Geoff Tootill facts for kids

Geoff C. Tootill (born March 4, 1922 – died October 26, 2017) was a brilliant electronic engineer and computer scientist. He worked at the University of Manchester with Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn. Together, they helped create the Manchester Baby. This machine was known as "the world's first wholly electronic stored-program computer."

Early Life and Education

Geoff Tootill went to King Edward's School, Birmingham. He earned a special scholarship to study Mathematics at Christ's College, Cambridge in 1940. His studies were cut short by World War II. Because of the war, he had to finish his course in just two years.

After the Manchester Baby computer worked successfully, he earned a master's degree (MSc). This degree was from the Victoria University of Manchester. His master's paper was about "Universal High-Speed Digital Computers: A Small-Scale Experimental Machine."

A Career in Computing

Working on Radar During WWII

After leaving Cambridge in 1942, Tootill started working on airborne radar. This was at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) in Malvern. He visited airfields to fix problems with radar on night fighter planes. He also designed changes and made sure they were put in place. He later said this was the most important job he ever had.

Building the Manchester Baby

In 1947, Frederic Calland Williams asked Tootill to join him at Manchester University. There, Tootill worked with Tom Kilburn. Their goal was to build the world's first fully electronic computer that could store programs.

At that time, a big challenge was creating memory for computers. To test a new type of memory, Kilburn and Tootill designed a simple computer. They called it the "Manchester Baby." This computer could hold 32 instructions or numbers using a special screen called a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT).

On June 21, 1948, after many months of hard work, the Baby finally ran its first task. It ran a routine written by Kilburn to find the highest factor of a number. Tootill remembered, "And we saw the thing had done a computation." A few days later, the Baby ran for 52 minutes. It found the highest factor of a very large number, which needed about 3.5 million math steps.

Teaching Alan Turing

After the Baby started working, Alan Turing moved to Manchester. He wanted to use the Baby for a project he was working on. Tootill taught Alan Turing how to use the Manchester Baby. He also helped fix a program Turing had written for the machine.

Later Career and Contributions

In 1949, Tootill joined Ferranti. There, he helped design the logic for the first computer sold to businesses. This computer was based on the Manchester Baby. He soon left Ferranti and became a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military College of Science. He taught and led lab studies on digital computing.

In 1956, Tootill joined the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) in Farnborough. He researched topics for air traffic control systems. He also co-wrote a book called "Electronic Computers." This book was very popular and was translated into Spanish and Japanese. Tootill was also one of the first members of the British Computer Society in 1956.

In 1963, Tootill joined the new European Space Research Organisation (ESRO). This organization is now called the European Space Agency. He helped set up and lead ESRO's Control Centre. In 1973, he joined the National Physical Laboratory. There, he worked on creating communication rules for a computer network called the European Informatics Network.

Tootill retired in 1982, but he stayed active in the world of computing.

Legacy and Recognition

In 1997, Tootill used his knowledge of languages like Latin and Greek. He designed a special computer program. This program could recognize English names that sound alike, even if spelled differently. For example, it could tell that "Deighton" and "Dayton" sound similar. This program was used by many companies.

In 1998, a group called the Computer Conservation Society built an exact copy of the Baby computer. This was to celebrate 50 years since the first electronic program ran. The replica is now in the Museum of Science and Industry (Manchester). Tootill's notes and memories were very important for building this copy. A page from his notebook shows the code for the very first computer program, written by Tom Kilburn.

Personal Life

When he was a boy, Geoff Tootill loved electronics. He even built his own radio set. He met Pamela Watson during World War II in Malvern. They were both part of a group called the "Flying Rockets Concert Party." Geoff and Pam got married in 1947. They had three sons: Peter, Colin, and Stephen. They also had two grandchildren, Mia and Duncan.

Pam, his first wife, passed away in 1979. In 1981, Tootill married Joyce Turnbull, who survived him.

Books

• Electronic Computers by S.H. Hollingdale and G.C. Tootill