Conway Berners-Lee
Encyclopedia
Conway Berners-Lee is a British mathematician
and computer scientist
who worked in the team that developed the Ferranti Mark 1, the world's first commercial stored program electronic computer. He was born in Birmingham
in 1921 and is the father of Sir Tim Berners-Lee
, the inventor of the World Wide Web
.
in 1940 and read parts I and II of the mathematical tripos as a compressed two-year course. In addition, he attended a series of lectures in electronics. After university he had further training in electronic engineering and soon joined the army in the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME)
. He worked on both Gun Laying and Searchlight Radar
in England.
After the cessation of hostilities, Berners-Lee was posted to Egypt
where he encountered Maurice Kendall's
book The Advanced Theory of Statistics which greatly impressed him. He then had a chance to join the statistics bureau in the GHQ
in Cairo, known as the Number 1 Statistics Unit of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps
. He was employed to close down a very large punched card
installation involving about five million 65-column punched cards covering all types of vehicle and spares. This meant that they had to say goodbye to 30 women who had been punching the cards. The last job was sorting and listing the 250,000 personnel cards to get all the service people onto ships for home. There was a race with the clerks doing this job by hand—and the clerks won over the machines.
Berners-Lee was demobilised in 1947 with the rank of Major. He then worked on a punched card data processing system for the Plastics Division of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI)
. He met his wife Mary Lee Woods
at the Ferranti
Christmas party in Manchester
in 1952. She had been working as a programmer
on the Ferranti Mark 1 and Mark 1 Star computers since 1951. He joined Ferranti in 1953 working at Ferranti's London Computer Centre. They were married on 10 July 1954 at St Saviour's Church, Hampstead.
The following is an extract from Dominic Wilson's book Organizational Marketing.
In the 1950s it was not clear how computers could usefully be employed away from the field of mathematics. As well as Statistics, Berners-Lee had acquired a knowledge of Operations Research (OR)
, and he showed himself to be good at devising worthwhile computer applications. He directed the development of routines for the basic data processing techniques of sorting and updating files. In 1956 he devised an application for planning the production of items from a variety of components, for example animal feed products. In 1957 he published an article on machine loading. A report that he produced in 1964 listed 31 Ferranti projects that used OR techniques in a wide variety of businesses.
The business computing division of Ferranti was merged with International Computers and Tabulators (ICT)
in 1963, and ICT was in turn merged with English Electric Leo Marconi (EELM) computers in 1968 to form International Computers Limited (ICL).
In 1960 Berners-Lee had evolved a technique for editing text—including hyphenation—for metal typesetting
of printed material. As space in memory and backing store was a scarce and valuable resource in those days, he had also devised a procedure for compressing text which in 1963 he sent to Bob Bemer
at Univac
.
In the late 1960s Berners-Lee led the Medical Development Team of ICT and then ICL. He was involved in some of the earliest developments in the applications of computers in medicine, and his text compression
ideas were taken up by an early electronic patient record system.
Berners-Lee spent the 1970s developing and using a queuing network model for ICL's 'New Range' of computers (later the ICL 2900 Series
) with Dr John Pinkerton
who was responsible for optimising the price/performance
of the new systems. It was known as FAST – standing for Football Analogy for System Throughput. The work done by each ‘player’ was derived from a system monitor file containing data for device and concurrency counts. He received much encouragement when Hughes and Moe at Norwegian University of Science and Technology
, Trondheim, predicted the effect of increasing the memory on their Univac
Installation. The model could also be used to predict throughput on a minute to minute basis – peaks being believed to be due to instability in the operating system
. He retired in 1986.
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and computer scientist
Computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
who worked in the team that developed the Ferranti Mark 1, the world's first commercial stored program electronic computer. He was born in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
in 1921 and is the father of Sir Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, , also known as "TimBL", is a British computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web...
, the inventor of the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
.
Career
Early in World War II Berners-Lee volunteered for the armed services, but was re-directed to university because the government wanted people trained in mathematics and electronics. He went up to Trinity College, CambridgeTrinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
in 1940 and read parts I and II of the mathematical tripos as a compressed two-year course. In addition, he attended a series of lectures in electronics. After university he had further training in electronic engineering and soon joined the army in the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME)
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers is a corps of the British Army that has responsibility for the maintenance, servicing and inspection of almost every electrical and mechanical piece of equipment within the British Army from Challenger II main battle tanks and WAH64 Apache...
. He worked on both Gun Laying and Searchlight Radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
in England.
After the cessation of hostilities, Berners-Lee was posted to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
where he encountered Maurice Kendall's
Maurice Kendall
Sir Maurice George Kendall, FBA was a British statistician, widely known for his contribution to statistics. The Kendall tau rank correlation is named after him.-Education and early life:...
book The Advanced Theory of Statistics which greatly impressed him. He then had a chance to join the statistics bureau in the GHQ
Headquarters
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
in Cairo, known as the Number 1 Statistics Unit of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps
Royal Army Ordnance Corps
The Royal Army Ordnance Corps was a corps of the British Army. It dealt only with the supply and maintenance of weaponry, munitions and other military equipment until 1965, when it took over most other supply functions, as well as the provision of staff clerks, from the Royal Army Service...
