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BRISTOL ENIGMAThe updating of the roof void lagging saw a variety of things and boxes return to ground level, with the usual time wasting investigative or nostalgic moments. One of the boxes revealed the contents of my desk at the office, and among the pencil stubs and paper clips was a slim volume with dust jacket intact “RAPID CALCULATIONS”, the author A. H. Russell BA and the father of Sir Archibald. I am a relic of the bygone days, when as Chief Designer it was customary for him to visit the drawing office and come round to the boards to study progress and problems. I am referring to ‘RUSS’; this is to pacify the equalitarians! Of modern Britain! |
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A. H. Russell BA was the Head Master of East Bristol Central School. A near neighbour who was a pupil during his tenure recalled him with great affection as a pleasant kindly person. The book’s dust jacket carries a photograph of A.H.R. and invites the interested examiner to attempt some challenging ‘SUMS’
I suggest it means 5 seconds per question! The student is then invited to multiply 56837 by 2469 and divide 385623874169 by 89 in 20 seconds! The flyleaf recorded the publication of the fifth edition in 1937 with five subsequent reprints and the sixth edition revised and enlarged in 1946. This information usually noted with passing interest in the course of picking a book up suddenly hit the proverbial fan! The dates of the reprints were 1941: 1942: 1943: 1944 & 1945 which covered the years of World War II. Was there a very good reason? Putting the method in the context of logarithms, slide rules et al; A.H.R’s methods (once understood), produced a human computer. If this method is then related to the task of the ENIGMA Code Breakers at Bletchley Park, the development of the Atomic Bomb, the logistics of D-DAY and beyond, Radar, the movement of ships to form convoys and the deployment of the Navy. There are arguments to suggest it was a vital tool that has never been recognised, as it remained in the classroom-its job already done. I have carried out some research in an attempt to uncover the reason that this book should have attracted these wartime publications. First I contacted “Companies House” to find if the Gregg Publishing Co. Ltd still had roots but they no longer exist and all business records have disappeared. Subsequently I have made contact with a broadsheet correspondent, telling him the story and sending facsimiles of the book jacket and a copy of the fly sheet in the hope the paper can use existing contacts to research government records indicating invoiced orders to the publishers and/or some elderly mathematician engaged in wartime activities, but it is a very long shot. Doug Holdaway |