But in order to embody it in working machinery, it required some means of arranging for different physical 'configurations'.
但是，要想用一台实际工作的机器来表现这些，还需要一些方法来控制机器的物理状态。
This was achieved by the switches, for the whole point of a switch would be that it could be in one of two states, 'on' or 'off', '0' or '1', 'true' or 'false'.
要解决这个问题，就要用到开关，开关的功能就是在两种状态中进行切换，开或关，0或1，真或假。
The switches that he used were operated by relays, and in this way electricity played its first direct part in his urge to connect logical ideas with something that physically worked.
艾伦使用的开关，是由继电器来控制的，这样一来，电流就可以将他的逻辑想法，变成实际的物理工作。
There was nothing new about the electromagnetic relay, which had been invented by the American physicist Henry a hundred years earlier.
电磁继电器并不新鲜，美国物理学家亨利在几百年前就已经把它发明出来了，
Its physical principle was the same as that of the electric motor, an electric current, passing through a coil, causing a magnetic head to move.
它的物理原理和电动机是一样的，电流通过线圈，使磁头发生移动。
However, the point of a relay was that the magnetic head would either open or close another electrical circuit.
总之，继电器的用途和开关是一样的，就是用来接通或断开一个电路。
It would act as a switch. The name 'relay' derived from its use in early telegraph systems, to allow an enfeebled electric signal to set off a fresh, clean click.
人们叫它继电器，是因为它最早是用于电报系统，一个较弱的信号通过继电器，就可以触发一个清楚的信号。
It was not well-known in 1937 that the logical properties of combinations of switches could be represented by Boolean algebra, or by binary arithmetic, but this was not hard for a logician to see.
在1937年，人们并不清楚可以用二进制或布尔代数来表示组合开关的逻辑功能，但对于逻辑学家来说，这是很简单的。
Alan's task was to embody the logical design of a Turing machine in a network of relay-operated switches.
艾伦的任务就是，用一系列继电器开关的组合，来实现图灵机的逻辑功能。
The idea would be that when a number was presented to the machine, presumably by setting up currents at a series of input terminals,
他的想法是，由一个输入终端，用电流形式将数字表达给机器，
the relays would click open and closed, currents would pass through, and emerge at output terminals, thus in effect 'writing' the enciphered number.
继电器通过开关的方式，让电流经过，并体现在输出端，就像把编码后的数字写出来。
It would not actually use 'tapes' but from a logical point of view it came to the same thing.
这并不使用实际的纸带，但从逻辑上来看，它们是完全一样的。