Alex Bell was one of the original staff at the Atlas computer Laboratory before he left to join CDC. Later he came back to work for the group of Ron Lawes at the Rutherford Laboratory that was scanning particle physics tracks using a Hough-Powell Device (HPD) driven by a Hewlett-Packard DDP 516 that was online to the Rutherford Laboratory mainframe. The flying spot scanner produces digital values for the coordinates of points where the scanning lines meet tracks on the photograph.
By 1973, the HPD1 and CYCLOPS film measuring machines were enhanced by HPD2, which became fully operational on spark chamber film during 1973. (See Annual Report) Film for two CERN experiments (ISR and S104) were measured in 1972, and results from the former presented at an international conference in September.
Alex produced this film to show the problems that arose due to the variable responses from the IBM 360/195 and the need to buffer both input and output to and from the device and its associated front-end computer.
It is the only CAMPER film of any length produced on the SC4020 that is still available.