Early British computer manufacturers
Early British computer manufacturers were started shortly after the concept of the electronic computer was first devised (in the late 1940's), and there were a considerable number of them for a period of about two decades, while the UK struggled to maintain a place in the then-new world-wide computer industry.
It was not surprising that quite a few organizations became involved in commercially producing computers, very early on in the UK, in light of the UK's very influential experimental work in early stored-program computers - including the Manchester Baby (1948), the Cambridge EDSAC (1947-49), the ACE (1945-50) and Pilot ACE (1949-50), and the Manchester Mark I (1948-49).
Initial products included the Ferranti Mark 1, the DEUCE, and the LEO (the first computer built for business work anywhere). Soon, a veritable flock of British companies were getting into the computer business, including:
- Associated Electrical Industries
- Elliott Brothers
- EMI Electronics
- English Electric Computers
- Ferranti
- General Electric Company
- Leo Computers
- International Computers and Tabulators
- Plessey
The British government eventually realized that although the computer business was relatively easy to get into - leading to the long list above - continued success, as the field evolved, would not be possible for a smaller firm. So they, and commercial necessity, soon caused a complex sequence of consolidations (in some cases, the companies involved had a wider range of products than just computers, and it was consideration of those aspects that were the primary cause of a particular consolidation):
| Date | Type | Involving | Consequence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Merger | BTM, Powers-Samas | International Computers and Tabulators (ICT) |
| 1963 | Merger | Leo Computers, English Electric Computers (EE) | EE |
| 1967 | Purchase | Associated Electrical Industries, General Electric Company (GEC) | GEC |
| 1967 | Merger | Elliott-Automation (commercial data processing element), EE | EE |
| 1968 | Merger | EMI Electronics, ICT | ICT |
| 1968 | Merger | EE (commercial data processing element), ICT, | International Computers Limited (ICL) |
| 1969 | Merger | real-time units of EE, GEC, AEI, Marconi and Elliott-Automation | Marconi Elliott Computer Systems Limited (re-named GEC Computers in 1971) |
{Note: Sources differ about the exact sequence and detail of this complex process; complicated by the fact that often units of companies were merged, not the whole company: an example is that EE's computer elements were merged with ICT, before the rest of EE merged with GEC in 1968. The above table is the result of a careful examination of descriptions most directly based on contemporary original sources, but may still contain errors. Cave haquur!}
At the end of all this, only one company was left selling large computers for business environments - ICL. It soldiered on for a while, until it was finally sold to Fujitsu in 1998 - ironically, just as the rise of the microcomputer created the conditions for the rise of another group of British computer manufacturers.
Further reading
- John Hendry, Innovating for Failure: Government Policy and the Early British Computer Industry, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1990 - based on extensive archival research, but hard to find
- Robert Jones, Oliver Mariott, Anatomy of a Merger: A History of G.E.C., A.E.I. and English Electric, Jonathan Cape, London, 1970 - mostly about the merger of the non-computer elements of the businesses
- Simon H. Lavington, Early British Computers: The Story of Vintage Computers and the People Who Built Them, Manchester University, Manchester, Digital Press, Bedford, 1980 - contains some coverage of the events above
- Simon H. Lavington, Moving Targets: Elliott-Automation and the Dawn of the Computer Age in Britain, 1947–67, Springer, New York, 2011
- Martin Campbell-Kelly, ICL: A Business and Technical History, Clarendon, Oxford, 1989
External links
- The Roots of GEC 1670-1999 - a large chart covering the complex events above
