This is one of several pages relating to the history of the automatic totalisator, its invention in 1913, the inventor George Julius, and the Australian company he founded in 1917.

Julius Tote: Adders and switch board for win place and forecast, White City London 1933. (Pictures above and Below) This system ended up with 320 terminals.

16-Dec-2009

Below is an email from Brian Conlon, Automatic Totalisators Web Site to David Demant, Museum of Victoria curatorial advice/research Team.

Basically, Brian is putting the case forward for Australia's Totalisator invention, as being The World's First Large-Scale, Multi-User, Real Time System, in the hope that the ATL shaft adder donation will become an important part of The Museum of Victoria's current display.

There are many aspects to Brian's email, that I am sure many people will not be aware of, so I have decided to use this email as a nucleus, to help heighten the profile of Sir George and his invention.

Brian Conlon's Email 16-Dec-2009

Dear David,

I find it curious how everyone sticks to themes that are well known. Everyone seems to clamour to be part of the advent of the computer especially the digital computer and there are so many players in that game. I think George Julius' contribution has far greater historic significance as it had many similarities with computer systems and were operational half a century before the digital computers that took over their functionality and is newsworthy as it is not something commonly known. There are some video clips ▶ on the totalisator history website showing a Julius tote in operation. When looking at the ticket issuing machine in use, nowadays, I think almost everyone would say this is part of a computer system. There is a school of thought that these early Australian Totalisators were the first computers.

The Vice President of the Australian Computer Museum Society Max Burnett, suggested that if more had been known about these Australian totalisators then the category of mechanical computing would probably have been established. A director of the London Science Museum wrote an article in New Scientist magazine titled "A sure bet for understanding computers" and wrote that the Julius totes were the "earliest online real time data processing and computation system" that the curators had identified. I visited the London Science Museum's backup stores at Wroughton with members of GLIAS (The Greater London Industrial Archaeological Society) last year, to have a look at the Harringay Julius tote they have preserved. Of course in Australia we have bulldozed all but one. Another example is the CCS the Computer Conservation Society a sub group of the British Computer Society which had a work in progress project to restore a Julius tote to a demonstrable condition. They wrote that they regarded the Julius totes to be "Large-scale, multi-terminal, real time computers". And the first one was operating in 1913! Long before the world's first electronic computer! And these were uniquely Australian!

The Australian company George founded to develop and export his invention, Automatic Totalisators, became a world monopoly in the field of automatic totalisators in its early years.

One of the largest of these systems was installed in Longchamps France in 1928 with 273 terminals. This was a large scale multi user real time system with no sign of the world's first so called computer in sight. I wondered for some time about the nickname a Paris newspaper attributed to the Longchamps Julius tote "The Insatiable Moloch". Moloch was the god of the Canaanites who demanded extreme sacrifice. I concluded that unlike today the populace had never seen machines that extract money from people so quickly and relentlessly and that this nickname resulted from an observation of a system with an appetite for money which could not be satisfied. One of these electro-mechanical totalisator systems was built and tested in Sydney in 1920 capable of supporting 1000 terminals and a sell rate of 250,000 per minute which is good by today's standards! The system in White City in London ended up with 320 terminals.

Professor Trevor Cole wrote from Sydney University regarding George Julius "We need to be aware of our engineering heroes". I regard this as a pity as we tend to ignore our own. And again from Professor Martyn Webb from the University of Western Australia "One can hardly believe that such a man could go almost unnoticed and unrecognised".

I thought I might mention this in case someone finds the shaft adder which was donated to the Museum of Victoria, so that it could be put into some sort of context, in the hope that some day it may be seen as worthy of being put on display.

Regards, Brian Conlon.

Was George Julius the inspiration for CSIRAC, Australia's first electronic digital computer?

Sir George Julius 1914 Totalisator Model Powerhouse Museum Sydney

The Computer "CSIRAC Video" 1965 ▶

George Julius, Australia's Father Of Scientific & Industrial Research

I have been searching for some time to find a link between Sir George Julius, inventor of the Totalisator, and CSIRAC Australia's first electronic digital computer. I believe I have just found that link via David Myers, a 14-year-old school boy. Sir George was also the first Chairman of Australia's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, now the world-famous Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (C.S.I.R.O.)

Quoting From The Rutherford Journal by Lindsay Barrett and Matthew Connell
"Myers would eventually become one of the CSIRO's chief computer scientists and he was instrumental in, amongst other things, the development of CSIRAC. It was a glorious career, and in fact it was a career that Myers had been set upon ever since the day George Julius had visited his high school and given a lecture on the Totalisator and mechanical calculation, an inspirational talk within which the young schoolboy had found a lifetime of encouragement."

Quoting From ABC Radio
This is an audio recording ▶ "from the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney with Matthew Connell, the curator of Computing and Mathematics. His Jewel is not so much an artwork as it is an invention. It looks like an old-fashioned, ornate, carved wooden cabinet, the sort for displaying your best crystal, except that inside this cabinet there's a gloriously complicated machine with shiny brass knobs. It was built in 1914 and it's the world's first successful totalisator model. It was invented and marketed by Sir George Julius, who was actually trying to make a vote-counting machine, but found there was more interest at the time in developing a machine to calculate the odds on horse races".

More information can be found with google: "george julius" "david myers" csirac, and combinations of the individual names and CSIRAC

CSIRAC (pronounced sigh - rack) stands for Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Automatic Computer.

