Tommy Flowers
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[[Image:Tommy Flowers2.JPG|thumb|right|Tommy Flowers - possibly taken around the time he was at Bletchley Park]]
'''Thomas (Tommy) Harold Flowers,''' [[Order of the British Empire|MBE]] ([[22 December]] [[1905]] – [[28 October]] [[1998]]) was an [[England|English]] engineer. During [[World War II]], Flowers designed ''[[Colossus computer|Colossus]]'', an early electronic [[computer]], to help solve encrypted German messages.
==Early life==
Flowers was born in London's [[East End]] on [[22 December]] 1905, the son of a [[bricklayer]].<ref name="odnb">Jon Agar, "Flowers, Thomas Harold (1905-1998), engineer" in the ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', 2004</ref>
After an apprenticeship in [[mechanical engineering]], he earned a degree in [[electrical engineering]] at the [[University of London]]. In [[1926]], he joined the telecommunications branch of the [[General Post Office (United Kingdom)|General Post Office]] (GPO), moving to work at the [[Post Office Research Station|research station]] at [[Dollis Hill]] on the northwest side of London in [[1930]]. From [[1935]] onward, he explored the use of electronics for telephone exchanges. By [[1939]], he was convinced that an all-electronic system was possible. This background in switching electronics would prove crucial for his computer design in World War II.
==World War II==
Flowers's first contact with the wartime codebreaking effort came when he was asked for help by [[Alan Turing]], who was then working at the government's [[Bletchley Park]] codebreaking establishment 50 miles north of London. Turing wanted Flowers to build a decoder for the relay-based [[Bombe]] machine, which Turing had developed to help decrypt the Germans' [[Enigma machine|Enigma]] codes. Although the decoder project was abandoned, Turing was impressed with Flowers's work, and introduced him to [[Max Newman]] who was leading the effort to break a teletype-based cipher, called "Geheimschreiber" (secret writer) by the Germans and "Fish" by the English decoding team. This was a much more complex coding system than Enigma; the decoding procedure involved trying so many possibilities that it was impractical to do by hand. In February 1943, Flowers proposed an electronic system, which he called Colossus, using 1500 [[vacuum tube|valves]] (vacuum tubes). Because the most complicated previous electronic device had used about 150 valves, some were skeptical that such a device would be reliable. Flowers countered that the British telephone system used thousands of valves and was reliable because the electronics were operated in a stable environment that included having the circuitry on all the time. The Bletchley Park management were not convinced, however, and merely encouraged Flowers to proceed on his own. He did so, providing much of the funds for the project himself.
Flowers gained full backing for his project from the Director of Dollis Hill, W.G. Radley. With the highest priority for acquisition of parts, Flowers's extremely dedicated team at Dollis Hill built the first machine in 11 months. It was immediately dubbed 'Colossus' by the Bletchley Park staff for its immense proportions. It operated 5 times faster and was more flexible than the previous system, named [[Heath Robinson (codebreaking machine)|Heath Robinson]], which used electro-mechanical switches. Anticipating the need for additional computers, a redesign utilizing 2400 valves was begun before the first computer was finished. The Mark 2 operated 5 times faster than the first Colossus. Flowers estimated that they could be manufactured at a rate of about one per month. Years later, Flowers described the design and construction of these computers.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Howard | first = Campaigne | title = The Design of Colossus: Thomas H. Flowers | journal = Annals of the History of Computing | volume = 5 | issue = 3 | pages = 239 | publisher = | date = 1983-07-03| url = http://www.ivorcatt.com/47c.htm | accessdate = 2007-10-12 }}</ref>
Ten Colossi were completed and used during [[World War II]] in British decoding efforts, and an eleventh was ready for commissioning at the end of the war. All but two were dismantled at the end of the war. "The remaining two were moved to British secret service headquarters, where they may have played a significant part in the codebreaking operations of the [[Cold War]]".<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2615decoding.html Transcript of 1999 Nova television program "Decoding Nazi Secrets"]</ref> They were finally decommissioned in [[1959]] and [[1960]].
==Post-war work==
After the war, Flowers was awarded limited recognition through an [[Order of the British Empire]] at the lowest level of MBE (member) and [[Pound Sterling|£]]1,000. The government payment did not even cover Flowers' personal investment in the equipment. His work in computing was not properly acknowledged until the 1970s, because the project was restricted by the [[Official Secrets Act]]. His family had known only that he had done some 'secret and important' work.<ref>BBC, 2003, obituary for [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1010070 Tommy Flowers: Technical Innovator]</ref> He remained at the [[Post Office Research Station]] where he was Head of the Switching Division. He and his group pioneered work on all-electronic [[telephone exchange]]s, completing a basic design by about [[1950]], which led on to the [[Highgate Wood Telephone Exchange]]. He was also involved in the development of [[ERNIE]].<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northwest/series6/premium_bonds.shtml Inside Out: Premium Bonds] - BBC</ref> In [[1964]] he became Head of the Advanced Development Group at [[Standard Telephones and Cables|Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd.]], retiring in [[1969]].<ref>[http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/research/pubs/books/papers/133.pdf A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century: The Colossus] - B. Randell, Newcastle University</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Refbegin}}
* [http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780192840554 B.J. Copeland, ed., "Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers,"] Oxford University Press, 2006.
{{Refend}}
==External links==
* [http://www.ivorcatt.com/47c.htm The Design of Colossus] – Thomas H. Flowers
* [http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TommyFlowers Quotes about Flowers]
* [http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/98/11/FlowersObit.html A Real English Hero has Died: a Father of the Modern Computer] — The Daily Telegraph
[[Category:1905 births|Flowers,Tommy]]
[[Category:1998 deaths|Flowers,Tommy]]
[[Category:Computer pioneers|Flowers,Tommy]]
[[Category:Electronics engineers|Flowers,Tommy]]
[[Category:Computer hardware engineers|Flowers,Tommy]]
[[Category:People associated with Bletchley Park|Flowers, Tommy]]
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