雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第8章:水銀延時線(50)
Nor, perhaps, did he appreciate that the very high priorities enjoyed by Bletchley, and the willingness of other organisations to sacrifice their independence, could no longer be expected in 1946.
Thus at Dollis Hill, while there was no question about the competence of the Colossus engineers, their director, Radley, did not attach great importance to the work being done on delay lines for the ν PL.
所以在郵政實驗室，儘管巨人機工程師們的技術實力完全可以勝任，但那裏的負責人拉德雷，對於爲國家物理實驗室開發延遲線這件事情，卻根本沒有一點積極性。The Post Office had manifold tasks of its own in connection with the wartime backlog, and there was now no higher authority, no national policy, to coordinate the priorities of the various state enterprises.
郵政實驗室在戰爭期間積壓了許多工作，而且現在沒有更高的優先權，也沒有國家性的政策，能夠支配這些機構的工作安排。
Alan and Womersley made an official visit to Dollis Hill on 3 April 1946, and thereafter work began—but in a desultory way, with the effect of creating an unforeseen delay, and a sense of uncertainty as to direction.
1946年4月3日，圖靈和沃默斯利正式拜訪了郵政實驗室，繼而他們的項目得以開工了，但卻是以一種斷斷續續的方式，朝着一個不確定的方向，而且有着無法估計的時間延誤。Alan had written in his report about the possibility of using cathode ray tubes as a quite different kind of storage system,
圖靈在他的報告中提及，陰極射線管可以用作一種完全不同的新型存儲器，and it was probably at his prompting that on 8 May 1946 Womersley wrote to TRE with an enquiry about the state of research at the radar establishment into the use of such tubes for storage,
可能是在這個啓發下，沃默斯利在1946年5月8日給電子通信研究所寫信，探討該設備在雷達上的應用情況，explaining that it might 'form a suitable alternative to, or possibly even an improvement on, the mercury delay line which we are at present intending to use in our automatic computing engine ...
並表明這可能會是"一種更好的選擇，來替代我們目前準備在ACE上使用的水銀延遲線……"。The response was not unhelpful, and on 13 August Darwin was able to write to Sir Edward Appleton at the DSIR:
此舉並非徒勞，8月3日，達爾文給科學與工業研究部的愛德華·艾普萊頓寫了一封信：I told you Womersley was down at TRE to see whether they could do any work about the ACE machine.
……我之前說過，沃默斯利給電子通信研究所寫信，詢問是否能夠給予ACE項目一些幫助。He tells me that it looks a most promising chance, and I think we should go ahead on it.
他告訴我這是一個非常有前途的機會，我認爲我們應該重視。Their lay-out for the job looks good, and I gather it appealed strongly to F.C. Williams as a job he would like to do, so that it should get a good chance.
他們的項目看起來非常好，我認爲該工作對F.C.威廉姆斯很有吸引力，這是他喜歡的工作，也是一個很好的機會。I am kicking myself for not having thought of it months ago as a possibility.
我很自責我在之前幾個月沒有認真考慮這個可能性。
