Members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers have voted the Bombe as their favourite Engineering Heritage Award winner in a new survey to mark the 30th anniversary of the Awards.
Engineers were asked to vote for their favourite recipient of an Engineering Heritage Award, ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Awards scheme and the presentation later this month of the 100th Award to the Old Furnace at Ironbridge, which is cited by many as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.
The awards, established in 1984, aim to promote artefacts, sites or landmarks of significant engineering importance – past and present. Members were asked to vote for their favourite of the 99 artefacts already in receipt of one of these awards. The Bombe achieved over 19 percent of the vote, closely followed by Concorde with almost 17 percent of the vote.
The Bombe was an electromechanical device designed to help crack the German Enigma code during the Second World War. All of the 210 Bombes built by the British Tabulating Machine Company during World War Two were dismantled after the war but a fully-functioning replica, on display at Bletchley Park, was completed in 2007. The replica was rebuilt over the course of 13 years by a group of enthusiasts, lead by John Harper, using the original blueprints.
The Bombe was the brainchild of mathematicians and codebreakers Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman, who then passed on their concept for design and construction to Harold Keen, an engineer at the British Tabulating Machine Company. The machines allowed up to 5,000 messages a day to be decoded and were pivotal to the Allied Forces winning the war.
The Bombe became the 49th recipient of an Engineering Heritage Award on 24 March 2009.
“The 210 Bombes built by the British Tabulating Machine Company during World War Two played a crucial role in the Allied success in the war," says John Wood, chairman of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Heritage Committee. “Estimates suggest that they could have helped cut the war by as much as two years – saving countless lives. These machines, which each weighed about a ton, illustrate the genius of Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman, but also the vision and ingenuity of the engineer Harold Keen who made these concepts a reality.
“The award was presented to the replica Bombe in 2009 on behalf of Turing, Welchman and Keen and also in recognition of the fantastic work of enthusiasts who rebuilt the Bombe with such care and passion.”
The top five results of the vote, open to all 105,000 members of the Institution between July and September 2014, found the Bombe at Bletchley Park was members’ favourite with 19 percent of the vote, Concorde was second with 17 percent, followed by the Rolls-Royce RB211 engine with 11 percent of the vote, Mallard locomotive with 10 percent and the Crossness Engine House & James Watt Beam Engine with 6 percent.
You can see a full list of Engineering Heritage Award recipients here.