Leo II and the Model T Ford 1 The Computer Journal Lecture

The paper sets out to describe the work carried out on what was a first-generation computer delivered in 1958. The paper provides a historical account of events that demonstrate what could be achieved on equipment now regarded as primitive. This was one of the earliest large scale applications of computers to deal with business data processing in the UK. The application described is that carried out on a LEO II computer by the Ford Motor Company. The computer was installed at the Ford Motor Company spare parts depot in Aveley, Essex, in 1958 and was purchased from its manufacturers, LEO Computers Limited, a subsidiary of the catering company J. Lyons and Company, to support the data processing activities required to maintain the activities of the spare parts depot. The paper is set out as follows. The second section gives a brief history of J. Lyons and the LEO computer and describes the circumstances that led a major automobile manufacturer to acquire a computer built by a catering company. The third section discusses the application and the requirements that had to be met. The fourth section provides some information about the systems analysis and design methods employed by the development teams. The fifth section gives some details of the LEO II computer chosen, including the specific configuration installed at the Aveley Depot. The sixth Section describes and discusses the way the job was organized including some details of operations. The final section discusses the outcomes. The information provided by the paper draws on a paper the author wrote in 1960 [1] and a report written by Dilloway, a Ford Motor Company systems analyst, on behalf of the Ford Motor Company some years after the installation to determine whether the LEO II was still adequate for the tasks in hand [3]. But a substantial information source is the recollections of some of the principal actors including the author’s. The way the paper is presented and its tone is the direct result of it being based on the transcript of a paper presented to the BCS Computer Conservation Society [2].