The last remaining manuscript, in private hands, by the tragic British mathematician and wartime code-breaker Alan Turing sold in April for $1,025,000 at Bonhams, New York. The handwritten document, which dates from 1942, contains Turing’s observations on other mathematicians’ work. A brilliant thinker, Turing is considered to be the father of computer technology and worked on one of the world’s first recognisable computers, the Manchester Mark 1. He is also credited with laying the foundations for the study of artificial intelligence and for ideas that sparked the modern chaos theory. A wartime hero, he successfully decoded German messages with the Bombe—a device he invented. But, disgraced by a conviction for “gross indecency” for homosexuality in 1952 and an enforced chemical castration, Turing committed suicide in 1954.
