The scientific notebook by Alan Turing, the British mathematician credited with breaking German codes during World War II, sold for a whopping $1,025,000 at auction in New York. According to Bonhams, who led the sale, it is the first time a manuscript by Turing, a pioneer in computer science, has come to public market. The 56-page manuscript, dates to 1942, when Turing and other cryptologists worked to break the Enigma code used by Nazi Germany’s military.
With the original cloth-backed covers, this handwritten manuscript includes complex mathematical and computer science notations Turing made while at Bletchley Park, the British government’s code-breaking site.
The notebook was passed to Turing’s friend and mathematician, Robin Oliver Gandy following Turing’s death. Gandy used the central pages of the journal as a dream journal for a time, and as such, the notebook was never included in the publicly accessible Turing Archive, and was never seen until the recent auction.
