Aimo Törn
My first contact with the new computing machines was Olli Varhos course "On Electronic Computing Machines" at Turun Yliopisto in Spring 1959.
My first programming course was the Wegemetic 1000 programming course in March 1960 given by Greko and Krantz from Wenner-Gren Center with Prof. G. af Hällström as course leader. No computer was available. I remember my surprise when I realized that also carriage returns had to be printed.
My next experience with computers as I remember it was a programmer trainee position at Ab Atomenergi in Studsvik, Sweden during 1.6-6.9.1961 working with their Mercury computer in Stockholm. The manager of the Section of Numerical Analysis was Kalevi Lomaranta, who in 1959 acted as expert in the choice of Wegematic 1000. Most of my study buddies ended up working for Loimaranta: Bo Eriksson, Clas Grägg, Kim Lindblom, and Kurt Pörn. Of the core gang only Robi Lindblad and I did not emigrate.
Mercury worked with papertape and we sometimes used datacommunication in the following way: The tape was prepared in Studsvik and then run through the telex machine to produce a tape in the computer room in Stockholm. This was then run through the computer and the result again telexed to Studsvik for further processing.
During two months 1.11-31.12.1961 I was working as a scientific programmer at the (Wegematic) Computing Center. I remember producing programs in geology (Prof. Yrjö Neuvonen) and in astronomy (prof. Oterma).