Ken Sadler was a young Industrial Design Graduate from the Royal College of Art in late 1960 when he was asked to join the small but influential design consultancy firm of Wilkes & Ashmore in Horsham, West Sussex. Headed up by Ted Wilkes and Peter Ashmore, the firm had been making a name for itself in the burgeoning field of industrial design. They had only just won a prestigious Duke of Edinburgh’s Design Award with their client Prestcold International for a domestic refrigerator, and were also picking up key contracts such as with the British Transport Commission (later British Rail) for the design of new locomotives and passenger carriages. Though Ken was still quite inexperienced, Ted Wilkes none the less saw great potential in him. As one of his early assignments Ken was invited to join Ted on a trip up to Manchester University where the company had just been offered some new work. He was told that the project was something to do with a new computer they were building, so Ken diligently packed his bags and headed off. “I still don’t exactly know why Ted chose me for this project” Ken recalls all these years later, “perhaps it was that my youth matched the mood and youthfulness of the computer industry at the time.”
The computer they were going to see turned out to be the infamous Atlas supercomputer, reputedly the most powerful computer in the world when it was released in 1962 and certainly the most powerful in Britain. And for his small part in it all, Ken was to end up designing one of the most visually iconic computer components of its day – the Atlas Computer engineer’s console. With its array of coloured switches and space-age lines, the console is still instantly recognisable by computer buffs the world over. Till now however, very few people (except Ken and his close work colleagues) knew who had designed it!
Designing Computers
When you think of ‘computer design’ it is natural to think of all wires, chips and circuits that have been painstakingly crammed together to make the machine work. These are of course the foundations of any meaningful computer, but they are not the only thing that gives it a unique and often lasting personality. Alongside the electronic architecture lies the visual architecture of its physical shell, which when done effectively, provides both an enjoyable user experience as well as an iconic and lasting silhouette. The role of visual design has grown exponentially in the computer industry over the years, but when Ken jumped on that train to Manchester in 1960, it was still a relatively new partnership.
Designing Atlas
The Atlas computer was first commissioned in 1958 as a collaboration between Ferranti Ltd, Plessey and the University of Manchester under the stewardship of Tom Kilburn. Although its internal architecture used the MUSE prototype as its starting point, Atlas was envisaged to be a show-stopping machine. Ferranti as the lead constructor had nearly a decade of successful computer experience behind them, and with a company ethos for creating off the shelf designs that could be tweaked to fulfil a wide range of applications, they and their internal design team would have been well placed to deliver on this new supercomputer. Yet despite Ferranti’s credentials, and perhaps as a testament to the foresight of the management team working on Atlas, around late 1960 a decision was made to hire in extra design help from Wilkes & Ashmore.
Getting down to work
Once they arrived at Manchester, Ted and Ken were greeted and given a guided tour around the 19-inch racks that were being worked on to form the guts of the new machine. During the visit they also had the opportunity to chat to some of the key engineers about their needs and wishes for Atlas, and it quickly became clear that their design brief would be to ensure that the ‘human factors’ were not lost during the design and construction phases. ‘Human factors’ was a fashionable term at the time to mean the successful interaction between man and machine and encompassed important considerations such as ergonomics and user experience. Yet as well as the more practical side, there would also have been a high level of expectation from Tom Kilburn and the team that the overall appearance of the computer should match up to its lofty name.
Once back in the Horsham office, it was agreed that their colleague Jack Ward would also get involved in the project. As an Engineering partner at the practice Jack would become their nuts and bolts guy, logistically working out the construction and forward manufacturing needs of their designs, leaving Ken to work up the design for the cabinets, desks and more importantly Engineer’s console. Since Ken chose not to make any physical prototypes except for a few small cardboard mock-ups, all his decision-making and fault-finding had to be done via calculations and sketches on paper to work out the most efficient methods possible for a modular construction. After a second trip up to Manchester and several months of research and preparation, Ken and Jack were finally ready to submit their designs to the Atlas Team.
