News - Race against the clock to save Alan Turing papers

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Urgent campaign to raise funds to buy codebreaker's work.

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Read more.

Wow, someone donated £10,000!

Are they going to auction the papers individually or as a set? Because, if it's as a set and they get sold for £500,000, yet this campaign only raises, say, £400,000, what will they do with the £400,000 that's been donated? Can they keep it, even though the money was donated with the specific cause of buying the papers?

Regardless of the respect I have for Turing's work, the way I see this is that Turing gave these papers to his friend, whose son is now seeking a payout equivalent to between 12 and 20 times the average national annual wage. While I'd like to see such works in a museum, which is where they really belong, I wouldn't put one single penny into the pocket of what seem to me to be rather like a greedy opportunist to achieve that.

Could you provide a link?

Hi, There is a link embedded in the article but here it is again :)

http://www.justgiving.com/turing-papers/

Thanks, Sarah

In the meantime Babbage is wallowing in the misfortune of the afterlife, gone and forgotten.

I agree with Saracen, I'd like to see these papers kept in a museum but I'm not willing to line the pockets of either the current owner or the guy who's buying them for doing naff all - if he loses the bid he keeps several hundred k and if he wins he keeps the leftover money unless he's planning to return the money to the people who donated. The headline caught my eye because I thought it was restoration work or something, which I might have been interested in...

@Terbinator: I thought Babbage was about as well known as Turing? Even if he isn't, Turing played a huge part in defending our country (along with most of the world) from the Nazis which rightly gained him recognition.

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Originally Posted by watercooled

Turing played a huge part in defending our country (along with most of the world) from the Nazis which rightly gained him recognition.

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So that's why he was persecuted for being gay! :O_o1:

What does that have to do with what I said? I'm talking about the reputation he and his team has now.

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Originally Posted by watercooled

I agree with Saracen, I'd like to see these papers kept in a museum but I'm not willing to line the pockets of either the current owner or the guy who's buying them for doing naff all - if he loses the bid he keeps several hundred k and if he wins he keeps the leftover money unless he's planning to return the money to the people who donated

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While i don't know if the money will be returned should the campaign be unsuccessful, the money goes to the Bletchley Park Trust, a registered charity, not a random guy.

Ah right that's good then.

these are the types of things that the government should be saving rather than arty farty opera house refurbs or spending MP's on expenses

These papers failed to sell after the reserve price wasn't met Story here

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Originally Posted by BBC

Also up for auction at Christie's were papers published by World War II codebreaker Alan Turing, but they failed to sell, raising hopes they could be kept in the UK.

The Manchester University scientist created a machine at Bletchley Park to crack messages in the German Enigma code.

The failure to reach a reserve price means a campaign to raise funds to buy the papers for the Bletchley Park Trust for public display in the UK will continue.

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