Elliott Brothers
Elliott Brothers (also known as Elliott-Automation, after 1957) was a British computer company. The original parent company had been founded in 1804 as an instrument manufacturer; by the end of that century, they had branched out into telegraph and electrical equipment. Naval fire control equipment became a specialty at the start of the next century, bringing them (as Elliott Brothers (London)) expertise in electro-mechanical analog computers.
At the end of the Second World War, that firm started a branch, at Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, to work on a new generation of electronic fire control equipment, including radar, for the Royal Navy. Originally analog, that work soon delved into digital techniques. In 1950, Elliott Brothers began to look for civil markets where they could use their new digital expertise, and they started to make computers, and investigate the usage of computers in manufacturing automation.
In 1958, in an attempt to form a strong national computer manufacturer, the commercial data processing element of Elliott Brothers was merged with International Computers and Tabulators, to form International Computers Limited. The remaining real-time systems part of Elliott-Automation was merged with similar elements of GEC, Marconi, and English Electric in 1969, to form Marconi Elliott Computer Systems Limited, re-named GEC Computers in 1972.
It is perhaps best-known to history for the ALGOL compiler for the Elliott 803, largely written by Tony Hoare (who had been hired by Elliotts as a programmer in August 1960). His experiences with ALGOL were an inspiration for his famous 1980 Turing Award lecture, The Emperor's Old Clothes - see link below).
Further reading
- Simon H. Lavington, Moving Targets: Elliott-Automation and the Dawn of the Computer Age in Britain, 1947–67, Springer, New York, 2011
External links
- Elliott Brothers (London) Ltd. and Elliott-Automation
- Elliott - manuals, marketing material and captioned images for several Elliott Brothers computers
- 803 ALGOL - manual for Elliott 803 ALGOL
- The Emperor's Old Clothes
- An ICL Anthology - contains Elliott Brothers-related content on pp. 70-72 (of the PDF)
- Another ICL Anthology - contains Elliott Brothers-related content on pp. 50-51
