Connections in the History of Australian Computing - History of Computing: Learning from the Past - page 3

group was soon pressed into war service developing gun aiming computer devices, and
they continued this work with Radiophysics' radar group.
After WW2 David recommended increased work on computing devices and the
Mathematical Instrument Section was created within his Division. Their first job was
the design and construction of an advanced electro-mechanical Differential Analyser
for the CSIR. This used technology developed for gun aiming, and was used heavily
through the 1950s [9].
4 Trevor Pearcey and CSIRAC
In 1940, a young mathematician, Trevor Pearcey, 6 joined the UK war effort instead of
starting a PhD. He worked with the British Radar Research Establishment on the way
radio signals travelled in different atmospheric conditions. Initially this involved
months of work on manual calculators, but after contact with Prof Douglas Hartree
the work continued on the Differential Analysers at Manchester then at Cambridge
[10, 11].
Late in 1944 the radar research was winding down and Trevor answered a news-
paper advertisement for a mathematical physicist with the CSIR Division of Radio-
physics. He was successful and, a year later with the end of the war, he sailed for
Australia. Trevor accommodated a growing interest in calculating machines by ar-
ranging to visit Boston and Howard Aiken's enormous Automatic Sequence Con-
trolled Calculator at Harvard University, as well as the latest Bush Differential
Analyser nearby at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Trevor established a Mathematical Section in Sydney, then managed to convince
management to redirect his radio studies into the development of an electronic com-
puting machine. He argued that this would clearly be needed by Radiophysics' other
projects.
The logical design work started in 1946 with radar engineer Maston Beard produc-
ing circuit details. While the influences still have to be teased out, Trevor could
hardly not have known of UK and US work. In mid 1945 Prof Hartree had prepared a
large report into calculating machines [12] which included extensive extracts from
John von Neumann's EDVAC report [13], and outlines of the critical memory design.
Anyhow, Trevor clearly approached his design from first principles, the essential
design of the CSIR Mark 1 was completed in early 1948 and construction started. A
review paper written then started with Charles Babbage and ended with a prediction:
“in the non-mathematical field there is scope for the use of the [computing] tech-
niques in such things as filing systems. It is not inconceivable that an automatic
encyclopaedic service operated through the national teleprinter or telephone
service will one day exist.” [14]
Radiophysics staff developed major sub-systems and carried out the construction. The
Mark 1 ran its first program late in 1949 though the arithmetic unit was not complete [15].
While Trevor and his team worked on their computer, David Myers organised Aus-
tralia's first Conference On Automatic Computing Machines for 1951. Four presenta-
tion were given by Prof Hartree, three by David Myers and four by Trevor Pearcey.
6 Born London 5 March 1919, died Melbourne 27 January 1998.