Turing's mechanical calculator and breakthrough in morphogenesis
Alan Turing was a Reader in Mathematics and Deputy Director of the Computing Machine Laboratory at the Victoria University of Manchester from October 1948 until his death in June 1954. He is famous for his contributions to computing and cryptography, which were so profound that he is often referred to as the 'father of computer science".
While at Manchester, Turing had access to the Manchester and Ferranti Mark I computers. However, for simple calculations or in situations where the Mark I was not available. Turing used a mechanical calculator in common with other computer scientists.
In 1951 Turing obtained a double mechanical calculator-a Britannic Duo.) Double or twin machines are quite unusual-they have two accumulators to perform two linked operations for each turn of the handle. They are particularly efficient in coupled calculations such as two-dimensional co-ordinate transformations, for which a double calculator only requires two cranks of the handle in place of the four cranks required on a single calculator.
[Alan Turing's order for a Britannic Duo mechanical October 1951,]
The machine was kept at the University's Department of Computer Science until 1989, before being loaned to the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester where it was on display until 2017.
Turing's breakthrough in morphogenesis
Turing was fascinated by morphogenesis-the formation of patterns in biology-developing a system of partial differential equations based on a reaction-diffusion system that accounted for the main phenomena of morphogenesis. He published this in his seminal work. The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis, in August 1952. To test his work on morphogenesis he used linear approximations to solve the equations by hand, possibly using this calculator.
The diagram is one of Turing's calculated results from The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis, of which he wrote:"This process is very convenient for computation, and can also be applied to two dimensions. Figure 2 shows such a pattern, obtained in a few hours by a manual computation."Turing's Duo calculator would have been well suited to the computation of this result, although the time between obtaining the calculator and submitting his paper for publication was short. In the 70 years since its publication, Turing's theory of morphogenesis has stood the test of time as an explanation of the formation of some biological structures. It has also found application in pure and applied chemistry, geomorphology, plant biology, ecology, sociology and astrophysics.
Turing's mechanical calculator and breakthrough in morphogenesis
Alan Turing was a Reader in Mathematics and Deputy Director of the Computing Machine Laboratory at the Victoria University of Manchester from October 1948 until his death in June 1954. He is famous for his contributions to computing and cryptography, which were so profound that he is often referred to as the 'father of computer science".
While at Manchester, Turing had access to the Manchester and Ferranti Mark I computers. However, for simple calculations or in situations where the Mark I was not available. Turing used a mechanical calculator in common with other computer scientists.
In 1951 Turing obtained a double mechanical calculator-a Britannic Duo.) Double or twin machines are quite unusual-they have two accumulators to perform two linked operations for each turn of the handle. They are particularly efficient in coupled calculations such as two-dimensional co-ordinate transformations, for which a double calculator only requires two cranks of the handle in place of the four cranks required on a single calculator.
[Alan Turing's order for a Britannic Duo mechanical October 1951,]
The machine was kept at the University's Department of Computer Science until 1989, before being loaned to the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester where it was on display until 2017.
Turing's breakthrough in morphogenesis
Turing was fascinated by morphogenesis-the formation of patterns in biology-developing a system of partial differential equations based on a reaction-diffusion system that accounted for the main phenomena of morphogenesis. He published this in his seminal work. The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis, in August 1952. To test his work on morphogenesis he used linear approximations to solve the equations by hand, possibly using this calculator.
The diagram is one of Turing's calculated results from The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis, of which he wrote:"This process is very convenient for computation, and can also be applied to two dimensions. Figure 2 shows such a pattern, obtained in a few hours by a manual computation."Turing's Duo calculator would have been well suited to the computation of this result, although the time between obtaining the calculator and submitting his paper for publication was short. In the 70 years since its publication, Turing's theory of morphogenesis has stood the test of time as an explanation of the formation of some biological structures. It has also found application in pure and applied chemistry, geomorphology, plant biology, ecology, sociology and astrophysics.