Back in 1952 a team of scientists was desperate to test the capabilities of Mark One `Baby`, the computer built at Manchester University.
One of them, Christopher Strachey, devised a quirky software programme by entering hundreds of romantic verbs and nouns into the new machine.
He then sat back as Mark One `Baby` trawled the literary database to create a stream of light-hearted verse.
In much the same way as magnetic letters are displayed on fridges today, he and his team would print off the computer’s best efforts and put them on a notice board.
David Ward, a German computer `archaeologist` unearthed the program while researching Strachey’s papers at the Bodelian Library, Oxford, and then spent three months creating his own version of the software.'
His website allows vistors to generate their own random `poetry`.
Meanwhile, Mr Ward has also created a working replica of the One `Baby’ computer which will run the love letter programme for an exhibition in Germany.
