Leo Computers Limited

This is not a history of the company – there are much better places on the web for this, such as:-

            Leo Computers Society         

            Collections of LEO historic documents

No, this is more about memories.

First, the demise of LEO I

The Daily Mail published a “Lament for Leo” on
 9^th January 1965 – remember it ?

The full text of the Lament is reproduced below:-

TODAY we mourn the passing of a computer.

Leo I has reached the end of a long and useful life. With appropriate toasts and a funeral oration, he has been switched off. It remains only to write his obituary.

Leo was the pioneer of his race. He was the oldest working computer in the world. When he was born, on February 15, 1951, the world was a simpler, more rugged, uncomputed place.

The few elder brothers he had, like EDSAC, lived in the rarefied air of university laboratories. Young Leo was the first to go into commerce.

He was installed at Cadby Hall by his creators – the Lyons Electronic Office, from whom he took his name – and soon began to concern himself with tea-shops and tea and toasted tea-cakes and the problems of getting the right amount to the right place at the right time.

Versatility

Nor was that all. Apart from spewing out the weekly payrolls for Lyons, Fords and other large firms, Leo showed he could turn his hand to almost any problem.

He set about calculating disease among miners, the ballistic problems of Blue Streak, mortality rates for insurance companies, ”flutter” in new aircraft. He worked out how to make rain by ” seeding” clouds. He computed tax tables.

And, as a piece of extra night work, he calculated the distances between each of 7,000 railway stations.

Not bad going for an old-timer. For an old-timer is what he was, a grandfather among computers. Towards the end he must have felt his position keenly as brash, young whipper- snappers of computers such as his offspring, the Leo Threes, with ten times the speed of calculation, shouldered him aside.

Simplicity

Beside them he cut a rather ridiculous figure, with his immense bulk (the size of a room), his 7,000 cumbersome valves, his ability to do only three things at once, and a memory that could remember a mere 1,000 combinations of digits, compared with the 32,000 we expect of sophisticated computers.

But he had the simple virtues of an older generation – hardihood and a willingness to tackle something new, combined with a quirky sense of fun. He actually used to hum, rather boisterously, at his work. He even played a hornpipe to Prince Philip.

Finally, let it be remembered that throughout almost 14 years of life he worked a 24-hour shift on one dreary problem after another without complaining and spent, at the most, only a few hours off sick.

We shall not see his like again – and, such is the pace of electronic progress, we do not need to. But he will be remembered and his remains – that agile, pioneering central brain of his – will be interred in the Science Museum by a grateful nation.

LEO III was fun, but, no valves !  That took a lot of mental adjustment for those of us who needed to measure volts with our fingers.

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Remember the Prague Office in 1966 ?

These are the LEO people who paved the way into Eastern Europe.

This cutting came from an issue of
Electronics Weekly of that year.  

(click for full size
and text)

Invitation

NHKG Steelworks in Ostrava held a grand opening ceremony for the LEO III and England Electric’s KDF7 installations, performed by Sir Gordon Radley, Chairman of the company in 1966.

And then there was the Moscow Office – they had a company tie depicting a Russian bear, a rather sad looking British lion, and of course an abacus.

The “Ж” symbol at the top we always suspected was copied from the toilet door. The origin of the chicken on top was never explained !

Ludmilla & Dennis Skinner

… more

After the merger with English Electric, there remained much loyalty to Leo and its products. The introduction of a new computer system (especially an American-designed one) so soon after the merger brought the office poets out of the woodwork. This poem arrived anonymously in the Prague Office in March 1968.

We announced a new machine - System 4
It was nowhere to be seen - System 4
We had models made of wood
Which were very very good
We would build one if we could - System 4

You have heard of IBM - System 4
We're compatible with them - System 4
"It’s all ours"  the salesmen say
’Oh dear !  that’ll be the day
It was pinched from RCA - System 4

Program training isn't tough on System 4
Seven years should be enough for System 4
The instructors are not slow
When the answers they don’t know
They invent them as they go on System 4

You can have a disc or drum on System 4
But will software ever come for System 4 ?
Random access is a treat
And the way it works is neat
Like a man with two left feet - System 4

Now there’s Algol and Fortran on System 4
And Cobol’s an also-ran on System 4
Running Usercode and such
Our results don’t come to much
For the output’s Double-Dutch from System 4

You can time-share fifteen jobs on System 4
But be careful with the knobs on System 4
Or you’ll find that in a trice
You’ve put six of ’em in twice
And the output won’t be nice from System 4

Now the printer’s doing fine on System 4
Though it hadn’t worked on-line with System 4
When we send it TRAC and SEL
With some bits on DOUT as well
It just prints out "go to hell" - that’s System 4

Just last week we tried Mag Tape on System 4
Thought we'd licked it into shape on System 4
Then we tried a simple WRITE
Both the servos locked up tight
And the tape shot out of sight of System 4

There are signals by the score in System 4
But we'll have to get lots more for System 4
’Cos in the Standard Interface
Signals vanish without trace
And they're tricky to replace in System 4

Leo’s influence is there on System 4
Wiring looks like tangled hair on System 4
Since it’s all joined up with glue
If you try to trace it through
It’s the last thing that you’ll do on System 4

All the new control units on System 4
Periodically have fits on System 4
When they can’t think what to do
With the data coming through
They just broadcast WHO ARE YOU to System 4

Our new Discpack’s full of shocks for System 4
It looks like a new Juke Box on System 4
Yesterday we got a fright
When we tried to read or write
It played "Strangers in the Night" to System 4

We have sold - oh!- thirty-six of System 4
But sales dropped off very quick of System 4
So to keep off hunger cramps
And avoid becoming tramps
We are giving Green Shield Stamps with System 4

Now we think that it’s a bore - System 4
We don’t want it any more - System 4
All the hardware’s made of tin
And the Software won’t read in
We shall blame it all on Jim - System 4

Oh we’ve had it up to here of System 4
It's been dragging on for years, has System 4
If we don’t do more than shout
We will find without a doubt
ICT will buy us out - and System 4,

What is keeping us alive?   System five
Oh God !  When will it arrive, System five
Let us kneel upon the floor
And Sir Gordon all implore
Please improve on System 4 - with System five.

You’ll find some excellent photos of System 4 at Mike Whitehead’s home web site

Can’t remember me ?  Maybe this will jog your memory.

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Night shift in Hartree House 1963

Frank Skinner today

Why not e-mail me ?