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Alan Turing: The Enigma

By Bob Cordon Champ

Read this most interesting 586pp book about the mathematician, inventor of the concept of the "Turing machine" which led directly to the electro-mechanical machines which "broke" German Enigma machine codes in WWII and to the invention of the computer and, on p395, is the following:

"more often he cycled through the scrubby suburbs to work, cutting a comic figure in a yellow oilskin and hat when it rained.  Later he added a small motor to his bicycle but never acquired a car."

This "motor" was abandoned in 1954, just before Turing's tragic death at forty-one.  Has anyone a logbook with A M Turing in it to fill in the details?  Reading this book is a fascinating task, even for a non-mathematician - though the writer of this review does have a strong interest in the applied science of WWII - particularly anyone interested in what makes a genius tick.

"Alan Turing: The Enigma".  Andrew Hodges.  Vintage Press.  £8.99.  ISBN 0-09-911641-3.

First published - June 1992


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