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The Highland Archive Centre has in its collections a photograph of the first computing bureau in Inverness. It first appears in the Burgh of Inverness Valuation Roll for the year 1969-70 where it is listed under ownership of Central Computer Services (Highland) Ltd.
The bureau was on Harbour Road on the Longman, one of only a dozen or so other businesses on that road. As well as this image, the collection contains a semi-autobiographical piece by John Durham on his experiences working on the first computers to be used in the Highlands.
The creation of the computer bureau was an enlightened solution to a very practical problem which arose in the mid 1960s. To explain the specific problem, some background on the limitations of early computers.
The first computer to be purchased in the Highlands was an ‘ICT1301’ bought by Invergordon Distillers in the early 1960s. This was a business computer manufactured by International Computers and Tabulators.
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The typical ICT1301 required 65 square metres of floor space, weighed about five tonnes and used punched cards, core memory – not synonymous with modern RAM, but a system of tiny magnetic cores threaded in a matrix of wires.
Until the invention of the microprocessor in the 1970s, the end user did not interact directly with a computing system. You could not just sit down, type commands and get a response.
Quite apart from the floor space, this gargantuan machine needed computer technicians, programmers and punch card operators to feed the cards into the computer in a batch and then, given a clock speed of only 1MHz, return hours later once the information had been processed.
Invergordon Distillers quickly realised that their computer did not come with programmers or technicians included; this meant that the running cost was much higher than originally anticipated. Initially, the company decided to mitigate this by inviting other companies in the local area to use the system.
Eventually the idea of setting up a computer bureau by a separate company was proposed and Central Computer Services (Highland) came into being. It opened in September 1968 with a staff of around twenty. According to John Durham’s reminiscences, the building was designed with little thought to the Highland climate, and on several occasions the flat roof leaked and the computer had to be switched off while a mop-up was carried out. The heating was then turned up to 100 degrees in order to dry everything out!
The unusual shape led the centre to be known locally as ‘The Pagoda’, and over the years it was added to considerably. When it was constructed the building stood out against the open fields behind it, but as John Durham wrote in 2002, “unless someone who knew it in the old days told them what it was once used for, the casual passer-by would be none the wiser”.
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Wanda Parisien is a computing expert who navigates the vast landscape of hardware and software. With a focus on computer technology, software development, and industry trends, Wanda delivers informative content, tutorials, and analyses to keep readers updated on the latest in the world of computing.
