The Register: In a project described as "the computing equivalent of the raising of the Mary Rose," engineers at Bletchley Park intend to restore a 1950s-era computer—featuring a magnificent 112.5 bytes of memory—to working order.
The machine in question was built at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell in Oxfordshire. It was designed in 1949 to automate the job of a human calculating team, whose work was apparently so boring that mistakes became unacceptably frequent.
Computer pioneer Alan Turing features on a number of first day covers issued by the little post office at Bletchley Park. The most recent is called from “From Coal to Chips”. Its design theme links the industrial revolution of 250 years ago to Bletchley Park’s role in the development of the electronic computer. Along with the industrial pioneers on the stamps are specially commissioned portraits of Alan Turing and Tommy Flowers. The first day of issue cancel for the Royal Mail stamps is a representation of a thermionic valve from the Colossus computer they created.
Often referred to as little pieces of art and history these limited edition covers issued from Bletchley Park are very collectible and post issue prices can reach several hundred pounds GBP. So as well as helping save Bletchley Park they are probably one of the best investments around at the moment.
Current issue price is GBP £15 plus £1.50 post and packing. They are only available through the web site www.bletchleycovers.com or Bletchley Park Post Office, The Mansion, Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, MK3 6EB. Tel, 01908 631797/272690