Note from Bernard de Neumann
On the Marconi computer front I will locate my old notes and start to write out my memories. However I am finding that, on reading some of the other stuff that MOGS has compiled, many more memories are being stirred up, and I feel sure that the same will be true for others of you.. I remember Digby Worthy very well - he was famous at Oxford Uni for discovering that the introduction of a small quantity of condensed milk into a bicycle tyre inner tube made it self-sealing in the event of a puncture! No one could quite imagine how he made this singularly practical discovery! His reports on TAC and programming always made interesting reading. He was always an interesting bloke to talk to with interesting ideas. I don't really know what happened to him later at MRSL, but he was made redundant, after a long and useful career in Marconi. I met him again after that and he seemed utterly bewildered.
See "National Archive for the History of Computing: Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company Ltd: Working Papers and Reports (University of Manchester)" for some of Digby's work.
A listing of material available from TMOC
There is also an excellent reference to Digby in the The National Museum of Computing section on TAC
Note from Roy Simons
Digby had a short and very sad career as a teacher of mathematics at Brentwood School after he left the Company.
Note from Steve Kay
I was provided with this photograph by Digby's son. On the back it states: "MARCONI Copyright No. 1900M May be reproduced subject to acknowledgement"
The couple on the right are Digby and Jill Worthy. Does anyone know what the function was and who the others in the photograph are?
TNMoC Talk on Digby Worthy and the Marconi TAC
I (steve_kay@ieee.org) will be presenting a talk over Zoom entitled "Digby Worthy and the Marconi Transistorised Automatic Computer" at 4pm on Sunday 25th April 2021.
Here is a link to the Event on the TNMoC website: https://www.tnmoc.org/events/2021/4/25/digby-worthy-and-the-marconi-transistorised-automatic-computer
I may also be running the talk again in May 2021.
There are other talks available that may be of interests to MOGs - plus online virtual guided tours of the museum.