Alan Turing’s lost papers were almost destroyed, now they’re worth thousands

Alan Turing’s papers were only just saved from being shredded. Now they’re set for auction, where they could make as much as £60,000 ($80,895).

A pair of Alan Turing’s 1930s papers has been found in an attic space in London and is expected to earn thousands of pounds at auction.

Rare Book Auctions, which examined the papers and is handling the sale, revealed that they were actually a gift for Turing’s friend and fellow mathematician, Norman Routledge.

The papers are known as “offprints,” a printed copy of an article or journal typically part of a large body of work. They weren’t widely produced and were only distributed in academia.

This makes them “incredibly scarce survivors that rarely ever appear on the market,” Rare Book Auctions said.

Offprints were a way for scholars to correspond with one another, making them extremely valuable as they represent some of the first editions of very important works.

Turing’s PhD dissertation, titled Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals, from 1938 to 1939, which Turing signed, has been valued between £40,000 ($53,932) and £60,000 ($80,895).

One of the papers, which supposedly introduced the world to the concept of a “universal computing machine,” has also been valued between £40,000 ($53,932) and £60,000 ($80,895).

Director of Rare Book Auctions, Jim Spencer, described the collection as “the most important archive” he has ever handled.

How Turing’s papers were almost destroyed

The mathematician and computer scientist’s mother, Ethel Turing, gifted the papers to Turing’s friend Norman Routledge.

Routledge died in 2013, and the papers were stowed away, remaining completely untouched for years.

One of Routledge’s sisters took the documents and seemingly preserved them, supposedly without knowing the value of these artifacts.

Once Routledge’s sister was moved to a care home almost a decade later, her daughters found the papers and “considered shredding everything.”

But, after consulting with other family members, the papers were saved from the shredder and received several valuations.

Who is Alan Turing?

Alan Turing, an English mathematician and computer scientist, was considered the father of modern computing and even helped break German code in the Second World War.

Turing was a significant figure in the world of computer science and helped to formalize concepts like the algorithm and computation.

He created the Turing Machine, which was one of the first models of the modern-day computer.

During World War II, Turing worked with the British government at Bletchley Park and was responsible for German naval cryptanalysis.

Turing played a major role in cracking German ciphers and intercepting messages that helped the Allies defeat the Axis powers.