. He was employed to close down a very large punched card
Punched card
A punched card, punch card, IBM card, or Hollerith card is a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions...
installation involving about five million 65-column punched cards covering all types of vehicle and spares. This meant that they had to say goodbye to 30 women who had been punching the cards. The last job was sorting and listing the 250,000 personnel cards to get all the service people onto ships for home. There was a race with the clerks doing this job by hand—and the clerks won over the machines.
Berners-Lee was demobilised in 1947 with the rank of Major. He then worked on a punched card data processing system for the Plastics Division of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI)
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...
. He met his wife Mary Lee Woods
Mary Lee Woods
Mary Lee Woods, now Mrs C M Berners-Lee is a British mathematician and computer programmer who worked in a team that developed programs for the Manchester University Mark 1, Ferranti Mark 1 and Mark 1 Star computers. She is married to Conway Berners-Lee, also in the team...
at the Ferranti
Ferranti
Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. Known primarily for defence electronics, the Company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but ceased trading in 1993.The...
Christmas party in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
in 1952. She had been working as a programmer
Programmer
A programmer, computer programmer or coder is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to...
on the Ferranti Mark 1 and Mark 1 Star computers since 1951. He joined Ferranti in 1953 working at Ferranti's London Computer Centre. They were married on 10 July 1954 at St Saviour's Church, Hampstead.
The following is an extract from Dominic Wilson's book Organizational Marketing.
In the 1950s it was not clear how computers could usefully be employed away from the field of mathematics. As well as Statistics, Berners-Lee had acquired a knowledge of Operations Research (OR)
Operations research
Operations research is an interdisciplinary mathematical science that focuses on the effective use of technology by organizations...
, and he showed himself to be good at devising worthwhile computer applications. He directed the development of routines for the basic data processing techniques of sorting and updating files. In 1956 he devised an application for planning the production of items from a variety of components, for example animal feed products. In 1957 he published an article on machine loading. A report that he produced in 1964 listed 31 Ferranti projects that used OR techniques in a wide variety of businesses.
The business computing division of Ferranti was merged with International Computers and Tabulators (ICT)
International Computers and Tabulators
International Computers and Tabulators or ICT was formed in 1959 by a merger of the British Tabulating Machine Company and Powers-Samas. In 1963 it also added the business computer divisions of Ferranti...
in 1963, and ICT was in turn merged with English Electric Leo Marconi (EELM) computers in 1968 to form International Computers Limited (ICL).
In 1960 Berners-Lee had evolved a technique for editing text—including hyphenation—for metal typesetting
Typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...
of printed material. As space in memory and backing store was a scarce and valuable resource in those days, he had also devised a procedure for compressing text which in 1963 he sent to Bob Bemer
Bob Bemer
Robert William Bemer was a computer scientist best known for his work at IBM during the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Biography:...
at Univac
UNIVAC
UNIVAC is the name of a business unit and division of the Remington Rand company formed by the 1950 purchase of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, founded four years earlier by ENIAC inventors J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, and the associated line of computers which continues to this day...
.
In the late 1960s Berners-Lee led the Medical Development Team of ICT and then ICL. He was involved in some of the earliest developments in the applications of computers in medicine, and his text compression
Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
ideas were taken up by an early electronic patient record system.
Berners-Lee spent the 1970s developing and using a queuing network model for ICL's 'New Range' of computers (later the ICL 2900 Series
ICL 2900 Series
The ICL 2900 Series was a range of mainframe computer systems announced by the UK manufacturer ICL on 9 October 1974. The company had started development, under the name "New Range" immediately on its formation in 1968...
) with Dr John Pinkerton
John Pinkerton (computer designer)
John Maurice McClean Pinkerton was a pioneering British computer designer. Along with David Caminer, he designed England's first business computer, the LEO computer, produced by J. Lyons and Co in 1951.,-Personal life:...
who was responsible for optimising the price/performance
Price/performance ratio
In economics and engineering, the price/performance ratio refers to a product's ability to deliver performance, of any sort, for its price. Generally speaking, products with a higher price/performance ratio are more desirable, excluding other factors....
of the new systems. It was known as FAST – standing for Football Analogy for System Throughput. The work done by each ‘player’ was derived from a system monitor file containing data for device and concurrency counts. He received much encouragement when Hughes and Moe at Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology , commonly known as NTNU, is located in Trondheim. NTNU is the second largest of the eight universities in Norway, and, as its name suggests, has the main national responsibility for higher education in engineering and technology...
, Trondheim, predicted the effect of increasing the memory on their Univac
UNIVAC
UNIVAC is the name of a business unit and division of the Remington Rand company formed by the 1950 purchase of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, founded four years earlier by ENIAC inventors J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, and the associated line of computers which continues to this day...
Installation. The model could also be used to predict throughput on a minute to minute basis – peaks being believed to be due to instability in the operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
. He retired in 1986.
External links
- The National Archives: The Ferranti Collection including:
- Linear Programming "Arrives" By Dr. D.G. Prinz & Mr C.M Berners-Lee of Ferranti Ltd. (Paper) 1996.10/6/12/28/10 1957
- The Use of Electronic Computers in the Chemical Industry. By C.M. Berners-Lee 1996.10/6/12/28/28 1959
- The Use of Computers for Optimal Planning. By C.M. Berners-Lee 1996.10/6/12/28/29 1959
- Photograph with colleagues (under Ferranti and ICL)