This current is what causes neon tubes to glow red but it is the way that it does this that is all important. The high voltage causes electrons to be ripped off the electrodes and a current flows through the tube. A neon tube is a glass tube filled with neon gas and with a high voltage applied at each end. In the case of ERNIE or the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment (an acronym made to fit a name if there ever was one) the source was a set of neon tubes. To create true random numbers you have to add something to the basic design of a computer to create a random signal. It's a machine as regular as a clock, just more complicated. This might sound like an odd question because there seem to be sources of randomness all around us but - not inside a computer, not if it is working properly. The solution has to be real random numbers generated by some process that is physically random and cannot be predicted - but what? You can't use pseudo random numbers for a lottery, no matter how good they are, because in principle they can be compromised and public confidence would be zero. All they are is unpredictable, unless you know or can work out the details of the generator. They aren't really random because they are produced by a program.
#ERNIE BALL SERIAL NUMBER LOOKUP GENERATOR#
A pseudo random number generator produces the sort of random number that computers most often create. The first thing to realize is that there are two types of random number - pseudo and real. This needed industrial strength - random numbers in industrial quantities.
#ERNIE BALL SERIAL NUMBER LOOKUP SERIAL NUMBERS#
At the end of 1956 nearly 50 million bonds had been sold and the serial numbers in use could accommodate 100 million.This wasn't going to be a job for a few balls in a tumbler machine. The big problem was that, unlike most lotteries with a small number of prizes, this had lots of small prizes and a few bigger prizes and lots of people to pick from. Instead, every month a draw was conducted to see who had won the various prizes on offer. They called the "investment" Premium Bonds and there was no guaranteed rate of return. In 1956 the UK government decided that a way to get people to save was to institute a lottery, but one that didn't look like a lottery. Why would you need so many high quality random numbers back in 1957? Could it be for Monte Carlo simulations or something deeply scientific? It is hard to believe that a whole computer could be needed just to generate some random numbers, but this was the first ERNIE's role in life and in 1957 it was a sophisticated giant.