Ferranti recollections (1950-1955)

I joined Ferranti Ltd. in September 1950 from the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory. In retrospect, it is appropriate to make two comments about my time with Ferranti. The first is that I was very impressed with the caliber of the team I worked with, both in Manchester and London. (Incidentally, male programmers were not in a majority.) The second was that the company was small enough to convey the feeling to its young technologists (engineers and computer specialists) that their professional development was of concern to it. The period was exciting in that we had a new tool that everyone wanted to find out about. As a result, I found myself in a grandstand seat from which to view a wider range of the activities of British industry (and other organizations) than would have been possible probably at any other time