'From time to time there is a resurgence of interest in machine translation and for a short while both national and international daily papers carry articles which purport either to explain the progress in the field or to debunk the art.'
So starts an article in Electronics Weekly's edition of March 8th 1961 written by Dr Andrew Booth, head of the Department of Numerical Automation,
'One of the most recent suggested that, at an American Government agency, routine translation of technical Russian material was being produced by a machine and that during a single week so many references to a "water sheep" occurred that the readers enquired what this curious animal was', writes Dr Booth.
TOMORROW: TOP TEN TWITTERERS
Nice one - they can't tell a sheep from a ram!
As many a Welshman has found to his cost, Peter.