Mr. M.V. WILKES welcomed the visitors, and said that the Conference originated in a suggestion made at one of their fortnightly colloquia. On putting out the idea they had been agreeably surprised at the extent of the interest aroused.
Although there had been several U.S. Conferences on Computing Machines this was the first to be held in the United Kingdom, and he was glad to welcome visitors from the U.S.A., France, Germany, Holland and Sweden.
Mr. WILKES then paid a tribute to Charles Babbage who was the pioneer of Calculating machine construction and said that the present generation of calculating machine designers had first to rediscover what had been in Babbage's mind.
He added that the Programme had been arranged on the basis of a mixture of formal lectures and prepared discussions with as much time for informal discussion as possible and finally asked Professor Hartree to give the first lecture.