- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate; illustrated edition edition (7 April 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1841151858
- ISBN-13: 978-1841151854
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13.8 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
127,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #26 in Books > Science & Nature > Engineering & Technology > Ethics
- #97 in Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > History of Engineering & Technology
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Tea Shops and the world's first office computer for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Whether you like a good story, social history, computers, or are just nostalgic about Joe Lyons' "caffs", A Computer Called LEO is an appealing tale, illustrated with black and white photos, about the advent of the first computer.
Georgina Ferry conjures up the image of some 300 female accounts clerks, clacking away continuously on their Burroughs mechanical calculators checking bills against takings for the 250 or so J Lyons & Co high street teashops in the 1930s. The manager of the accounting operation in pre-war times was a bright young man called John Simmons. According to Ferry, as Simmons surveyed the room "all he saw was a waste of human intelligence" and he began to dream of the day when machines would be invented capable of doing all this work automatically. Within 10 years he made the first stage in that dream a reality by persuading the board of Lyons that their company must become the first in the world to build its own electronic digital computer. A Computer Called LEO is the wonderful story of this one remarkable man's ambition and success in achieving it.
Ferry interweaves LEO's story with the history of computing. British mathematicians have played an integral role in this development ever since the days of Charles Babbage (1792-1871). Like Simmons, Babbage had been interested in improved factory management. The ultimately tragic figure of Alan Turing and the wartime development of computers at Bletchley Park also figure in the lead up to LEO.
Development was delayed by World War II and Ferry expertly goes on to tell how, on November 29, 1951, LEO took over Bakery Valuations and became the first computer in the world to run a routine office job. But it wasn't until 1954 that LEO was judged reliable enough to finally take over from the clerks. By the following year, John Simmons had fulfilled his dream and was able to declare that "LEO leaves clerks free to use their brains to their own greater benefit and the service of the community". One needs to add that to Lyons & Co's great credit this was achieved without any compulsory redundancies; indeed employment increased. Britain led the world in computer development at the time and there was considerable potential for the turning of a cottage industry in to an international money-maker, but that required considerable investment.
The end of Ferry's story of LEO tells of how Britain let an advantage slip from their grasp as US money, muscle, management and determination took over and IBM went on to win the day. --Douglas Palmer.
Review
'Stylish and lucid, a combination of social history and science, Georgina Ferry's fascinating book reveals how one of Britain's most famous firms, J.S. Lyons, went from teacakes to computers, becoming a technological pioneer.' Brenda Maddox
on THE COMMON THREAD: A Story of Science, Politics, Ethics and the Human Genome (co-authored with John Sulston)
'Unputdownable stuff … an insider's story of one of the century's
greatest technopolitical ventures' Guardian
'I found this a riveting account of what was going on behind the scenes…
Anyone who is fascinated by the politics and ethics of research should read
The Common Thread.' Financial Times
'A compelling and frank account.' The Times
on Dorothy Hodgkin: A Life
'The science book of the year' Independent
'This life of Hodgkin is in the top rank of scientific biographies, hooking the reader from the first page and keeping you absorbed to the end.' Sunday Times
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As an enthusiast of vacuum tube radio technology, with its smells of hot dust and pipe tobacco, I found the story of the Lyons Electronic Office to be a superb metaphor for the British approach to engineering - uncertain, incremental, cautious, yet with flashes of great brilliance.
John Simmons and his team knew they were far ahead of everyone else (just as, earlier, at Bletchley Park, Thomas Flowers and Alan Turing must have known the same about their 'Colossus' machine) and we see that the dedication and enthusiasm produced by that awareness led them to the very forefront of an emerging technology. In 2003, vacuum tubes and tanks of mercury must seem very 'Heath Robinson' to us, yet it is worth reflecting upon the vast distance the computing industry has travelled in the 50 years since LEO. For a vivid example of this journey - go to the Science Museum in London and take a look at the Ferranti 'Pegasus' machine on display as a contemporary of LEO.
Alas, the business world failed to capitalise on the opportunity and the subsequent mergers meant opportunity was lost.In fairness, the author does make the point that the mergers that led to the creation of ICL had to happen to make the industry, as a whole, stand any kind of chance against the huge US market. Despite this, the Americans were still able to achieve dominance.
This is a fascinating story, skilfully told to engage and capture the reader's attention. There are no heavy techie details and no long/boring corporate manifestos - just the plain simple story of the vision of those who saw an opportunity to advance their own view of the application of knowledge for the benefit of all.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm only a few chapters into this book, but am back to buy another copy to give to a friend.
