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Bosslady: Polly Dear.
Polly: Goodbye Joan, have a nice weekend.

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[Jazzy music: 'The Russians Are Coming' - Val Bennett]

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Tim: Of all the machines in the office, the computer is probably the most awe-inspiring.

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But despite all the hype and jargon surrounding them,

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they've now become so easy to use, that they're on almost every office desk.

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This change would never have happened without word processing.

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For most people, word processing is actually their only use for a computer.

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It is an extraordinarily elaborate way to write something

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with a separate keyboard, monitor, computer and printer.

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But the ease of trying sentences out...
[keyboard clatters]

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and moving them about, does give writing a whole new freedom.

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In this programme Rex and I are going to look at the evolution of the word processor

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and at least try to demystify some of the jargon surrounding it.

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The word processor came from combining the computer with a much earlier invention, the typewriter.

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This is part of the Science Museum's enormous collection of typewriters.

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The first attempts were unbelievably clumsy.

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This is the appropriately named Pratt Teratype of 1860.

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The paper goes on here, that's the maximum size on this plate.

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And when you press one of the piano keys [thunk] the type pops up here.

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It's unbelievably tiny.

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This is an early typewriter made by Charles Wheatstone

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[clunk] [clunk] [clunk]

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This one looks a bit like an old Primus stove, it actually still works quite well.

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[clunks and cogs clicking]

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Now this one, you put the paper in this brass flame...frame with a bit of carbon over it.

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And then you put the writing ball down on top of it,

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And you punch in the letters, and their supposed to spring back out again.
[punching of letters]

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Press the keys, while the frame moves under it.

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And er, this one's a sort of early version of a golf ball.

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[punching and clicking noises]

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But this machine, the Sholes and Gliddon from 1875, revolutionised the typewriter.

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This was the first one where you could type faster than you could write by hand.

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It was the first machine to be mass produced,

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and the first machine to have the QWERTY layout of the keys that's been used ever since.

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His machine appeared just at the time that offices were expanding rapidly.

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By 1900, typewriters had become an established part of any office.

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Introducing a whole new workforce of women.

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Man: Miss Smith, what can you tell us about your model B?

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Smith: Right now, I wouldn't trade my typewriter for the world.

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The new improvements to typewriter ribbons, and the new

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proportional spacing of my model B, our business letters appear so elegant.

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And I've even increased my typing speed too.

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One thing though, I wish they'd invent a typewriter that could erase or eliminate errors.

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I'd never have to stop to erase again.

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Well, maybe someday.

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Tim: Word processors remove this problem, because before everything's finally committed

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 to paper, it's stored in a form that's easy to modify and manipulate, in electrical circuits.

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[scraping of plastic]

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If you're opening a machine up, there's no obvious key to how it does this.

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It just reveals a maze of intricate circuits and a collection of inscrutable silicon chips.

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And tiny, even more complicated mazes of minute circuits

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It's sort of worlds within worlds.

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However, all these tiny circuits are really just vast collections of transistors.

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Just like this.

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Though all each transistor does,

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I'll just put it in this holder here...

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Is to switch the electric current on and off.

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In theory an entire computer could be made from enough transistor circuits like this.

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This computer board's all still connected up.

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And if I pause it for a minute.

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At any instant, every single transistor in the chip is either fully on, or fully off.

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Everything that's fed into the computer has to be converted to a form

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that can be handled by the on/off language of the chips.

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Word processing uses a code called ASCII.

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The letters of the alphabet are converted to 7 bits, that can each be on or off.

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So if I type a letter 'A'.

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That's on, off, off, off, off, on, on.

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'B', the different one.

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'C', 'D', 'E'.  Each letter of the alphabet lights a different combination.

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And capital letters turn this bit off.

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[keys click]

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The idea of coding things in a digital way like this

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started long before the age of computers.

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[steam train puffs and hoots]

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Conductor: Have your tickets ready. All tickets please!

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Well hey ma'am, may I see your ticket?
Woman: Yeah, sure.

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Tim: These tickets, called punch photographs, had lists 

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which were punched out when the ticket was bought.

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Conductor: All seems to match in here...

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Tim: Each space on the ticket could be punched, or not punched: A primitive digital code.

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Conductor:  I like what I see! Have a nice day.
Woman:  Oh! *titters* Well, why thank you.

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Conductor: Hey, You! Suspicious looking character! Gimme your ticket.

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Man: Sure!

