Description of Photograph

Digital copy of a photograph of John Pinkerton, Chief Engineer on LEO I, at the demonstration to the Lyons Board of the early workings of LEO I on 8 March 1950.

Caption:  'JMM Pinkerton explains the demonstration which showed storage and binary addition.  The complete system was still some way off. 8/3/50'

This image appears in the interactive plan for our Virtual LEO I installation, p58.

 

Research comments: Although LEO I is still some time away from completion, the development team showed Lyons directors, managers and supervisors the machine's potential during this early demo in 1950. The pressure on key members of the team like John Pinkerton must have been considerable, as Lyons had invested a significant sum of money and a lot of time in the LEO project, with no guarantee that it would work (beyond the knowledge that EDSAC - on which it was based - had worked). Computers were not generally in existence at this time so the people attending the demo would have understood very little about how LEO might actually work. (LM)

Provenance
Digital copy made by John Daines, LEO Computers Society, of a photograph in the LEO Computers Collection (formerly part of the National Archive of Historic Computing) at the University of Manchester Library: NAHC/LEO/B1-06

Date: 8th March 1950

Physical Description: 1 digital image (jpeg); black & white; image includes original typed caption

Archives Hub References: CMLEO/LS/PH/1/61850
NAHCB1-06

Other References: DCMLEO20210214006
                  
                  
                  
                  


Comment on This Photograph

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH61850. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.