Efforts to rebuild early computer turn up original part

BBC : The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC ) in the UK is attempting to reconstruct one of the world’s first computers. Built in the late 1940s, the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator, or EDSAC, comprised some 3000 vacuum tubes arranged on 140 chassis that were mounted on 12 racks. The computer operated from 1949 to 1958, when it was decommissioned and dismantled. Now one of the original parts of EDSAC, the chassis 1A, has turned up in the US. Robert Little of Allentown, Pennsylvania, contacted TNMOC after hearing about the rebuild effort. Not only did he donate the part but he also provided information about what happened to the rest of the machine: When EDSAC was dismantled, an auction was held and the parts sold off. Andrew Herbert, who is leading the reconstruction project, says other parts of the original machine may still exist and could turn up as people are made aware of the rebuild effort.