If you are interested in how innovation happens in business, or in the development of the computer industry, or in the application from first principles of computers to real-world problems, or in productive co-operation between industry and academia, or in user-centred product development, or in how immigrants can benefit an economy, then there is raw material for you in this book. It is (at least as far as I have read) a gripping story rather than an academic analysis- read how it was, and then if you feel so inclined draw your own conclusions.
When I joined the computer industry in 1965, a friend in IBM confided in me that the Leo (Lyons Electronic Office) series of computers (already in there last days) were IBM's most serious rival in commercial computing. This book makes this entirely credible. If you're British, read it and reflect on how British people managed to invent both commercial computing and the web, and yet Britain manages now to be a distant follower in both areas of endeavour.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are two stories in this satisfying little book: one the story of a computer, or rather line of computers, and the other the story of a company. The curve of the Lyons company is traced from the company's origins in catering for exhibitions in the 19th century, through its heights in the 20s and 30s when its tea shops were the clerical worker's favoured lunch stop, to the post-way years of austerity when formica had replaced marble and service by waitresses (or "Nippys") had given way to self-service. At this point a visionary management, always looking for increased efficeincy in the business of getting buns from bakeries to plates as cost-effectively as possible, starts to automate its clerical functions by computer. What was so remarkable about this, as Georgina Ferry makes very clear, was that no company in the woorld had previously done this. Computers had been tools for universities and government researchers, not management information systems for businesses. What emerges clearly from her account is that the systems developers never lost sight of business needs in their extraordinary efforts to invent an industry from scratch. This book has several delights: the description of mercury delay lines shows how difficult it was to implement memory in the pre-semiconductor age and the continuous Swiss Roll bakery is a hard image to forget.
Ironically in view of its origins in "temperance fare", Lyons was swallowed up by a brewery at last. The computer subsidiary, having blazed a trail in business automation, was itself consumed by English Electric to become part of ICL and later Fujitsu. Georgina Ferry - wisely - does not draw too explicitly conclusions about British entrepreneurial skills from the whole history: she leaves us however with an impression that the history of computing in Britain and elsewhere might have been very different if opportunities had been grasped.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Inaccurate
During the early 1950s, J. Lyons and Co., a major British corporation celebrated for its fine foodstuffs and chain of tearoom cafes, pioneered the introduction of some of the very... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jeremy E. May
A step from the Corner House into the future
An interesting read, a step in the history of computing that should be made more of. One of the steps between the early days of Bletchly Park, and the modern PC.
Published 6 months ago by harp860
Close to Home
Main reason I brought this book {the first one I purchased on Amazon} was because, my Dad worked at Cadby Hall in the 50's, 60's and 70's, not on LEO, but in the Factory, making... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Malcolm
A compelling account of innovation
What an enjoyable book this was. The author has done a fine job both in research and in the way the period, personalities and business practices are described. Read more
Published 17 months ago by GJ_Reading
A Tale of British inventiveness- and failure
A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Tea Shops and the World's First Office Computer (P.S.)
Interesting picture of the social and business background to LEO and develops the story... Read more
Interesting picture of the social and business background to LEO and develops the story... Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2009 by TimC
Entertaining and illuminating
This little book is a fascinating look at one of the little known stories of computer history: that UK catering giant Lyons not only built the world first business computer, but... Read more
Published on 20 Jun 2005 by Mr. S. A. Oxlade
Brings back the pioneering days of British Computing
Being 'in the trade' myself, and having used in my time Computers from Elliott, ICT, GEC, ICL, Data General, DEC, Burroughs, as well as IBM, I wondered whether this would just be a... Read more
Published on 5 Dec 2003 by Keith Appleyard
Don't be put of by the title!
Not being interested in computers or corporate history, I was more than a little disappointed when I was given this book. How wrong I was! Read more
Published on 5 Jun 2003 by Anna
Business needs came first for the teashop company's computer
There are two stories in this satisfying little book: one the story of a computer, or rather line of computers, and the other the story of a company. Read more
Published on 2 Jun 2003
A computing revolution that started in a teashop?!
I'll never use a LEO computer and yet feel a great affinity towards these great machines. 'A computer called LEO' charts the vision of a small group of managers at the Lyons Tea... Read more
Published on 12 May 2003 by "iainfarrell"
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Biographies & Histories > Business & Economic History
- Books > Computing & Internet
- Books > History > Military History > Strategy, Tactics & Military Science
- Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > History of Engineering & Technology
- Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > History of Science
- Books > Science & Nature > Engineering & Technology > Electronics & Communications Engineering > Electronics Engineering
- Books > Science & Nature > Engineering & Technology > Ethics
- Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Popular Maths
- Books > Science & Nature > Popular Science
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
