Includes: 4-page typescript on ‘Draughts. General considerations’, the penultimate version of pages 298-301 of Faster than thought: a symposium on digital computing machines, edited by B.V. Bowden (1953). It is part of a chapter co-authored by Turing, Strachey and Bates on "Digital Computers Applied to Games".Manuscript and 2 typescript versions of a paper titled 'Programme for Manchester University Computer', giving 'modifications to the...

Folder containing 13 bundles of notes, calculations and diagrams, most on paper headed Manchester University Computing Machine Laboratory, but some on verso of Harrow School exercises. Some of the bundles bear Strachey's manuscript comments or explanations on attached notes.

Folder containing 10 bundles of notes, calculations and routines, many with Strachey's notes on the machine's game, e.g.: 'Not forseen by me - a good move' 'Purposeless - the strategy is failing badly in the end game', etc. Various dates July-August 1952, though some notes are on verso of Harrow School exercises. Strachey used some of these specimen games and comments in his paper at Toronto in September 1952

(Originally kept with MS. Eng. misc. b. 258/C.29). Six bundles of notes and photographs, with notes and explanations by Strachey, as follows: 'Example of machine errors. The machine (literally) had a screw loose when it did this'. 'Photographs of the monitor tube display during a game of draughts. These are best viewed at arm's length'. 'Examples of draughts...

Forty-five-page manuscript and typescript paper. Miscellaneous drawings and diagrams for a paper on a draughts-playing machine (probably for Toronto paper).

Draft notes, manuscript and typescript versions of a paper given by Strachey at the Association for Computing Machinery (A.C.M.) meeting at Toronto, September 1952. Folder also includes an offprint of a later paper on the subject by A.L. Samuel, 1959.

Blue exercise-book of notes taken on journey to Canada and USA, September 1952. Includes an account of preliminary talks with Professor Watson about the St. Lawrence Seaway project (see MS. Eng. misc. b. 259/C.37 and MS. Eng. misc. b. 259/C.38), of discussions and people met at the A.C.M. Conference, and of Strachey's visits to firms and universities in the USA to see work in progress on computers, with his views on the various methods, programs, costings, etc. of Harvard Mark...

Notes on circuitry, perhaps begun at Standard Telephone & Cables, and continuing at St. Edmund's, Canterbury, 1946.

Miscellaneous notes, circuit diagrams and manufacturers' literature, mainly on valves, acoustics, gramophone and radio receivers, etc. Various dates.

Miscellaneous notes for circuits, etc., n.d., but probably early work on draughts program 1950 (all written on verso of Harrow School exercises and notices). Includes 5 pages of manuscript notes in the hand of M. Woodger on the principal machines available, workers in the field, notes and diagrams on circuits.

Three bundles of notes: 'Generalised Programming'. 'Analysis of Programming for ACE'. Untitled notes on brackets (may refer to later work at Manchester).

Strachey's copy of his letter to A.M. Turing, 15 May 1951. Written immediately after hearing Turing's talk 'Can Digital Computers think?', broadcast on BBC Third Programme on same day. In his letter Strachey discusses the general problems of 'thinking machines', their application to the Manchester machine, and his modification of his ACE draughts program. Note: The original of this letter is in the manuscript collection of A.M. Turing in King's College, Cambridge....

Miscellaneous bundles of notes on the subject, some written at later dates (one refers to ALGOL). Folder also includes typed 'Extracts from letters C. Strachey to M. Woodger 25 May 1951', beginning: 'I have an idea about making the ACE do part of its own programming'. Note: The originals of these letters, and of accompanying correspondence 24 February-2 June 1951, are in the possession of Mr. M. Woodger.

Folder containing 16 bundles of notes, calculations and diagrams on the subject, some on verso of Harrow School exercises.

Miscellaneous notes and calculations.

Reconstitution by B. Munday in 1958 of Strachey's draughts-playing program (written for Pilot ACE), to be run on DEUCE. Twenty-two cards, and a 21-page program (photocopy of Strachey's manuscript).