Tommy Flowers Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Tommy Flowers MBE (December 22, 1905 - October 28, 1998), born Thomas Harold Flowers was a British General Post Office engineer who, during World War 2 constructed Colossus and Colossus 2, the world's first stored-program digital computers at Bletchley Park -- Station X -- designed to crack the Lorenz cypher.Flowers was born in London and after an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering he earned a degree in Electrical engineering at the the University of London before joining the telecommunications branch of the GPO, working at their research station at Dollis Hill.
During the War Flowers was asked to join the codebreaking efforts at Bletchley Park, and it was he who proposed solving the problems of the Heath Robinson machine by using an electronic system using valves. Despite the rejection of the idea initially because valves were seen as too unreliable, and subsequently because it was expected that the war would be over before the idea could be implemented, he went ahead without authorisation, even part funding the development himself. He was also noteworthy for cranking up the speed of the first Colossus machine to nearly double “to see how fast it would go”
Flowers received recognition after the war in the shape of a £11,000 lump sum, and the award of an MBE.
After the war, Flowers returned to the GPO but, unable to tell them of his wartime achievements, was unsuccessful in his attempts to get the organisation to develop the electronic telephone exchange.
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