John Pinkerton and Lyons Electronic Office

The lecture on which this article is based described how it came about that J.C. Lyons and Co. Ltd., a firm well known as tea shop proprietors and caterers, came to be involved in the building of digital computers, first for their own use and then for sale. They based their work on the EDSAC at Cambridge University, and they took a firm decision to proceed with the building of an enhanced and re-engineered version in the summer of 1949 when the EDSAC had just done its first calculation. It was to be a number of years before digital computers became available generally as articles of commerce. The author describes the development of computer science and computer engineering during the late 1940s and Lyons approach to Cambridge regarding ESDAC. The role of John Pinkerton in this engineering challenge and the setting up of LEO Computers Ltd. and its eventual acquisition by English Electric is discussed