51¶¯Âþ

The erstwhile corner shop, ice cream and cake company J. Lyons made the first
office computer in the world to work in 1951. User-Driven Innovation: The
World’s First Business Computer by David Caminer, John Aris, Peter Hermon and
Frank Land (McGraw-Hill, £35, ISBN 0 07 709236 8) tells the tale of
British innovation, success followed, as usual, by ultimate eclipse. Written by
the people involved, this book can be read on many levels: business takeovers,
history of computers, and for an indulgence of British nostalgia. It appears in
March in the US as The Incredible Story of the World’s First Business
Computer.