Talk:LEO computer

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Are you sure about 1500ms this is 1.5 seconds oughtn't this to be at least micro seconds? Rjstott

I just thought of the same; 1.5 sec seems a little strange to me too. I tried to find some info on the net, but failed, so I'll check with the LEO society. I certainly wonder where the info in this article came from. --Wernher 18:03, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Colossus connection

J. Lyons and Co., one of the UK's leading catering and food manufacturing companies in the first half of the 20th century, sent two of its senior managers to the USA in 1947 to look at new business methods developed during the Second World War. During their visit they came across digital computers then used exclusively for engineering and mathematical computations.

Although this story is widely published what is not so well known is that the chairman of Lyons worked for MI5 or MI6 during the WWII and that he was well aware of what computers would be of use in civilian business. The two gentlemen probably did go to the states, but given the absolute secrecy that surrounded Ultra until the 1970s, it would have made a good cover story to explain why a tea shop wanted to build a computer. Professor Frank Land[1] was one of the early programmers on LEO and when I studied under him he gave some lectures on programming LEO and an introduction to the computer's history. I seem to remember him mentioning the MI5/6 connection but not the trip to the states. Does anyone have a written source to confirm that my recollections are correct or even the name of the post war chairman of Lyons --Philip Baird Shearer 18:06, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] LEO III or LEO II

The sentence "The first LEO III was completed in 1961." in section 3 seems erroneous to me. Shouldn't that be LEO II, as the LEO III was built after the takeover by English Electric a few years later (according to the information in the same paragraph)?

M. Schouppe