1988: What is a Computer and how does it Work? | Electric Avenue | Retro Tech | BBC Archive

"A combination of very simple operations can do something quite complex."

Fred Harris considers what a computer is, and how it handles data, using a variety of historical analoges. He explains how a player piano - that interprets the thousands of perforations on a scroll and converts them into key presses to produce a musical performance - is effectively doing the job of computer hardware, while the scrolls can be considered software.

Using a studio-sized replica of the interior of an 8-bit computer, Fred demonstrates how the computer moves and manipulates information. How might a computer determine if two images are the same or different?

The magnificent Boston Symphony Organ is, in fact, two automatic player organs in concert. They were rescued, waterlogged, from two private residences, and restored by the Boston University. With over 800 pipes - each requiring individual information about when to play and how long to play for - Fred shows how the internal organ works like a computer interpreting code. The organ can be programmed to perform musical feats that no single human player could accomplish.

Fred looks at other machines that can outperform humans - from an unbeatable mechanical noughts and crosses machine, to Professor Donald Michie's ingenious learning machine comprised entirely of matchboxes and coloured beads.

Clip taken from Electric Avenue, originally broadcast on BBC One, 31 October, 1988.

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