BCS HONORARY FELLOWSHIP

January 2020

CCS Chair Emeritus Roger Johnson with Chris Burton

Christopher Philip Burton MSc, FIET, FBCS, CEng Citation Chris Burton has carried out, and continues to achieve, outstanding voluntary services over many years concerning the public understanding of historic computers, and computer conservation. Chris has carried out these voluntary services as a member of the Computer Conservation Society (CCS), which is a Specialist Group of BCS with about 1500 members worldwide. It is arguably the principal society devoted to computer conservation in the world, and certainly in the UK. It is very active in presentations, workshops and publications, and manages a number of active projects on specific computer restorations and early computer technologies and software. For reconstructing the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (“SSEM”) nicknamed “Baby” [see below], Chris Burton was awarded: the first Lovelace Gold Medal by the British Computer Society an honorary degree by the University of Manchester a Chairman’s Gold Award for Excellence by ICL.

Chris Burton’s specific achievements are as follows, all continuing:

1. As initiator and leader of the successful pioneering project which reconstructed and now displays a full-size working replica of the world’s first stored-program computer – the SSEM Baby – and as the team leader for its ongoing maintenance and demonstration to the public: from1994 to the present;
2. As an active participant in other Computer Conservation Society (“CCS”) projects to restore or reconstruct three historically significant computers: Elliott 401, Ferranti Pegasus, Cambridge EDSAC: 1989 to the present;
3. As Founder Member of the CCS and a key active member:1989 to the present.

1. SSEM (Baby) reconstruction

   Chris has been responsible since 1994 as initiator and team leader for the astonishingly detailed and ambitious pioneering project to reconstruct the authentic full-size fully working replica of the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (‘SSEM’) nicknamed “Baby”, the original of which first ran a program in 1948.

   The importance of the original computer, conceived and built at Manchester, is that it was the world’s first stored-program electronic digital computer, containing all the basic elements from which modern electronic computers have developed. The reconstruction of the SSEM Baby remains the most influential of all the influential computer reconstruction and restoration projects, and illustrates the fundamental importance of UK computing in computer history.

   This reconstruction was a world-first. It was ambitious and unprecedented in scale and its successful completion set the standard for other such projects in terms of technical and historical authenticity. It demonstrated that such a project:

   • was possible and achievable,
   • was invaluable historically, and
   • has substantial social and public value.

   Following the successful reconstruction, the SSEM Baby replica first went on public display in what is now the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, part of the Science Museum group, in June 1998, the centrepiece in a 50^th Anniversary celebration.

   Ever since then, a team of 20 volunteers, under Chris Burton’s continuing inspirational leadership, maintains the Baby as an authentic working electronic computer and provides demonstrations to large crowds visiting the Museum.

   Hundreds of visitors attend its demonstrations every week and several thousand people have seen the static display. Hand-outs are available in four languages. It remains the most-visited pre-1950s working stored-program computer anywhere in the world.

   There are normally at least three visits from school and college groups every week. Well over a thousand school/college groups have been given talks on the Baby.

   Now there are others engaged in computer restorations and reconstructions. But it was Chris Burton’s ‘Baby’ reconstruction project that was the first to be successfully completed. This was a major staging post in proving that projects on this scale were achievable.

2. Other restoration and reconstruction computer projects

   Chris has also been an active participant in other projects under the aegis of the CCS to restore or reconstruct other historically significant computers over the years, all voluntary:

   • Elliott 401, the first electronic computer used in civilian research;,
   • Ferranti Pegasus, an early (1959) vacuum tube UK computer, which was for about 20 years the oldest extant working electronic computer in the world. For 20 years the machine was on public display at the Science Museum in London, relocated by the CCS project team, which maintained it and regularly demonstrated its capabilities interactively engaging with the public for them to enjoy and learn about computers and how computing history relates to the present;
   • Cambridge EDSAC Replica,Cambridge EDSAC Replica, reconstructing another of the most important early British digital computers, whose first successful program was run in 1949. The aim is to have a working reconstruction of EDSAC as it was in 1951 (when it was in everyday service at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory) operational at The National Museum of Computing.

3. Founder member of the Computer Conservation Society (CCS), 1989 to present

   Chris Burton has been a key member of the CCS throughout the years since it was founded in 1989 – celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. His advice to Officers, to Project Leaders, and to other members of the Committee on computer conservation, whether on strategic issues, expertise on matters of restoration or reconstruction, or administrative concerns, is always considered, sensible, practical and helpful.

Biographical information

Chris Burton graduated in Electrical Engineering at the University of Birmingham. He worked on computer hardware, software and systems developments in Ferranti Ltd and then ICT and ICL, nearly all based in the Manchester area, from 1957 until retiring from the industry in 1989.

Conclusion

Computer restoration has now become a thriving international movement and Chris Burton’s sustained and pioneering work is acknowledged world-wide.

The combination of depth, breadth and consistently selfless commitment demonstrated by Chris Burton in the range of projects in which he has participated is unique.

In terms of public outreach, he has unfailingly given his skills and unremitting support for the public display of computers at the Science Museum in London, the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester and The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.

Chris has led by example and his work has been and continues to be an encouragement and inspiration to others.

Chris Burton’s years of commitment and skill have achieved two things:

1. established the UK as a leading centre of excellence in historic computer restorations and reconstructions;
2. excited the public’s interest in, and knowledge of, the world-class work of British computer pioneers.