4     The Replica Baby now in the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester

This picture is one of the set taken by Tommy Thomas in June 1998, shown on his website. It is copied here with his kind permission.

This shows the Replica Baby at its final site in the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, in the 1830 Warehouse (the first ever railway warehouse). There are no pictures extant of the original Baby. The familiar pictures show the Manchester Mark 1 in earlier or later stages of its physical evolution from the Baby. Although these pictures were invaluable in the process of making a faithful reconstruction of the Baby, especially a set of detailed close-ups made by Alec Robinson in late 1948, the Rebuild Team had to establish which components were part of the original Baby (and would therefore be positioned correctly) and which belonged to circuitry added or changed for the enlarged machine (and so would not be in the Replica). Therefore the pictures taken in the 1830 Warehouse (especially with its wooden floor!) are the most accurate pictures available! (The main problem is that the Replica is too clean. The cleaner was ordered never to touch the Baby, and so it was covered in Manchester grime -- there was no clean air act in 1948!).