ATL World War 2 Gun-sight. Image Source: Powerhouse Museum Sydney. The only item I can find that (hopefully) shows the ATL grey colour.

George Julius, Chair of the CSIR and ATL (Automatic Totalisators Limited), passed away in June 1946. The CSIRAC computer began its creation in 1947 and was running in 1949. So there's no doubt in my mind that Australia's first electronic computer used the ATL colour scheme. You would have trouble convincing me otherwise.

I didn't chase an RGB colour match as such; in fact, I settled for what I remember of my days running the old tote systems.

I tried many colours, but what convinced me was when I was able to create the sun shining through the skylight onto the surface of the panels, and I could imagine myself sitting back having a coffee as the system was humming away. I feel I would have been disappointed if I matched the old images with an RGB match. I wanted it to look like a new system with the photo taken yesterday. No fading of colours, no scratches, straight out of the factory.

I played around a lot with this colour. I do believe the colour where the light is shining from the overhead light source is very close. As I moved closer to this colour right across the image, the panels started to disappear, so I had to create a bit of a contrast. Sure, not a perfect match, but a bit of a compromise.

I just completed colouring 1000 Historical images for Darwin, NT, so I know a little about colour choices and viewers' reactions. :-)

And I have this theory about George inspiring the creation of CSIRAC, but I have been unable to connect the dots. I also checked to see if ATL actually manufactured the metal work, but it appears this was done in house.

The order of the CSIRAC racks and equipment over the years shows that it was rebuilt many times as it evolved. A little like my grandfather's hammer. Six new heads and three new handles.

Quoting from Matthew Connell, the curator of Computing and Mathematics, Powerhouse Museum in Sydney:
What is your favourite object in the collection?
"My favourite object is the Tote Model built by George Julius between 1908 and 1912 as a prototype and demonstration for prospective customers of his Automatic Totalisator It is a beautiful piece of complex machinery, which led to the establishment of an Australian company Automatic Totalisators Limited that dominated the international tote industry for 67 years. I am also very fond of idea that Australia's contribution to the history of computing stems as much from our gambling urges as to our military and scientific endeavours."

Brian Conlon's Tote History - The 1917 Royal Randwick Paddock Tote House - Sydney

George Julius built this model to demonstrate how his totalisator system worked. Julius, an Australian inventor and entrepreneur, had previously designed a cheat-proof mechanical vote-counting machine, which was sold to the State of New York. No buyers were found in Australia, so Julius searched for new applications for his calculator.
Julius had been made aware of the difficulties and errors encountered by manually recording and calculating multiple bets and odds at racecourses, and saw how his vote-counting machine could be adapted to employ a precise, rapid, multi-user system which would eliminate the issues of manual on-course tote-betting.
The Powerhouse model was built around 1912, Julius demonstrated it that year, and the first full installation was in 1913. The Trove articles and museum notes all reinforce that early-1910s period.

Brian Conlon's Tote History Link

Another article of interest from the Rutherford Journal:
The First Automatic Totalisator

From Data Processing to Digital:
The Development Of A Profession (A.C.S. PDF File) Follows the Industry Milestones from 1801 to 2001, and covers both the George Julius Tote, and CSIRAC.

Just prior to commencing this article, I coined the term: George Julius, Australia's Father Of Scientific & Industrial Research, as I felt it was very fitting for such a man, who has been to date, almost forgotten about when it comes to Australia's scientific history. I chose the words very carefully, as I know the flack one can receive from posting statements such as this in newsgroups, blogs, and other modern Internet communication methods. It doesn't leave a lot of room for argument.

Don McKenzie.

"CSIRAC" Quoted by Brian Conlon on his web page at: Brian Conlon's Tote History
I get a mention or two on that page also.

I also mentioned in the above email to Neville how delighted I was to have stumbled across CSIRAC in the Melbourne Museum. I thought it a great achievement that Australia had the only complete first generation computer on the planet and that it was on public display. I pointed out that CSIRAC had a loose connection to totalizator history. Although George Julius passed away the year before his organisation started work on developing CSIR Mark1, which became CSIRAC, he was the first Chairman of the CSIR, which became the CSIRO and furthermore the first meetings of this organisation that produced CSIRAC took place in a back office of George's engineering consulting company Julius Poole and Gibson in Sydney. Although I knew it was among the first electronic computers I was amazed to read that CSIRAC was the fourth stored program computer in the world. I have read multiple documents relating CSIRAC as the fourth and one claiming it was the fifth.

New "Win and Place" Premier Totalisator installed, 1929, in Perth, West Australia for the West Australian Trotting Association. This machine replaces an earlier "Premier" Installation installed in 1916. (Click on image to enlarge).

Brian Conlon's Tote History - "Win and Place" Premier Totalisator installed, 1929, in Perth.

Quoting Neville Michell.

When I worked for Stromberg Carlson in the 1950s to 1962, I was a cadet studying at Sydney tech. One of my work mates and I attended classes together we became good friends.
Kevin Roselyn was very clever, topped the class, he was a dedicated Christian. Kevin had a small car I think it was a Standard 8. It had a noisy differential. He designed and built an electronic device that cancelled out the diff's noise. Kevin was head hunted by a university facility where he worked on CSIRAC, for quite a few years. He did not tell me much about what he actually did, he did not relate at one time that a punch card reader had been developed. I eventually lost contact with Kevin when he took up missionary work.

Pictured above and below - Sir George Julius, Australia's Father Of Scientific & Industrial Research.

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