It may be old and slow, but it has been brought back to life, and that’s no small accomplishment. The world’s oldest working computer is 64 years old. And it has reclaimed its place in the Guinness Book of World Records. Its first entry as the world’s oldest working computer in the Guinness Book of World Records ended in 1973 when it was decommissioned.
The computer is Britain’s Harwell Dekatron, also known as the WITCH computer. The 2.5-ton monster was built in 1951 at Britain’s Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell, Oxfordshire. It was built to be reliable rather than fast, and it certainly lived up to expectations over its long life. It needs 10 seconds to divide a number, for example.
Volunteers spent three years restoring the giant machine and it was rebooted in 2012. The monster stands 6-1/2 feet (2 m) tall, nearly 20 feet (6 m) wide, and 39 inches deep. It contained 828 vacuum tubes with 480 relays and 7073 relay switches. One hundred ninety-nine lamps are used to interact with the machine.
The WITCH computer is now on display at the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park, where it serves as a teaching tool.
If nothing else, the Harwell Dekatron computer shows us how far technology has come in a few short years. You can find more information about this venerable giant here
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