Tomorrow's World: Nellie the School Computer 15 February 1969 - BBC

BBC · 112.9K views · 2010-01-07 · 7:26

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Overview

A 1969 BBC Tomorrow's World segment about Nellie, a school computer used by pupils at Forest Grammar School to solve equations and play music. Students learn programming and maintenance, and act out binary arithmetic.

On Hacker News

Shared as a charming historical look at children learning computing, including kids acting as register bits.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2010–2026

Topics

History of computing Education & learning

What people said

mahmud · 2010-07 · Recommendation
Wow, I have never seen this: human digital logic. [VIDEO] Kids acting as bits in a machine register and performing binary arithmetic by raising their hands if set, or not raising when cleared. Really cute.
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zeristor · 2026-03 · Reference
Is this close enough? it’s from 1969, I wonder what became of them: “Tomorrow's World: Nellie the School Computer 15 February 1969 - BBC” [VIDEO]
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DanBC · 2017-06 · Reference
Or was it a product of the computers at the time? Here's a 1959 computer, donated to a school in 1965. This was filmed in 1969. One of the children wrote a language - minigol - so the younger children didn't have to use assembler. [VIDEO] Just turning the machine on requires coordination between several people using intercom.
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Sources

Video by BBC, played through YouTube.

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