LEO

The Lyons Electronic Office (usually referred to by the acronym, LEO) was a brave and audacious start for a company that ran corner tea shops; they decided in 1949 to investigate the computer for their office functions. The design was based on the EDSAC.

There was a public announcement in "Electronic Engineering" of its running in production in April 1954 but it had at that time been under test and doing some government work for 18 months.

Further reading

• Peter John Bird, LEO: The First Business Computer, Hasler Publishing, Wokingham, 1994
• David Caminer, Frank Land, John Aris, Peter Hermon, LEO: The Incredible Story of the World's First Business Computer, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1997
• Georgina Ferry, A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Tea Shops and the World's First Office Computer, Fourth Estate, London, 2003