One-ton 'Baby' computer celebrates birthday

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the birth of 'The Baby', generally regarded as the forerunner of all modern computers.

Weighing a ton and taking up an entire laboratory, The Baby was built at the University of Manchester by Tom Kilburn and Freddie Williams, both of whom have since died.

The Baby, officially known as the Small Scale Experimental Machine, executed its first programme on 21 June 1948 shortly after 11am, but is celebrated a day early as part of Digital 60 Day hosted by Manchester University.

"The birth of The Baby changed the world forever and we hope the Digital 60 Day celebrations will raise the profile of computer science and encourage the brightest and best of the next generation to engage in the challenges facing computing over the coming decades," said Manchester university professor John Perkins.

A special awards ceremony and drinks reception will see the surviving pioneers from The Baby design and development team awarded Medals of Honour from the University of Manchester and the British Computer Society.

In the run up to the celebration the earliest known computer-generated recordings were brought to light in the form of a patchy rendition of Baa Baa Black Sheep and a shortened version of In the Mood.

The tracks were recorded by the BBC at Manchester University in 1951 from a Ferranti Mark 1 computer, a commercial version of the 60 year-old Baby.