Henry, who became a Philosophy lecturer at Manchester University, took many of the parts from Lancaster Bombers.

He combined the parts with other components to create electronically-operated drawing machines which relied mainly on a ‘mechanics of chance’.

This meant the drawing machines could not be pre-programmed or store information as in a conventional computer and Henry had overall control and could intervene to direct the course of image production.

Henry inserted ballpoint pens into the machines and then tube pens with Indian ink which created the abstract, repetitive line drawings.

Elaine said: “I remember standing and watching him working the machine when I was about three-years-old. It was just about my eye level.

“I was intrigued by the machine going round and round and the abstract pictures it made.

“My father was passionate and certainly realised how original his work was when he first exhibited it in 1962.

“But his work never really got accepted by the art world because they didn’t consider it as traditional fine art – it was too progressive.”

Some critics, however, did recognise the originality of Henry’s work. In 1963 the machine drawings were to be featured in Time Magazine, but following the assassination of US President John Kennedy the story was scrapped.

LS Lowry discovered Henry when he won an art competition at Salford Art Gallery and he won a prize for a solo exhibition at the Reid Gallery in London where Lowry encouraged him to display the drawing machine pictures.

The Guardian described the images he produced as being “quite out of this world” and “almost impossible to produce by human hands”.

Henry was dubbed the ‘Picasso of the Machine Age’ for his breakthrough style of art.

Elaine has also compared her father’s work to the art of famous Impressionist artist Jackson Pollock.

She said: “My father referred to his machine-drawings as machine-Pollocks because of both controllable and uncontrollable features in their production, much like Pollock’s drip-painting technique.

“Importantly, it must be remembered my father’s machines relied in part upon a mechanics of chance and were not designed as precision instruments.

“He liked to let them do their own thing.”

Henry was born in Huddersfield in 1921 and died in 2004.

The Manchester exhibition runs until May 7.

For more information visit www.mosi.org.uk