Contested Histories: De-mythologising the Early History of Modern British Computing - History of Computing: Learning from the Past - page 66

Royal Society can reasonably be thought of as major investors in the development of
the machines that followed the SSEM. However, despite the financial scale and po-
litical importance of the contribution made by the Royal Society to the SSEM and to
its successors, the part it played has received little acknowledgement from historians.
In view of the actual spending that took place and the financial context within
which Newman was operating, Napper's bald statement of the financial myth, made
in the course of commenting on the development of the Baby: “That 'Professor New-
man had a grant' was true, but in effect it was not used until it was not required.” [13]
can be seen to fall very wide of the mark.
8 Conclusion
I have covered a substantial amount of ground. Based on a complete re-examination
of the available source material, I have provided a new historical interpretation of the
development of one of the most iconic machines in the history of British computing.
In doing so, I have called into question the dominant historical narrative and set aside
an account of the period which has hitherto remained unchallenged. I have identified
three persistent myths that have acted to distort the picture of early computing in
Britain and argued, I hope persuasively, that they are without foundation.
In showing that the origins of the Manchester Baby lie in the wartime setting of
Bletchley Park and that the mathematicians who worked on Colossus were not only