The penultimate paragraph of your article on Bletchley suggests that Colossus was the first electronic digital computer in 1943 (Forum, 29 May, p 50).
In his book Physics in the 20th Century (reviewed by you on 10 April, p 48) Curt Suplee refers to the first version of the modern electronic computer as having been constructed in the basement of the physics department at Iowa State University in 1939 by theoretical physicist John Atanasoff.
He also constructed a second version in 1941, which is illustrated in the book.
Who is telling fibs please?
Marcus Chown writes: According to Station X by Michael Smith: "Colossus was the first practical application of a large-scale program-controlled computer and as such the forerunner of the post-war digital computer."
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