- Ferry, Georgina. A Computer Called LEO. London:
Fourth Estate, 2003. ISBN 1-84115-185-8.
- I'm somewhat of a computer history buff (see
my Babbage and UNIVAC pages), but I
knew absolutely nothing about the world's first office computer before
reading this delightful book. On November 29, 1951 the first commercial
computer application went into production on the LEO computer, a vacuum
tube machine with mercury delay line memory custom designed and built
by—(UNIVAC? IBM?)—nope: J. Lyons & Co. Ltd. of
London, a catering company which operated the Lyons
Teashops all over Britain. LEO was based on the design of
the Cambridge EDSAC, but with additional
memory and modifications for commercial work. Many present-day
disasters in computerisation projects could be averted from the
lessons of Lyons, who not only designed, built, and programmed the
first commercial computer from scratch but understood from the outset
that the computer must fit the needs and operations of the business,
not the other way around, and managed thereby to succeed on the very
first try. LEO remained on the job for Lyons until January 1965. (How
many present-day computers will still be running 14 years after
they're installed?) A total of 72 LEO II and III computers, derived
from the original design, were built, and some remained in service
as late as 1981. The LEO Computers Society
maintains an excellent Web site with many photographs and historical
details.
February 2004 