Trevor Pearcey operating CSIRAC
Source: CSIRO
In November 1949, the world’s fourth stored program electronic computer ran its first program. Known as CSIRAC – ‘Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Automatic Computer’ – it was designed and constructed in Australia. It is the oldest surviving first-generation computer and is a treasured object in Museum Victoria's collection.
CSIRAC received a fitting 60th birthday present last month when it was listed in the Victorian Heritage Register. The register lists CSIRAC’s hardware and software, including cabinets, consoles, power supplies, circuits and over 400 programs stored on paper tape. Objects and places on the register have significance to the history and communities of Victoria, and are afforded the highest level of heritage protection.
Compared with today’s technology, CSIRAC seems incredibly bulky and limited – it weighs several tonnes and has less computing power than the simplest mobile phone. Yet in the 1950s, it was more than 500 times faster than mechanical calculators and was invaluable for science research and mathematical calculations. It was used for weather forecasting, engineering problems, building design, and home loan repayment sums. Many of Australia’s pioneering computer programmers and engineers honed their skills while developing and improving CSIRAC.
David Demant is Senior Curator of the Information and Communication Collection, home to CSIRAC and various historic telephones, radios, calculators, recorders and other devices. “I love my job,” he said. “I am enormously privileged to take care of one of the machines that founded the modern digital revolution.” Over the past decade, David and the CSIRAC History Team at the University of Melbourne have been researching material that relates to CSIRAC, such as manuals, design documents and photographs. This provides a rich provenance for the machine and contributes to its heritage significance.
CSIRAC was donated to the museum by the University of Melbourne in 1964, the last year of its working life. It was restored by museum conservators and placed on display at Melbourne Museum in 2000. Many of CSIRAC’s artefacts can be found on the new Collections Online website.