The computer you’re probably thinking of was Collossus created by Tommy Flowers, it worked a bit like a modern computer but with valves rather then transistors.
A transistor/valve is an electronic switch which can be turned in or off with an electrical signal, these switches are the basis of all computers with on being represented by a 1 and off by 0, we call this binary though for a long time most computers are programmed using hexadecimal registers or a high-level language using something akin to plain English.
Charles Babbage’s difference engine is a good example of a computer using physical switches rather than electronic ones.
What computer?
Allan Turing did create the Turing machine but it is a mathematical model of computation that defines an abstract machine, not a real physical matching. It “worked” by following the rules that were in his paper.
He was a part of the team behind Bombe but it is not a general-purpose computer, but a specialized electromechanical machine to break the Enigma encryption. He was later involved in software development for the Manchester Mark 1.
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