 120 |
| Cloakrooms, cleaners, circulation, etc. | 25 % |
If some services could be common with another University office some savings in space could be made and possibly some on the clerical staffing. The original building must have opportunities for some expansion in staff and accommodation.
E. Office Furniture
The office and general requirements for the department will include:
| £ | |
| 3 Desks | 90 |
| 3 Chairs | 45 |
| 6 Chairs | 36 |
| 3 Typists Desks | 39 |
| 2 Typists Chairs | 26 |
| 3 Bookcases | 25 |
| 7 Tables | 83 |
| Wastepaper Baskets | 7.10.0 |
| Workbench and tools for the technician | ? |
| 2 Typewriters | 150 |
| Duplicator | 150 |
| 4 Filing cabinets | 70 |
| Carpet | 50 |
| Curtains, cleaning equipment | ? |
This is not a complete list and once again something will depend on the actual building occupied.
E.M.B.
2.5.56
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COPY
5th May, 1956
E.40
Your ref: 441/RBS/GE/UD.
Dear Sirs,
This letter confirms officially the news in my letter of the 18th April and is a formal order from the University of Durham for a Pegasus Electronic Digital Computer. The University will be glad to know the earliest date at which delivery may be inspected. Ancillary equipment will, of course, be required and the University has established a committee to draw up specifications and to provide other information in accordance with the requirements of your conditions of sale.
Representatives of the committee will wish to meet with your representatives to discuss these matters as soon as possible. Some of the University’s representatives have already visited you in London and Manchester and we would like to know whether you would suggest that further meetings should take place in one of the firm’s premises or at the University, either in Durham or in Newcastle.
It has not yet been established whether the machine should be installed in Durham or in Newcastle and we would be grateful for your assistance in our discussions. We shall have to determine whether existing buildings can be converted or have additions made to them or whether it will be necessary to put up a new building. We would be glad, therefore, if representatives of Ferranti’s could visit Durham and Newcastle to meet a University architect and members of the University most concerned with the use of the computer to advise about possibilities. This decision is of considerable importance to us and the earlier such a visit could be arranged the better we should be pleased. We hope that any representatives of the firm in this connection would regard themselves as guests of the University. I wonder whether you could suggest possible dates, preferably within the next fortnight?
I hope that what I have said gives you a clear picture of our position. We are anxious to proceed as fast as possible and we feel that we shall make the best progress if from an early stage those most concerned with the machine in the University are in close touch with Ferranti’s. If, however, there is further information or advice which you need please do not hesitate to ask me.
Yours faithfully,
E.M. BETTENSON
Registrar
Messrs Ferranti Limited
21 Portland Place
London, W.1.
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COPY
UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMITTEE
38 Belgrave Square
London S.W.1
23rd May, 1956
Our Ref: MA/01
Dear Vice-Chancellor,
Electronic Computers
My Committee finally recommended to the Treasury that electronic computers should be provided to the following Universities:-
Durham (Newcastle Division)
Glasgow
Leeds
London
Oxford
Southampton
Computers are already available at Cambridge and Manchester.
It has been suggested that, in view of the problems of mutual interest that may arise in the installation, operation and maintenance of these machines, it would be of interest to your University to know which other institutions were taking part in the development of this work.
Yours sincerely
K.A.H. Murray
The Vice-Chancellor
University of Durham
46 North Bailey
Durham
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UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM
DIRECTOR OF THE COMPUTING LABORATORY
I.
The University is about to install an electronic digital computer and to appoint a Director of the Computer Laboratory. It is intended that the laboratory should be housed in a building in Newcastle upon Tyne which will be close to the Mathematical and Engineering Departments of Kings College.
II.
The following are the conditions governing the appointment and any person who accepts the appointment will be deemed to have accepted under these conditions:
1, The initial salary of the post will be within the scale for Readers (£1,450 x £50 to £1,750) and will be payable by the Court of the University. The Director will be entitled to family Allowances on the scale in operation The University.
. . .
III.
It is provisionally proposed that the staff of the Laboratory should be:-
The Director
Two Mathematicians (increasing to three during the quinquennium 197-62)
One Senior Technician, with appropriate administrative and clerical assistance.
