apr 1, 1943 - Max Newman, Wynn-Williams and their team at the secret Government Code and Cypher School ('Station X'), Bletchley Park, Bletchley, England, completed the 'Heath Robinson'. This was a specialized counting machine used for cipher-breaking, not a general-purpose calculator or computer, but a logic device using a combination of electronics and relay logic. It read data optically at 2000 characters per second from 2 closed loops of paper tape, each typically about 1000 characters long.
Added to timeline:
Date:
apr 1, 1943
Now
~ 82 years ago