Crypto Education
Random numbers
A short history on the contribution to computer science and random number generation made by Thomas ‘Tommy’ Flowers
Early years
Two of the artworks in the first collection of My-Chance prize bonds are inspired by the work of Thomas ‘Tommy’ Flowers. In these instances it is hard to separate the man from the machine. From humble beginnings Tommy went on to change the world, some say he is the inventor of the modern computer. Without doubt he contributed much, and was compensated, and credited little until later life. The son of a bricklayer Tommy entered into an apprenticeship and whilst working studied electrical engineering in the evening until he achieved his degree. In 1926 he joined the General Post office telecommunications branch.
World War II and an introduction to Alan Turing
In 1930 he moved to their research centre at Dollis Hill in Northwest London. It was here he would later build the first Colossus Machine. From 1935 onwards Tommy developed the use of electronics in telephone exchanges. He was fascinated by electronics and by 1939 could see that an all-electronic exchange system would be possible. During the second world war he became acquainted with Alan Turing and attempted to help him build a decoder for his Bombe machine. Though the task was never completed he so impressed Turing that he would later recommend him to Max Newman head of the project that would become Colossus.
Tommy was the principal architect of a Machine that is said by some historians to have saved countless lives and reduced the war by a period of as much as two years. In light of this many commentators say recognition of his work was far too late. He had invested his personal time and savings on building Colossus. He did receive an award of £1000 which he divided up amongst the team that helped him leaving him with £350. It is said that the full award was less than he had personally invested and his sharing was an example of his character. He returned to work as a telecommunications engineer and faced events that must have been difficult to take in stride.
He applied for a loan from the Bank of England in order to continue what he had begun with Colossus but was denied as they believed such a machine could not work. Due to his work being classified under the official secrets act he was unable to let them know that he had already built such machines. One would hope he found it amusing at times when the act impacted his life such as when the ‘First Computer’ was announced in America in 1948, 5 years post his creation.
Having become head of the switching Division at the Post Office Research Station Tommy led a team that pioneered all-electronic telephone exchanges with a Basic design in place by 1950 that led to Highgate Wood Telephone Exchange.
“Were putting the band back together!”
1956 would be the year that Tommy would to some degree pick up where he left off with Colossus. He would work once again with Sidney Broadhurst and Harry Fensom for the government but this time they would construct a machine to generate random numbers.
Random numbers
We are surrounded by numbers throughout our lives. Birthdates, house numbers, Apartment numbers, vehicle registration plates, personal documents and plastic cards. While these numbers often enter our lives at random, making practical use of random numbers isn’t as easy as it might seem. Random numbers are far from simple things and it might seem difficult to imagine that an entire computer would be needed to generate them.
A simple dice, widely used in gambling and board games today, is the simplest true random number generator. In 1890, English explorer Francis Galton described a way of using dice to generate random numbers for scientific purposes. Further mechanical development led to lottery machines. Familiar to many they essentially consist of a drum that stirs a collection of numbered balls and a device that extracts them from it one by one. This method of generation is both slow and unsuitable for the generation of large data sets.
Large amounts of data were and continue to be needed for practical purposes. In 1939 Kendall and Babington Smith built the first machine that generated random numbers to build a table containing 100,000 random numbers. 16 years later the RAND Corporation, using special devices, built a table of a million random numbers. George Marsaglia helped resuscitate random tables in 1995 by preparing a demonstration disk that contained 650 random megabytes, generated by combining the output of a noise-diode circuit with deterministically scrambled rap music. The scope of applicability of such tables is very narrow.
Many tasks such as statistical sampling, cryptography and computer simulation require real time random number generation. In 1951, the Ferranti Mark 1 computer included a program that generated random numbers using resistor noise. ‘Alan Turing made contributions to the extra orders added in the Ferranti Mark 1, notably the random number generator.’ In 1956, the ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment) machine was developed to meet the need to select winning Premium bonds.
Premium bonds
Premium bonds are issued by National Savings & Investments (NS&I) on behalf of the UK government. Holders participate in a monthly random lottery to win prizes. They were first issued on 1 November 1956 with £5 million worth of bonds purchased in the first month. The total number of bond units in the initial draw in June 1957 was 48,487,854. In those days it typically took 52 days to complete a draw as much of the work was done manually.
E.R.N.I.E (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment)
Random numbers come in two categories: truly-random and pseudo-random. Pseudo random numbers are those generally used by computers. Because they are created using algorithms they are not technically random but they do come close. For the construction of Ernie its creators sought a form of physical randomness. Once again Flowers, Broadurst and Fensom went to work building a computer at Dollis Hill.
