1952 was the year that Princess Elizabeth inherited the throne - and when several innovations fuelled technological leaps for the UK's nascent computer industry. WHEN PRINCESS ELIZABETH became Queen Elizabeth II there were four computers in the UK. But whilst only the most optimistic of monarchists might have envisaged the Queen still on the throne in 2012, no one could have imagined the changes that were being designed in UK computer labs that year. The electronic computer was still very new; discounting wartime electronic machines, the first electronic 'stored program control' computers had only come into operation in 1948. During 1952 the total of UK computers rose by 50 per cent as two new British machines were brought into operation - Elliott Automation's 'Nicholas', and Birkbeck College's 'APE(X)C'.
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