What was LEO?
The first business computer wasn’t built by a technology company.
In fact, it was built by Lyons - a name that was synonymous with… tea and cakes!
Maintaining the smooth operation of Lyons’ extensive network of 200+ teashops and corner houses, established across London and beyond, was a massive production and logistical challenge. An ever-growing team of data processing staff ensured that the right quantity of stock was manufactured and supplied to the right premises at the right time and that bills and staff were paid.
But LEO I changed all that. For the first time, a general-purpose computer could calculate information that was critical to the functioning of an important national business and LEO proved that it could return the correct results, reliably, consistently, and far faster than any staff team’s manual calculations could ever hope to achieve.
While proving its worth to Lyons, LEO’s scope grew to undertake important tasks for other major organisations. It helped answer difficult questions in lots of areas, by:
Establishing the shortest distance between each of the UK's 7,000 railway stations.
Calculating employee pay for companies such as the Ford Motor Company.
Performing calculations on behalf of Government departments such as the Inland Revenue.
Undertaking weather calculations for the UK Meteorological Office.
Supporting complex scientific, technological and military calculations.
Its mark in history
The achievements of LEO I in the 1950s were a huge step forward in the development of computing, and an enormous leap toward a future in which the world of business and computing became inseparable.
We think you’ll be surprised to see the Lyons Electronic Office. Its appearance is far from what you might think of as a computer today. In fact, it spanned an entire 15m x 15m room, and included an array of input and output devices.
Discover the full story in the Virtual LEO I app, or by visiting our installation at The Centre for Computing History today.
Contact
Registered Charity No: 1130071
+44 (0) 1223 214446
hello@leo1.co.uk
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