Replicating History: Teversham Engineering's Project to Rebuild the First Computer using SolidWorks

Today’s computers are lightning fast – they can enable you to do anything from communicating with your team remotely to performing complex calculations to improve your designs. Since its invention, the computer has helped scientists solve complex problems. Teversham Engineering in the United Kingdom is using SolidWorks to recreate digital technology of the past – the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator, used by researchers at Cambridge University. As part of the EDSAC project, Teversham is building an authentic replica of one of the most important early British digital computers, originally designed in 1947 and built in 1949.

Using one surviving chassis, Teversham Engineering was able to record the original dimensions and remodel the computer in SolidWorks with ease.  Through the production of the replica in SolidWorks, Teversham has seen how powerful and adaptable computing has become since the 1940’s.

SolidWorks eDrawings has enabled engineers to share designs for sign-off. Through the email-enabled software, project volunteers have instant access to the dynamic 3D models, which they can rotate, zoom and annotate.



“Many volunteers are especially interested in the visual look of the replica – does it look like the original photographs? Seeing their excitement as they passed the iPad around the table was great to see”, said Alan Willis, Managing Director at Teversham Engineering.

Check out Teversham’s eDrawings designs of the EDSAC replica to see how far we’ve come in terms of digital technology.