Considerations for the Engineer’s Console
As the natural focal point for the whole machine, the Engineer’s console would always require more detailed thought than the rest. Because the Computer Department of Manchester University had understandably more of an academic and laboratory mentality to the project, from the start Ken found himself faced with several key challenges about the design. The first and most important was to somehow physically compress and simplify the very complicated set of illuminated switches and lights that would be needed on the console panel itself. Secondly, he was aware that any design would need to be ergonomically comfortable for those people who were to potentially spend long hours at the desk, and finally, whatever design he came up with, it would have to be easy to build and financially viable to scale up were the machine a commercial successful.
By first considering the physical constraints for housing and working with such a large computer, it was agreed that a highly modular approach would be best whereby the key parts could be rearranged to suit the space. This degree of flexibility stretched all the way down into other components as well including the design of the associated slave desks and engineer’s console which were all made up of two simple end struts (which produced very stable legs )with a tie bar in between which ran under the work top. This solution left ample leg room and meant the same design could be used easily with any length of top. For its strength steel was chosen as the base material. Since the working space and needs would potentially differ between builds, the surface was topped with a simple synthetic and durable rubber overlay material which was held in place by two edge bars.
While much of the bigger hardware including the 19-inch racks would understandably have to have an almost military-like look to them, the engineer’s desk (and matching slave desks) in contrast were actively designed to appear lighter and more office like. It was an area where the user would have the space to spread their pens and paper and work in relative comfort. Their legs would have plenty of space and the box underneath at the back was open at the rear so wires and instrumentation could be discreetly and inconspicuously fed away. The desk area itself was finished with a gently angled front face with rounded edges which could be unclipped and modified to provide space for more switches where necessary.
To get the actual ergonomics just right, Ken poured over old military charts and diagrams to work out the most efficient measurements and angles to reduce fatigue by the user. The switching unit was also carefully angled on to the desk via a single tidy central mount, and while no one at the time knew how influential that simple yet elegant form would be, you can still see it used today in many monitors and TVs.
Sadly while Ken was unable to keep his original paper designs at the time (since they were submitted to the client for approval) he was able to retain a photographic copy of his final concept sketch. This is illustrated in this article, and to compare that drawing with the actual finished product shows that beside a few minor modifications, the management team at Atlas were obviously happy with Ken’s primary designs. Of course in his drawing Ken also purposefully added a contemporary Harry Bertoia wire chair to give the appearance of modernity, although that chair was never actually issued with the computer.
Helping Create a personality
Looking at the Atlas supercomputer and its physical design today it is perhaps hard to understand how cutting edge it all was at the time. With regards the Engineer’s console here was a piece of equipment that through its crisp and well thought out detailing, was bridging the gap between the previous overtly-industrial look, and the slightly softer and homelier feel that was to come. The large bank of coloured toggle-switches all blinking on and off must have inspired many a Sci-Fi set designer and even the very modular construction of the desks may well have influenced Ettore Sotsass’ highly influential Synthesis 45 office desk system (also in steel) of the early 1970s. But more than anything, through the Engineer’s console Ken and the team were able to give the Atlas computer its much needed visual personality and an iconic silhouette that is still loved to this day.
Epilogue:……. So where are all the Atlas Engineer’s Consoles now?
My thanks go out to Dik Leatherdale (A lifelong Programmer and Editor of the Computer Conservation Society magazine ‘Resurrection’ ) for the following information. In total 6 Atlas’ were built back in the day, but one (the Cambridge Atlas) never came with the Ferranti/ICT console Ken designed as instead they chose to build one themselves to save money. But of the 5 remaining computers, an amazing 4 consoles have thankfully been preserved and their locations (as well as extra details) are below courtesy of Dik:
- Manchester — on display in a small museum at the School of Computer Science at the University.
- London — on display in the Science Museum see http://www.
computerconservationsociety. org/resurrection/res77.htm#e - CAD Centre Atlas 2 — In store at the Museums Collection Centre in Birmingham. See http://www.
computerconservationsociety. org/resurrection/res48.htm#f . - Chilton — in store at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. This has been refurbished and can be made to light up at random. See http://www.
computerconservationsociety. org/resurrection/res69.htm#e and the picture below (Bob Hopgood, Dik Leatherdale, Atlas console , ‘Toria Marshall, Brian Davies)
Photo attribution: B&W of early computer by Josh Graciano; Atlas I computer via Wikipedia; Engineers Desk Concept Drawing from Kenneth Sadler; Chiltern Atlas Console Photo from Dik Leatherdale.