next time there's such an auction ...
... tell us in advance, eh?
Early tech goes under hammer in London
The going rate for bits of hardware and paperwork from the first commercially sold computer has been set at £8,400. This is what LEO II/3, the 1958 Lyons Electronic Office electronic programmable storage computer sold for at auction in London yesterday. For comparison, a job lot of an Osborne 'suitcase' computer and a Commodore …
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OMG!!
A French ENTAC wire-guided anti-tank missile went for a bargain £36
Wondering if the new owner will be getting a visit?
Osborne "suitcase"
Brilliant. I've still got one of those Osborne 1 suitcase computers somewhere. I think I'll keep it though if £60 (with C64) is all I'd get. It's a seminal classic!
Cruise missile prototype?
- Hardly. The Germans considered the option of remote controlled aircraft earlier in WWII and rightly rejected it on the grounds of cost and complexity. Their low-cost V1 flying bomb was a much better candidate.
Double failure
Ahh, Leo II. Possibly the last computer system where the vendor turned up and said "now how can we make this computer work for you", rather than "this is the computer, you will OBEY IT, you clones"
(I admit that this is probably me misreading "A Computer Called LEO", but it was a good read if you're interested in computing history, and it's heavily UK based - most computer history books are IBM centric)
OMG!!
It was Lewis Page, he's going to put a BAe sticker on it an sell it to the MoD for £36M
@Steve Williams
IIRC (from "The Secret War" BBC series about 1976) the Germans ran quite a few guided weapons projects, several of which did use (or were planned to use) TV guidance.
If you know anything of the PAL TV standard you might be aware that one of the key developers of it worked on at least one such system. I think the missile was the "Wasserfall" or waterfall. According to Electronics & Wireless World he was also heavily involved with the German TV coverage of the 1936 Olympics.
You can guess what's int he pocket.
@jimmy Floyd
It's a seminal classic!
snurk
sorry, i'll be leaving now
A shrewd investor?
A few years ago, I was browsing an old curiosity shop in the Grassmarket area of Edinburgh and was offered the bits from LEO II, including the printout. IIRC the owner was asking around £1000, but added "It's difficult to know what kind of value something like this has. Make me an offer."
So I turned him down, having put my money in dotcom shares instead, just before the bubble burst*. A couple of years after that, I sold my Apple shares for $42 each, instead of the $185 they're currently going for**.
With financial acumen like that, I could have got a job on the board of a Scottish bank... ;-)
Ah well...
* The value of shares can apparently go up as well as down, although rarely in my experience. I am neither authorised nor regulated by the Financial Services Authority. In fact, I seem to be a bit of Jonah in these matters, and readers are strongly discouraged from seeking my advice.
** OK, I did buy them at $9.
@AC 13:55
Yeah, what is the point of telling us AFTER the auction? I collect old computers and would have loved the chance to get hold of some really obsolite stuff.
Edinburgh shop?
I think this is the guy that used to have a shop in Edinburgh that sold old tat^W gadgetry. I think I bought an AVOmeter off him.
Leo - can I have one please!
Having read a "Computer called Leo" I was amazed to discover that Lyons tea rooms were more IT'ed up in the 1960's than most companies now with billions time the computing power.
Leo was used to automate the business and assist management. Windows and Office is used to turn everyone into secretaries.
@Dom
An AVO 8 per chance? A damn fine meter, none of your digital crap...
JFK's brother
was killed in by a remote control US Navy Liberator (B-24) not a B-17.
(USN project Anvil, USAAF Operation Aphrodite)
JFK's brother
Yes, JFK,s brother was killed in a converted B24. That doesn't change the fact that B17's were used in the project as well.
I don't believe the original article suggested that JPK was in one of the B17s. You might have inferred that but as a list of "highlights": 2 B17s blew up. JPK was killed. 2 B17s got close to target.
No connection between JPK and B17s implied.
If you're desperate
Some lots didn't sell and the catalogue is still online :
http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r
(that link might not work, but if you go to their homepage you can find it.)
Chances are if you make an offer on the unsolds, you might get them,
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