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SILLIAC: machine that brought Australia into computer age
A horse-racing benefactor with an interest in science made one of Australia’s first, and then most powerful, computers possible.
It’s a story that’s easy to love. It was the early 1950s and the University wanted to build one the first and most powerful computers in the world, SILLIAC. But funds were short and it was only built because the race horse of a prominent donor had just won the Melbourne Cup. No Melbourne Cup win, no SILLIAC.
A donor with a passion for science
The truth is a little less cinematic. The donor, Adolf Basser, wasn’t a ‘colourful racing identity’. He was a man of modest disposition who happened to love horse racing: even more so when his horse, Delta, won the Melbourne Cup. But this was two years before he contributed to SILLIAC. In fact, Basser, who’d made his fortune through the jewellery business, was a long-time philanthropist supporting many causes, but he had a particular interest in science.