The eccentric story of one of the most bizarre marriages in the history of British business: the invention of the world's first office computer and the Lyons Teashop.The Lyons teashops were one of the great British institutions, providing a cup of tea and a penny bun through the depression and the war, though to the 1970s. Yet Lyons also has a more surprising claim to history.In the 1930s John Simmons, a young maths graduate in charge of the clerks' offices, had a dream: to build a machine that would automate the millions of tedious transactions and process them in as little time as possible. Simmons' quest for the first office computer – the Lyons Electronic Office – would take 20 years and involve some of the most brilliant young minds in Britain.Interwoven with the story of creating LEO is the story of early computing, from the Difference Engine of Charles Babbage to the codecracking computers at Bletchley Park and the instantly obsolescent ENIAC in the US. It is also the story of post war British computer business: why did it lose the initiative? Why did the US succeed while British design was often superior?
Оглавление
Georgina Ferry. A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Tea Shops and the world’s first office computer
A Computer Called LEO
GEORGINA FERRY
Contents
Preface
1 A Mission to Manage
A Family Affair
‘One Best Way’
2 The Electronic Brain
ENIAC
3 Made in Britain
Computing on the Cam
Lyons Goes to Cambridge
The First Programs
4 A Computer for Lyons
Time for the Engineers
Building LEO
5 LEO goes to work
LEO Goes Public
Into the teashops
6 In Business
Dream for Sale
LEO goes to Market
Second Generation
7 Leo’s Last Roar
The ‘Master Plan’
End of the LEO Line
Last Throw of the Dice
LEO’s Final Comeback
Epilogue
Sources. LEO and Lyons
Computer History
Scientific Management, Office Work and Automation
Index
P.S. Ideas, Interviews & Features …
About the Author. Profile of Georgina Ferry
Snapshot
Top Ten Favourite Books
About the Book. A Critical Eye
Imagining the Future
Read On. Have You Read?
If You Loved This You’ll Like …
Find Out More
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Praise
Copyright
About the Publisher
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Lyons Teashops and the World’sFirst Office Computer