The 1950s computer was not for the everyman, unless, of course, that everyman had a government-defence budget to work with.

Well in 1956, as it so happens, there was one man-about-town who had the opportunity to work with a £180 million military computer, the largest one ever built. And what did this industrious young artist do with the unprecedented power at his fingertips? Make outlines of naked chicks, naturally.

This drawing of a pin-up girl, made with technology designed to guard against an apocalypse, was probably the first ever human likeness seen on a computer screen. And this, boys and girls, is how the prologue to Snapchat was born. [The Atlantic]