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Tim: The punched photograph was a futile attempt to deter train robbers.

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Conductor: This don't match up! We have, have a robber! On the train!

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Conductor: Oh No!
Man: *evil chuckle*

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Conductor Okay everyone, don't panic, just, just get out of here!
[cackling continues]

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Man: Hahahaha.  This is my Lucky Day!

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Tim: An inventor called Herman Hollerith adapted the cards to record

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numbers and letters of the alphabet for the US census count of 1890

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[clunking of keys] Hollerith's machine became widely adopted in offices.

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The holes in the card formed digital codes, similar to the ASCII codes in a computer.

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[motor and fluttering paper]

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However, Hollerith machines could only sort and count things.

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The unique advantage of a computer is that it can perform an infinite variety of processes.

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Instead of the fixed mechanisms in the Hollerith machines

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computer circuits can be given infinitely variable coded instructions.

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The computer program.

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Tim: Computer programs are also written in codes of on off bits.

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While the computer's working, both the program and the data,
[tapping noise]

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the letters you type, are stored inside chips called the computer's RAM.

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Or Random Access Memory.

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A chip like this, can store 64,000 bits.

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Everytime you switch the computer off, all the bits inside here are lost.

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So, err to save things more permanently, they're recorded on magnetic disks.

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The coating of these disks is just the same as, er, audio or video tape.

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And the codes are recorded as minute bits of magnetism.

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With a solution of iron powder, you can actually see the magnetised parts of the disk.

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Each of these tracks can actually hold 72,000 on/off bits.

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Hard disks are the same idea, but they can store literally thousands of millions of bits.

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They're so sensitive they have to be sealed up inside the computer.

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[harddrive whirrs]
And these heads, which record and play back

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the information are so close to the disk that they do occasionally collide with it.

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That's the origin of the computer 'crash'.

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Boss: Terry's gerbil has GOT to go.
[beep beep]

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If I could only find that memo about...

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Tim: Although the contents of the RAM and the disks are referred 
[tapping of keys]

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to as the computer's memory, it should really be called storage.

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Boss: Maybe Brenda remembers?

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Brendaaa! When was that memo sent round about pets in the office?

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Tim: The computer simply stores everything, whether it is useful or not.

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The clever part of human memory is really the forgetting bit.
[typing and beeping]

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Our brains are constantly selecting what's worth remembering.

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Brenda: Oh, no wait, wasn't that the same day I met Bruce the fire officer?

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*giggle* He was a pet and no mistake! Yes!
[typing and beeping]

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[typing and beeping]

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Brenda: There it is!

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Boss: Splendid. Thank you Brenda.

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[music]

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Voiceover: The world's fastest mechanical brain!

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Tim: Misleading descriptions of computers stem from the 1950s.

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When they were often referred to as giant brains.

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Voiceover: This indicator acts as the main control.

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[music]

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Tape is fed in, tape that contains great masses of numerical data.

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The machine follows many of the patterns of man's own mind.

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Only, the machine never goes in for daydreaming!

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[satisfying clunk]
Tim: In reality, these early computers were extraordinarily clumsy.

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This is a 1958 Pegasus, recently restored by the Computer Conservation Society.

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Instead of chips, it all works with valves.

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Man: ...1800 of them, and they're all mounted on packages.
[aircon noise throughout]

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And here's an example of a package from Pegasus.

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Three valves, old components, 

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Tim: And so, er, it's like a sort of primitive printed circuit?

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Man: Yes, this is an early form of printed circuit.

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Tim: To keep the valves cool, large amounts of air have to be blown through the computer.

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So it all has to be aerodynamically shaped, like a wind tunnel.

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Man: And what we have to first of all, is to switch the HT on.

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And we press the HT button here,

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and that brings up the lines on the cathode ray tube here.

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And now we have to enter the instructions to start the engineer's test program.

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This is looking at the internal registers in the machine.

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And each of those little spikes there is an on/off bit, within one register.

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Tim: So down is on, and up is off and up is on?

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Man: That's right, yes.

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And of course you can also hear the engineer's test program,
[clicking]

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playing on the loudspeaker down here.
[regularly clicking]

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And having got a loudspeaker there was an incentive for people to write tunes for the computer.

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And I can now load a tunes program in.

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And we have to load it, it's on a paper tape reader here.

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And here's the tunes program punched on paper tape.

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And this we can load into Pegasus.

