Computing

Image Credit: Roger Boyle, School of Computing, University of Leeds

The collection in the School of Computing consists of numerous components of early computers.

In 1957, the University of Leeds became one of the first few British Universities to purchase a computer, at a cost of £50,000. This machine was a Pegasus One computer built by Ferranti of Gorton, Manchester. It was named ‘Lucifer’, short for Leeds University Computing Installation (Ferranti). Prior to its installation in the Eldon Chapel, a disused Methodist Chapel on campus, a new concrete floor had to be laid to support its enormous weight.

Although poor by modern standards, the calculating power and speed this computer offered was at the time extremely valuable for physicists and mathematicians at the University. Lucifer was used by Professor Tony Wren in the creation of the software that enabled the first computerised train schedule in 1963, and also supported chemists working on improvements in crystallography methods.