The status of the Laboratory will be that of an independent department having close contact with interested departments in both Divisions. It is expected that both Divisions will make the Director a member of their Academic Boards. It is contemplated that Senate will establish a small advisory committee of which the Director will to an ex officio member, but that such a committee will not be appointed until the Director is available for consultation.
It is hoped that the machine (a Pegasus Calculating Machine) will be delivered in November 1957.
. . .
E.M. BETTENSON
Registrar,
University Office,
41 North Bailey,
Durham
9th June 1956
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Durham Colleges in the University of Durham
Department of Mathematics
University Science Laboratories
South Road
Durham
22nd June, 1956
E.M. Bettenson, Esq.,
Registrar,
University Office,
46, North Bailey,
Durham.
Dear Sir,
I wish to apply for the post of Director of the University Computing Laboratory under the conditions that I have received from you.
Before coming to Durham I worked for over two years in the Mathematical Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. During this period I gained experience of the use of the automatic digital computor, E.D.S.A.C., on mathematical problems and on statistical analysis of data. For the last year of my stay in Cambridge I was the E.D.S.A.C. Night Operating Manager, responsible for the organisation of work on the machine after the departure of the engineers. At the E.D.S.A.C. Summer School for Automatic Computing in September, 1954, I assisted in the instruction in programming classes and at the machine. Since leaving the Cambridge Laboratory I have studied other machines, and, in particular, I have gained some familiarity with the Ferranti Pegasus computor.
I have been allowed to quote the following names as referees:
Professor J.L. Burchnall, Department of Mathematics, Science Laboratories, Durham.
Dr. J.C.P. Miller, M.A.,Ph.D., Deputy Director of the Mathematical Laboratory, Corn Exchange Street, Cambridge.
Dr. M.V.Wilkes, F.R.S., Ph.D., Director of the Mathematical Laboratory, Corn Exchange Street, Cambridge.
Professor D.R. Cox, Department of Bio-Statistics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.A.
If I am appointed as Director of the Computing Laboratory I should, of course, do my utmost to fulfil the requirements of the University, having regard to the needs both of the two divisions of the University and of local industry.
I am, Sir,
Yours faithfully,
E.S. PAGE.
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Appointments
UNIVERSITY COMPUTING LABORATORY
EWAN STAFFORD PAGE, at present Lecturer in Statistics in the Durham Colleges, has been appointed Acting Director of the University Computing Laboratory, from 1st July, 1957.
Dr. Page was born in August, 1928. He holds the following degrees: B.A. (1949), M.A. (1952), Ph.D. (1954) (Cantab.), and B.Sc. (Lond.) 1950. He was a Scholar at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he was awarded distinction in Part III of the Mathematical Tripos. From 1949-51 he served in the Education Branch of the Royal Air Force. In 195I he returned to Cambridge to work in the Statistical and Mathematical Laboratories and in 1954 submitted a Ph.D. thesis entitled “Sequential Inspection Schemes and Monte Carlo Methods”. In 1952 he was awarded a Rayleigh Prize. He was appointed to his present post of Lecturer in Statistics in the Durham Colleges in 1954. Throughout the period of his studies at Cambridge he was closely associated with the use of the automatic digital computer, E.D.S.A.C., on mathematical problems and on the statistical analysis of data.
[Durham University Gazette, 10 December 1956]
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UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM
UNIVERSITY OFFICE
46 NORTH BAILEY
DURHAM
16th December,1957
FROM THE REGISTRAR
TEL: DURHAM 3355-6
In reply please quote C.13.
Personal
Dear Dr. Page,
I am glad to tell you that Court today approved the following recommendation of Senate:
That Dr. E. S. Page, at present Acting Director, be appointed Director forthwith.
As I do not imagine that you will have any objections to this decision I am including the item in my next press notice.
With congratulations and best wishes for Christmas
Yours sincerely,
E. M. BETTENSON,
Registrar.
Dr. E. S. Page,
University Computing Laboratory,
1 Kensington Terrace,
Newcastle upon Tyne, 1.