Roy Edwards – The Railway Clearing House – The first human supercomputer

The Railway Clearing House revolutionised the allocation of revenues collected for travelling passengers and the carriage of freight on the early rail network. Described as the original human supercomputer, a work force of hundreds would account for and distribute funds collected owed to railway owning companies. Dr Roy Edwards is Lecturer within Southampton Business School at the University of Southampton who recent research focuses on the Railway Clearing House. In this Great Rail Tale Roy describes how the simple beauty of the accounting system had a huge socio-economic impact on the country.