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In the short time since we have launched this automatic electrical information kiosk, I have received countless email letters from members of the public. As expected a certain minority of these tend to fall into the category of cheekiness to depraved, the vast majority are filled with curiosity regarding our firm and how we go about our business.
Certainly having a spectral workforce is not without its advantages and disadvantages. Gettting from a machine to the larts room is much swifter when one is not encumbered by the laws of physics that so dominate the nature of living men. But sometimes communicating with those of the living is something the members of the silent majority often find impossible. It seems that the barrier between tohe two populations is one of those things destined to defy human understanding -- both mortal or otherwise. but one of the most common questions is about this automatic, electrical information kiosk, or "website" as you all seem to call it.
To be honest, much of the egnineering that has gone into its creation and operation is very much beyond us all here. In fact, most of the machinery required cannot be operated from within the works due to space and power considerations. We have calculated that "Old Meg", our stationary engine that powers the works, is simply not capable of running our existing plant and generate enough electricity to power the electrical equipment required to support this "website."
Fortunately, Erasmus has made it his business to get to know various British engineers who, like him, have passed beyond the veil. they have quite generously volunteered time and resources to create the infrastructure we have today to deliver you this "website." What follows is my 'layman's" understanding of what this infrastructure consts of and how we utilise it.
First, some of Erasmus' engineering friends, who as to remain anonymous, maintain a secure facility, very much in the spirit of our own works facility. In this facility they generate their own electricity through the use of a stationary engine, much like our own, albeit a bit more sophisticated. This dynamo powers a telegraphic station, an electronic security barrier, and the electrical device that delivers this "website" itself.
Here is the telegraphic room where the content we produce, as well as your comments and phtoitos and such, are received. A small team of ladies operate the machines in this room to take the received information, which arrives on paper tapes, and re enter that information into the machines you can see on the table. In this way, no information received from outside of our facility actually goes into our system directly. This is one way we try to protect our "website" from crippling problems.
Once the ladies have re entered the information, it is sent tyhrough a series of wires to our "server" which the chaps have called "Colossus." To the right you can see the paper tape reader that receives the massages from the ladies in the telegraphic office pictured above. It is optically scanned and entered intot he m,achine where is ensures, through its operation, that all the right words and pictures get treated int he appropriate manner. end end result is the "website" that you see before you.
But all this effort would be for nought if some rapscalions chose to vandalise this "website" as they so commonly do these days. Here you can see the front of Phoenix, the device we use to protect Colossus from such impish activities. Each time a request is received for some element of our "website" this request is processed by the machine below. It is able to determine the validity of requests and prevents untoward activities. To be honest, I am not exactly sure how it works, but I am assured that it provides an adequate level of security for our current site. the coloured wheels contain complex eletrical circuity within them and represent letters of the alphabet. With each request the wheels turn and encypher and decypher each of these requests to that the nature of how Colossus works remains a mystery to prying eyes. Then again, the boffins there also admit that nothing is foolproof. We can only hope that the vandals out there do not see us as something worthy of such actitivity and simply pass us by.
Below is a photograph of the back side of Phoenix. you can see the complex nature of the wiring ont he right, which is changed on a regular pasis to increase complexity of the protective strategem of the device. to the left is a clea rimage of the back side of the relays that rotate the coloured wheels seen above. The tubes you can see throughout this section carry the lubricant that is applied to each wheel hub so that operations remain smooth and trouble free. Of course, as one might expect, a significant amount of noise and heat is discharges from Phoenix and it clatters along changing wheel positions every second of every day. and below the machine you might just make out the oil pan where the lubrican is collected after it has done its job. From there is is scavanged, cleaned, and returned to the start of the process again.
Well, I do hope this goes some way towards answering your questions regarding how we maintain this "website" thingy. If you still have questions please do feel free to send them my way.
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