The oldest digital computer has risen from the ashes

An important from a historical point of view, the computer “The Witch”, produced in the 1950s, weighing 2 tons, was “brought back to life” again after three years of restoration work. The computer is now located at the National Computer Museum of Buckinghamshire, Britain.

The British company Atomic Energy Research Establishment from Harwell, Oxfordshire was engaged in the production of this computer in the last century.
BBC website explains:

“The car was first launched in 1951. At the time, it was called Harwell Dekatron. They called it this way because they used special meters called Dekatron to save information. Despite its low computational speed — it took the machine up to 10 seconds to multiply two numbers — it worked well and worked up to 80 hours a week. ”

Photo from the past

He received his nickname “The Witch” after the need for its use in atomic research was no longer necessary. He was transferred to the University of Wolverhampton, where he was chosen a new name.
The restoration work was carried out under the direction of Delwyn Holroyd. The restorer says that the car, when it was first brought to the city of Blechli, was "pretty dirty." But he noted that the computer did not suffer much physically for so many years and the restoration work essentially consisted only in painting and minimal replacement of parts. The main computing part of this computer includes 480 relays and 828 Dekatron handsets.

Source: Softpedia.com

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/computers/starejshij-cifrovoj-kompyuter-vostal-iz-pepla.html.