American 6813 Division History October 1945 Page 24

Tony Sale's Codes and Ciphers

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Critique. No mention of Fish would be complete without some

words about the weekly Newmanry teaparties. They were the nucleus of the
organisation. The notice would appear on the blackboard of the research
room, announcing a date and time. Any male member had the privilege
of writing at any time an item on the blackboard for the weeek's agenda and
when the time came each item was discussed between sips of tea. The items
consisted of anything from mathematical questions to the definition of
procedures, and the thoroughness with which every job was assigned and
specified, ever technique weighed for its value in time, labour and
machines accounts in large part for the success of the section. Some of
the most minute detail of directing types of traffic, the ordering of
traffic, the adjustment of faults received conscientious consideration.
every policy and procedure was thoroughly thought out and defined before
it was put into action; and if put into action, the minutes of the tea-
party designated the person or persons to affect the conclusion. The
same forthought prevailed in the establishment of new techniques. They
had to be first proven theoretically in the research log or to an extent
that for all practical purposes they were theoretically valid. The premium
which was attached to time, machines, labour prevented sacrifices on wild
schemes.


One must have great respect for those teaparties. Not only were

they democratic with the opportunity for any member to present his grievance
but the personal interest was a great stimulus for work, planning and
thought. Differences of opinion were ironed out and everyone knew what
was going on in the section.


In the Newmanry ther were usually four jobs through which amem-

ber rotated, spending a week on each. There was the job of being Duty
Officer, the boss of the shift, the arbitrator on all machines and traffic
priorities, supervision of seventy Wrens and civilians. Then there was
the Wheel men who managed the tewnty-one Wrens in the statistical solution
of wheel-patterns and was the overseer of the Wheelbreakers, a more specific
job of completing the wheel-pattern by machine analysis. Lastly, one took
his turn
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