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And here we have the punched paper tape

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Tim: So the holes are just like the holes in Hollerith punch cards?
Man: That's right. Yes. Yes.

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So if we load that into the reader here...

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And then we start the program running...

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[crunching noise]
And that's now loading the paper tape in.

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[slower clunking]

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Now if we load the music program,

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and now we can start the tunes program running.
[crude electronic music]

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And now you can see the bit patterns there on the screen.
Tim: Of the individual notes? Yeah.

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[music continues]

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Tim: Writing programs on paper tape like this was very difficult.

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You didn't actually have to punch every individual hole.

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Instead you used modified teletape machines like this.

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[very loud motor noise]

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Tim: Each letter I press...
[clunking of punches over motor noise]

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punches out a different combination of holes.

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Even so, it remains a very frustrating business,

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because just one wrong key, 

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And when the tape's transferred to the computer, the program won't run.

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As part of my engineering degree I did a short computer course.

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Writing programs like this in 1970. 

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And I don't ever remember getting a single program to run.

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The solution was to add a TV screen to the computer.

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This is one of the first computers to have one built in.

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It was introduced in 1969.

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And then with a special program called a 'line editor'.

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You put, ran this through the machine first.

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You could then write your own program, see what you were doing

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and make adjustments, and try it out as you went along.

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These line editor programs were really the forerunner of the modern word processor programs.

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Man: I suppose that some of you are wondering what that television screen device is,

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And what it has to do with the office of today?

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That equipment is called the IBM 3277 display terminal.
[typing on keyboard]

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Through its keyboard, characters are typed and displayed on the screen.

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Should the operator make an error, the backspace key works

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just like an eraser on a pencil and the error disappears.

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Tim: Displaying everything like this needed a lot of circuitry.

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What made it practical was to miniaturise it all.

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Combining the transistors in the first integrated circuits or silicon chips.

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At first these were relatively simple.

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This is an example.  If I put one light in the output, and two in the input,

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I can show you what it does.

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This is a comparing circuit. 

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It switches the output on whenever the two inputs are the same as each other.

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Either both off, or both on.

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It switches the output off when only one input is lit.

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Even the simple comparing circuit can start to seem clever if it's working fast enough.

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I can put in one set of inputs, the ASCII code for a letter 'a',

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and compare it with the other set.

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The output will only switch on if the other set is another 'a'.

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If I was to do this enough times, I could compare whole words.

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And this is the basis of sophisticated word processor spell checkers.

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Comparing words that you've typed in, with words that are stored in the computer's memory.

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This clock I made works entirely with these simple sorts of chips.

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You tell the time, the hours with the number of balls here.

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And the minutes by the amount of sand that's come through the hourglass.

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The chips are inside the high priest's casket.

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It's a sort of box of mysteries...

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I usually decorate my circuits with tiny people.

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I the idea of a sort of secret world which they're all keeping going.

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I use this clip-on meter to see what's actually going on inside the chips.

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That one's counting the seconds.

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Err. This one's sort of storing, various holding circuits, storing the current time.

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Well although I've had quite a lot of trouble keeping the, erm,

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getting the mechanisms to work reliably, none of the chips have ever gone wrong.

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[chime of bell and rattle of mechanism]

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[gong chimes]

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It's the extraordinary reliability of chips that's made it possible

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build them more and more complicated.

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The modern microprocessor chip is almost a complete computer in itself.

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It controls all the other chips inside the computer.

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But although it's very complex, it's still built up of thousands of transistor switching circuits.

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And it works by doing a lot of very simple things extremely quickly.

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Erm, we've soldered a whole lot of lights onto this microprocessor.

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And er, if I insert this one...

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Switch the computer on.
[beep]

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I've now rigged this one up so that I can slow it down,

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and you can now actually see the bits of code moving around inside.

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These are either the coded letters or the instructions of what to do with them.

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Of course in reality, this is actually switching at millions of times a second.

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Word processors could have remained highly expensive rarities.

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Except for the dedicated hobbyists, who started devising and selling personal computer kits,

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made from microprocessor chips.

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[falling]
Voiceover: The Amstrad....

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Tim: By the early '80s, companies like Sinclair and Amstrad

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had started to sell ready-built personal computers.

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Many came complete with their own word processor programs.

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Voiceover: ...and inclusive word processing software,
["Intel inside"-style music]

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it's more than a word processor, for less than most typewriters.
[boing *smash!*]

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Tim: The last part of the word processor to be perfected was the printer.

