Pioneer helped to build Baby

PIONEERS . . . Geoff Tootill (right) and Tom Kilburn with the first computer

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GEOFF TOOTILL, born in Bircherslea Street in Chadderton, was a scientist who helped to create the Manchester Small-Scale Experiment Machine in 1948.

While that doesn’t sound like much, it led to something that today runs the world.

It was the world’s first electronic stored program computer - also known as Baby.

The computer was created at Manchester University with professors Fred Williams and Tom Kilburn, and paved the way for computer programming and the IT revolution.

Baby first sparked into life on June 21,1948, with the answer to a maths problem set almost an hour eariier. The machine weighed over a ton and had far less computing power than a modern calculator.

Toothill later left the university to work for Ferranti, and played an important role when the firm began to build the Ferranti Mark 1 - the world’s first commercial computer.

In 1962 he moved to the University of London and later became director of the University of London computing centre.

Mr Tootill became director of the national computing centre in 1969 until 1974, then moved the University of Wales as director of its computing centre.

Since his retirement in 1982 he has kept his hand in writing programs.