--- description: How computers--gigantic, noisy ones--changed practically everything title: The History of Technology, as Told in Wacky British Pathé Newsreels image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The History of Technology, as Told in Wacky British Pathé Newsreels by [Harry McCracken](/author/harry-mccracken/) ## Harry McCracken Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 19, 2014 5:26 AM CUT by [Harry McCracken](/author/harry-mccracken/) ## Harry McCracken Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 19, 2014 5:26 AM CUT In an inventive, generous act, British Pathé has [uploaded](http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/british-pathe-uploads-entire-85000-film-archive-to-youtube-in-hd-1201159599/ "undefined") its entire collection of [85,000 pieces of footage from vintage newsreels](https://www.youtube.com/user/britishpathe/ "undefined") to YouTube. If you stop by to check it out, you might have trouble pulling yourself away. It’s a fascinating survey of what happened to the world from 1896-1976, told in bite-sized chunks. The collection is searchable, so I pulled up some choice bits relating to computers–especially how they got used to automate practically everything in the 1960s. This stuff was amazing at the time–especially, it seems, if you were a British newsreel announcer. **1949:** An engineer teaches a machine to play noughts and crosses, better known to you and me as tic-tac-toe **1962:** Pan Am and IBM sign a deal to computerize airplane reservations (watching this, it hit me: how the heck did they do them before computers?) **1966:** [Rowland Emett](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowland%5FEmett "undefined"), the Rube Goldberg of the U.K., demonstrates his homemade computer **1967:** During an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease, horse-racing fans settle for a computerized simulation **1967:** The latest in automation–from the Auto-Typist to a pocket-sized dictation machine–gets demonstrated at the Business Efficiency Exhibition **1968:** Honeywell demonstrates its “girl robot,” Miss Honeywell, who, I regret to say, I suspect of being an elaborate hoax **1968:** A report on the Univac-powered Tinder of its day, complete with a Beatles soundtrack **1968:** A Putney man composes music with his home computer, which happens to be a PDP-8 minicomputer One thing I learned from watching all of these: Unless British Pathé sweetened its soundtracks, computers used to be _noisy._ I’m just as glad we no longer have to listen to that incessant clackety, clackety, clackety, clacking. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/69027/the-history-of-technology-as-told-in-wacky-british-pathe-newsreels/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/69027/the-history-of-technology-as-told-in-wacky-british-pathe-newsreels/"},"headline":"The History of Technology, as Told in Wacky British Pathé Newsreels","datePublished":"2014-04-19T05:26:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:00.998Z","description":"How computers--gigantic, noisy ones--changed practically everything","url":"https://time.com/69027/the-history-of-technology-as-told-in-wacky-british-pathe-newsreels/","keywords":["Tech","History","Technologizer"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Harry McCracken","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/harry-mccracken/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/69027/the-history-of-technology-as-told-in-wacky-british-pathe-newsreels/","name":"The History of Technology, as Told in Wacky British Pathé Newsreels"}}]}] ```