60 Years of Business Computing Started With Tea Shops 89
theshowmecanuck writes "The Telegraph has an article talking about the 60th anniversary of The Lyons Electronic Office I (LEO I), complete with an old video from the mid '50s about LEO II. The LEO I was the first major computer business system. It was installed at a large catering company in the U.K. named J. Lyons and Co. that operated a chain of tea shops among other business interests. So, blame them or praise them, November 17, 2011 will mark 60 years since the day in 1951 that the Brits started the age of business computing. All hail our tea- and biscuit-powered computer overlords."
Sourceforge top downloads? (Score:1, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
You've got to hand it to the board - (Score:4, Insightful)
Kudos to the board of Lyons for being so interested in new technology.
A large catering company, doing its catering thing, scopes out the current state of the art and decides to give 3000 pounds - a considerable sum in the '50s - and an engineer's time to a university to complete a prototype, then goes on to spin it into a pretty successful business in it's own right.
That's a pretty big leap into the unknown for a catering business.