双语畅销书《艾伦图灵传》第8章:水银延时线(53)
Newman's application was for a grant to cover the capital cost and five years of salaries for an electronic computer.
The Royal Society set up a committee to investigate the application for a grant, consisting of Blackett, Darwin, Hartree, and two pure mathematicians, Hodge from Cambridge and Whitehead from Oxford.
皇家学会为此专门成立了一个委员会，来考察这项申请。该委员会由布莱克特、达尔文、哈特里和另外两位纯数学家组成，这两位分别是来自剑桥的霍奇和来自牛津的怀特海。Darwin opposed it on the grounds that the ACE was to serve the needs of the country.
达尔文坚决反对ACE是为政治需要而服务的。
Womersley had expressed the particular fear that Newman would steal Flowers away from the ACE.
另外沃默斯利曾经对他表示，他担心纽曼会从ACE项目组挖走弗洛文斯。But he was outvoted, for it was approved that there should be 'a different type of machine' for Newman's project.
但是达尔文最终被多数票击败了，因为大多数人都同意，纽曼的计划是一种"不同的机器"。On 29 May the Treasury allocated 35,000 pounds to Newman.
5月29日，财政部给纽曼拨款35, 000英镑。The rationale was that as 'fundamental science', his proposal fell into the orbit of the Royal Society, and did not conflict with the DSIR.
因为纽曼要研究的是基础科学，所以他的提议属于皇家学会的势力范围，没有与科学工业研究部产生什么冲突。It meant that a rather surprising breath of mathematical innocence was felt again, with a computer development not required for weaponry.
这件事意味着，在计算机的发展过程中，数学的纯粹性就要重新登上舞台了。It so happened that Blackett knew F.C. Williams from before the war, when they had collaborated on an automatic curve-tracer for the differential analyser.
碰巧的是，布莱克特在战争之前就认识威廉姆斯，当时他们一起为了差分机，合作研究自动曲线仪。Both Darwin and Newman, therefore, were looking to Williams to help them 'jump in ahead of America', and Darwin's plan for a single national computer installation had already been undermined.
因此，纽曼和达尔文为了"超越美国"，都想向威廉姆斯寻求帮助。达尔文独揽国家计算机部署权的打算，已经被悄无声息地破坏掉了，而威廉姆斯则在这两位之间犹豫着。The question of who was going to build the ACE remained unresolved while Williams decided between these suitors.
谁来制造ACE，这个问题现在仍然悬而未决。
