LEO editor

Living Legends Hidden Histories Exhibition, Corby, May 3rd 2018. Copy of presentation can be obtained from Frank Land (f.land@lse.ac.uk) and Wej Parry, (wej@theparrys.co.uk).

an interesting account of the merger forming ICL and the discussions involving ex Leo managers, including john Pinkerton, David Caminer and John Aris in defining the New Range to succeed the ICT 1900 range and EELM System 4 range, written by one of the key members of the New Range team. Resurrection, Spring 2019, Number 87, pages 23 – 25.

https://computerconservationsociety.org/resurrection/res87.htm#e

The newsletter of ICL Australian veterans includes a number of references to the history of LEO. Pages14 and 15 refer to the collaboration between John Pinkerton and Conway Berners-Lee, ex Ferranti.

the Newsletter of ICL Australian veterans, includes a number of references with a LEO theme: Report on Heritage Lottery Fund to LEO Computers Society and CCCH, page 4-5; an article entitled ‘Two Faces of note’ by Neil Lamming providing a sketch of the roles played by David Caminer and John Pinkerton in the LEO story, pages 16-17; and a personal history of David Llewellyn Jones, who joined LEO in Australia in 1964, page18.

the Newlsetter of ICL Australian veterans, includes a number of references and photographs with a LEO theme, including on pages 6 – 9 a report on the visits to Australia of Peter Byford and Hilary Caminer in the very hot summer of 2019, and includes a photo on page 27 of the Shell Data Centre LEO III with Alan Sercombe, Peter Gyngell, Wallace Weaving and Gary Driver.

the Newlsetter of ICL Australian veterans, includes a number of references and photographs with a LEO theme: a very full report on the LEO Reunion, 2019, pages 11-12, and a report on Frank Land’s OBE awarded June 2019.

http://www.nickpelling.com/Leo1.html The business cases behind the five proposals made to the board of J. Lyons & Co. by Thompson and Standingford in 1947 – which led to the construction of the first business computer – are analysed, but found to be strategically lacking. Both an alternate reading of the case and some contemporary implications are then developed.

Pearcey wrote;

In the non-mathematical field there is wide scope for the use of the techniques in such things as filing systems. It is not inconceivable that an automatic encyclopaedic service operated through the national teleprinter or telephone system, will one day exist.”

The article by Piercey who may is honoured as father of Australian computing may be considered prescient much as the LEO project at that time.

manuscript typescript of a paper prepared by John Pinkerton with the help of Derek Hemy one month after John joined Lyons. The paper attempts to provide an analysis of how long it would take to prepare a payslip under various assumptions about input/facilities. A copy of the transcribed document is held in Dropbox in Word and PDF format. https://www.dropbox.com/s/hr062jv7rnabnh1/John%20Pinkerton%20EDSAC%20payroll%20paper_1949.docx?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cbji9iikgtjm3ge/John%20Pinkerton%20EDSAC%20payroll%20paper_1949.pdf?dl=0

Electronic Engineering, Vol. 23., pp. 147-148.