The source of Ernies random number generation was random noise signals generated using pairs of neon cold-cathode tubes. As current was run through a tube, the colliding atoms and electrons created a chaotic path. This resulted in a random current which was then amplified. The output was then further processed by a multivibrator. The resulting pulses were used to drive a counter which was started from different values each time.
The counters repeatedly went around as the pulses were counted in a design comparable to a roulette wheel. A spin of a random amount stops producing the random digit needed. The final design made use of nine pairs of tubes driving nine counters. The tubes were doubled up and added together. The first 8 tubes were used to generate numbers with the 9th arranged to display a value from 0 to 22 to generate letters. The serial numbers of bonds being composed of 8 digits and one letter. The design was advanced for the time use of PNP transistors and ferrite core binaries housed on circuit boards, known in those days as printed wiring boards.
The output was routed to a corresponding teleprinter. Eleven teleprinters were located in a file room. From here a manual process was undertaken to identify bonds from records of photocopies of all registered bond numbers. The winners would then be notified. The filing system was divided into denominations and groups of denominations to make the task easier. As Ernie did not directly select bonds, rather generated bond numbers which were then used to match the record of existing bonds, the total amount of numbers generated far exceeded the amount of numbers used to identify winners. The first draw took place on 2 June 1957 and Ernie was used to generate numbers until 1973.
Following the development of Ernie Flowers continued to work on telephone exchange systems. In 1964 he became the head of advanced development for Standard Telephones and Cables LTD. He worked here on projects such as pulse amplitude modulation exchange until retirement in 1969. Post retirement he continued writing and publishing Introduction to Exchange Systems in 1976.
The 1970’s began to see some recognition of his work, until then even his family had known little just that he had done some ‘secret and important’ work. In 1983 he became the first recipient of the Martlesham Medal in recognition of his achievements in computing. He continued to study until later life receiving a certificate in information processing on a personal computer aged 86 in 1993. Following his death in 1998 he has been commemorated in ways such as the opening in 2016 of the Tommy Flowers Institute for ICT training for postgraduates in the UK.
E.R.N.I.E. 2
The introduction of ERNIE 2 significantly reduced the overall time required for the completion of a draw.
ERNIE 2 used similar technology with new components. A honeywell microcomputer was introduced to control the system.The increased computing power and efficiency was used to generate data for bonds up to 10 digits long. It was 30 times faster than its predecessor and was in operation until 1988.
E.R.N.I.E. 3
Ernie V3 was again based on the technology created by Flowers and Fensom. Making use of the latest advances in technology the draw time was now reduced to less than six hours. The machine was used to draw the first Premium Bond millionaire. The owner of bond number 29JZ644125 being the recipient. Ernie 3 produced winners for 16 years.
E.R.N.I.E. 4
Ernie V4 was designed to meet the challenge of a continued increase in bond holders and bonds held. The new machine could now produce 11 digit numbers and generate 1 million numbers per hour. The machine had greatly reduced in size over the years.
What began as a machine that was 24 sq ft was now comparable to a personal computer. Ernie 4 made use of noise like the original design. The system used the thermal noise in transistors as its source of randomness to generate winning serial numbers. Thermal noise is present in all electrical circuits. The machine was in operation from 2004 until 2019.
E.R.N.I.E. 5
2019 saw the introduction of the current design Ernie V5. In place of noise, a chip produced by ID Quantique uses light. This development see’s numbers generated at speeds 21,000 times faster than the original method reducing the overall draw time to less than 15 minutes.
My-Chance NFT Prize Bonds
Today, My-Chance NFT Prize Bonds make use of random numbers provided by the Chainlink VRF to select winners in its prize draws. Rather than generate numbers and letters to replicate and match those in existence the process selects a winner from a database. The database consists of the record of identification of all existing Prize Bonds and winners are randomly selected from here. This simplified process is automated and implemented in a decentralised manner using smart contract infrastructure.
We hope you enjoyed this article and found it insightful! To learn more about the inspiration behind the art of My-Chance Prize Bond NFT’s you can visit our website here or follow our activity on social media.
Visit our documentation and find out more about the MyNet ethos and our first steps to support organisations aimed at solving crucial issues that our world faces today.
Website: https://my-net.io/
MyFinance: https://my-finance.app/
MyChance: https://my-chance.io/
