How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom

by Matt Ridley

A better candidate to challenge the ENIAC’s claim might be Colossus, the computer built at Bletchley Park in Britain to crack German codes. Colossus preceded the ENIAC by almost two years, the first version being finished in December 1943 and the second, larger version going operational in June 1944: within a few weeks it had decoded some of Hitler’s orders in the battle for Normandy. Colossus was fully electronic, digital (and binary, unlike the ENIAC) and programmable. But it was designed as a single- not a general-purpose machine. Besides, even in the 1970s its story was still shrouded in secrecy, so its influence on later machines was smaller. There again, even if you give Colossus its due, to whom should we give the credit for designing it?