Day 75, London Souvenirs
Perhaps I'm pushing the definition of "garage" a bit with this garage gem, but I was sorting through some random boxes of stuff from my office closet and encountered some souvenirs from a trip that I took to London back in 2011. I didn't really want to interrupt my attempt at cleaning and organizing, but some of the trinkets that I uncovered were too good not to share. Apologies for the poor photography (I really need to make a light box for photographing small items like pins and the bit) but I wanted to share.
First of all, I had this "passport" to Bletchley Park, which also serves to date precisely the date that we were
there. Carmen and I took an early train out to the Euston station to Bletchley, and had a great time out there
visiting the site of the code breaking efforts during World War II. I have more than a passing interest in
codes, so I found it fascinating, and what was really great is that Carmen seemed to have a good time too.
At the time, they had fully restored the Bombe, a mechanical computer that cracked the Enigma code, and had a demonstration of it, and had just gotten the paper
tape reader of Colossus working. Colossus was the electronic code breaking engine that was used to crack the German "Tunny" codes near the end of the war. Colossus remained classified for years after
the war ended, the machines destroyed, and all record of it burned. It is only in the past couple decades has knowledge about this machine and the people behind it
been acknowledged. It used 2500 "valves" (tubes, to us Yanks) and it was amazing to watch the tape reader in
operation: it whirred around in a huge loop at very high speed (my memory says something like 30MPH) and it was
only the high speed electronic tubes that could keep up with it.
You can read more about it here.
Great fun.
Lots of people know that I collect pins, especially from interesting places I visit. From Bletchley, I got this
nice one of Alan Turing, one of the most important figures in the history of computer science and one of the
minds who helped crack the Enigma code.
I got a couple of postcards, one showing the Enigma machine, the other showing a couple of women who I believe
are operating Colossus.
I also got a couple of key chains from there. The first is the logo of the Enigma machine, the second shows one
of the Enigma code machines open.
This shows a small chunk of paper tape which I believe came from the Colossus. I don't recall what it actually says, and my quick attempt to map it to standard Baudot didn't seem to work (I didn't expend much research on it today, I'll have go give it a whirl again when I have some time.) If you can remind me what it says, feel free to drop me a quick email..
I also got a Bletchley Park keychain, as well as a pin from the Globe theater (unrelated to Bletchley).
How could you visit London and not pick up a tiny bit of Beatles memorabilia?
Last in this bunch is a cute little box (actually one of a pair) which is labelled 221B, which of course came from our visit to the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker street. This pin I've never worn, but the other (which consists of a silhouette of Holmes) is one that I commonly wear on one of my favorite hats.
We had a great time in London, with many fond memories, including a night time walking tour of famous murder locations in London which ended up with us buying our guide a pint at the Sherlock Holmes pub and museum.
All this is probably very touristy, but it was fun. Hope you all are having a good weekend.