- Hardcover: 480 pages
- Publisher: OUP Oxford; 1st Edition edition (23 Feb 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 019284055X
- ISBN-13: 978-0192840554
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15.7 x 4.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
329,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #26 in Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Enigma Code
- #86 in Books > Children's Books > Education > Subjects > ICT
- See Complete Table of Contents
 Trade In this Item for up to £7.30
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Code-breaking Computers for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £7.30, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
Product Description
Review
An engaging book that will be essential reading for historians of twentieth-century technology and warfare. (Nature )
formidably detailed (Guardian )
compelling compilation (New Scientist )
formidably detailed (Guardian )
compelling compilation (New Scientist )
Nature, 17 August 2006
'an engaging book that will be essential reading for historians of twentieth-century technology and warfare.'
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
The story of the Enigma cipher machine and its defeat by the Bletchley Park codebreakers astounded the world. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
The story of the Enigma cipher machine and its defeat by the Bletchley Park codebreakers astounded the world. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book contains numerous articles written by some of those invisible people who actually took part in this top secret project. Some of the accounts are those of frustration, from people not allowed to get the recognition that they and their colleagues deserve. The level of detail and understanding shown makes this a very interesting and unique picture. I would recommend it without hesitation. Their ability to inject humour in the most serious of stories gives you some idea of the luck and good fortune that resulted in the most important achievements.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This detailed account of the life and people who worked at Bletchley Park is a compelling read, whether or not you are interested in the hardware and technical explanations, of which there is an abundance, but for the personal accounts from those who were involved.
What comes across in these is the extraordinary loyalty and determination of individuals and teams, in spite of the poor living accommodation, welfare and working conditions afforded them in return for their genius and ingenuity.
However, these people fought with their brains. Driven by a collective resolve, winning was cracking a new cipher, which could save hundreds of lives by unveiling a single sentence.
The late Tommy Flowers' section on his work at the Post Office's Dollis Hill research centre using thermionic valves is a fascinating insight as to how it became possible to process data at speeds in powers of ten over mechanical systems, an overture to today's nano-transistor, gigahertz-clocked multi-core power processors.
Combined with the sheer intellectual capacity of the mathematicians working on the project to provide the basis of the programming, this was the key technology that made breaking deeply encrypted messages possible in useable timescales.
It also raises a poignant thought: the `Colossi' - there were quite few of them - seemed to become like trusted old friends, and their destruction after the end of hostilities was viewed by most working with them as a sad affair. Perhaps with 20-20 vision in hindsight, an over-zealous application of the Official Secrets Act, which held back the UK computer industry for decades?
Of interest to historians and the plain curious, this is a quality collection of information on the essence of what made Bletchley Park...and modern computing.
What comes across in these is the extraordinary loyalty and determination of individuals and teams, in spite of the poor living accommodation, welfare and working conditions afforded them in return for their genius and ingenuity.
However, these people fought with their brains. Driven by a collective resolve, winning was cracking a new cipher, which could save hundreds of lives by unveiling a single sentence.
The late Tommy Flowers' section on his work at the Post Office's Dollis Hill research centre using thermionic valves is a fascinating insight as to how it became possible to process data at speeds in powers of ten over mechanical systems, an overture to today's nano-transistor, gigahertz-clocked multi-core power processors.
Combined with the sheer intellectual capacity of the mathematicians working on the project to provide the basis of the programming, this was the key technology that made breaking deeply encrypted messages possible in useable timescales.
It also raises a poignant thought: the `Colossi' - there were quite few of them - seemed to become like trusted old friends, and their destruction after the end of hostilities was viewed by most working with them as a sad affair. Perhaps with 20-20 vision in hindsight, an over-zealous application of the Official Secrets Act, which held back the UK computer industry for decades?
Of interest to historians and the plain curious, this is a quality collection of information on the essence of what made Bletchley Park...and modern computing.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A very interesting book written by those who were involved. Much easier to read than Paul Gannon's book as it is personal rather than historical from documents. A very interesting book and I can thoroughly recommend it.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
If your laptop...
... ever asks you "Where did I come from?" you can safely give it this book to read. Probably the Kindle version would be easiest. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Ted Marynicz
Dad loves it!!!
Gave this book to my 80 year old father after he had visited Bletchley Park. From what I can gather he is loving reading it and mentions it everytime we see him. Must be good!
Published on 2 Feb 2009 by Melly K
A great read!
Couldn't put it down. You are lectured by some of the worlds greatest scientists, who undoubtably save the western world from the Nazis; it is written with humour and in excellent... Read more
Published on 26 April 2006 by J. Hazell
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Children's Books > Education > Subjects > ICT
- Books > Computing & Internet
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Ireland
- Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > History of Science
- Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Battles & Campaigns
- Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Countries > Britain
- Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Enigma Code
- Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Origins
- Books > Science & Nature
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
