Museum of Science and Industry

The working replica of the Baby, the world’s first stored-program computer, was built in 1998 to mark the 50th anniversary of the original Baby. Members of the North West Branch of the Computer Conservation Society, led by Chris Burton (shown here), built the replica. 

The original Baby ran its first program on 21 June 1948 at the University of Manchester. It was officially known as the Small Scale Experimental Machine. The University team then set about building a full-scale version called the Manchester Mark I. Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn, the brains behind the Baby, are shown here with the Manchester Mark I.

Three of Manchester's surviving computer pioneers came to MOSI in June 2008 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Baby. Geoff Tootill (centre) is the only living member of the original Baby team. He also worked on the Manchester Mark I with Alec Robinson (left) and Dai Edwards (right).