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The first sort to appear were dot-matrix printers.

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These have a memory which stores the shape of each letter, in patterns of ons and offs.

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Then, inside the machine, there's a device like this.

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The ons and offs are used to power a group of electromagnets.

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Which push out a tiny row of steel pins.

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[dot matrix noise]

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It's funny really though, to have all this high tech equipment

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to produce something that looks considerably worse than ordinary typing.

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The next sort of printer to be developed was the daisy wheel.

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This has a plastic wheel with the actual type on, a bit like a typewriter.

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This is fixed to an electric motor that rotates the wheel,

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with a sensor on the back to stop it in precisely the right place.

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And then there's simply a hammer, which is fixed to an electromagnet,

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to hammer the type onto the page.

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[quiet tapping noise]

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Man: Oh, seen this one Miss M?

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Boss: You Must be joking?  You call this scrawl a job application?

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*sigh* I won't be interviewing him either!

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We'll have to readvertise.

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Coffee break I think.
"Hmm..." "Right."

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Tim: The daisy wheel was a marketing breakthrough.

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For the first time, anybody could write a professional looking letter.

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Boy: Come in and try one! Yeah, I might!

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[typing and beeping] I could go for that!

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Wicked!

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Boss: This man looks *very* Good.  Don't you love the name?
[murmurs of agreement]

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Boss: We'll see him.
[murmurs of agreement]

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All: YOU?!

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Boss: You're Ponsonby Smythe!? How dare you!
"Wasting our time!" "Outragous!"

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[*splat*]
Tim: The success of the daisy wheel led to the

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development of much faster and quieter printers.

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These have returned to the idea of creating the letters

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out of patterns of dots like the pin matrix printers.

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Some are laser printers which are quite complicated.

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But others simply squirt blobs of ink.

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Although our home made version is a bit crude,

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inkjet printers can actually squirt very tiny drops of ink with great accuracy.

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This is an actual print head.

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The computer powers tiny electric heating elements

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which create bubbles and force ink out through these tiny holes.

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[inkjet noise] 

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The drops are so small, they can form almost any style of type.

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But although computers are getting more and more sophisticated,

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the reality is usually rather less glamorous.

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Brenda: If you'd like to come this way sir...

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[knock knock]
This is Miss Mathias, our head of department.

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Greed: Hello, I'm Osburt Greed from head office. Here to ascertain whether your

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good self and subordinates are fully cognisant with every aspect of computer usage.

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Boss: I, I think I follow you. Of course we all find our PCs absolutely, erm...

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Greed: Kindly demonstrate...

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Brenda: Oooh, erm, yes. I'll network everyone in the department to confirm current status.
[typing and beeping]

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Brenda: Oh Mr Jones, put them manuals away!

305
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Brenda: Joan! Don't use that old thing!

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Joan: Sorry.
Brenda: Pretend you understand the new one!

307
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Brenda: Oh No! Brian's got his shoes off!  And where's his computer?

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Brenda: Brian! Get it out!

309
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...I mean your computer! You shouldn't be writing letters by hand.

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Brenda: Oh Polly! You're being networked. You must confirm your current status!

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Polly: But I'm so bored!
[computer bleeps]

312
00:22:22,768 --> 00:22:25,954
[game noises]
Brenda: Terry! You'll get us all into trouble.

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We're being inspected to see if we're computer literate!

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Greed: Hmmm. The conclusions of my investigations, will be issued subsequently in triplicate to this department.

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00:22:40,959 --> 00:22:47,535
*wibble* *sigh*

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Tim: The new computer users are completely helpless if something goes wrong.

317
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Everyone has stories of floppy disks introducing rogue instructions or viruses.

318
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[sinister computer noise]

319
00:22:58,579 --> 00:23:03,656
[computer game noises]

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In reality, catastrophic events are rare, much the most common problems are

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loose connections or coffee in the keyboard.

322
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The sheer complexity of the software though, does lead to idiosyncrasies.

323
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Mine has a habit of occasionally freezing up so that

324
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whatever I type, whatever keys I type none of them do anything.

325
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The only way to sort it out is to switch the computer off and then switch it on again.

326
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And then I lose everything that I've typed in the last few minutes.

327
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Personally, I find this reassuring, it reminds me that my word processor

328
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is just a useful gadget full of transistor switches.

329
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Not some super-human intelligence.

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[Jazzy music: 'Take 5' - Dave Brubeck]