Electricity was toyed with in the late 1700's, and by mid 1800's things like the telegraph & then telephone revolutionised communications, as did the mobility of steam power and later the internal combustion engine. It is often forgotten the impact at that time too of the typewriter.
Discovery in the late C19 of the electron allowed electronic devices to be developed, and in the Thirties pupils at TS would have experimented with cat's whisker radios and the de-luxe ones using valves. Primitive TV was being developed. Yet in 1940 a 'computer' was still the name & title of a person doing calculations for the RAF. However colossal numbers of repetitive calculations were needed to provide gunnery tables; model & design the atom bomb; and crack enemy codes. A few incredibly expensive machines were designed & installed. IBM announced their existence post-war ( the Brits kept quiet!) and rashly suggested that 5 machines worldwide would serve the whole human race!
