testbed Williams tube random-access Freddie Williams Tom Kilburn cathode-ray tube secondary emission binary data electronic digital computer binary computers
The machine was not intended to be a practical computer but was instead designed as a testbed for the Williams tube, the first random-access digital storage device. Invented by Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn at the University of Manchester in 1946 and 1947, it was a cathode-ray tube that used an effect called secondary emission to temporarily store electronic binary data, and was used successfully in several early computers.
