The story I heard from my office-mate at the time, who was involved in the rebuild, was about the valves being used in Spitfires (though likely other things too

The story I heard from my office-mate at the time, who was involved in the rebuild, was about the valves being used in Spitfires (though likely other things too); so it was only a question of finding a warehouse with the stock of Spitfire parts. The Williams-Kilburn memory was faster than the alternative mercury delay lines (or gin delay lines proposed by Turing) but more subject to interference. It's a shame what's become specifically of Manchester computing since I've known it, though there's still SpiNNaker. (Manchester non-alumnus, wondering why alumni post in the plural.)