“The one characteristic they have in common is that no one really knows their price until the auctioneer's hammer falls," he (right) said "Of one thing I am certain, many will sell for far less than I paid for them.”

He did not attend the auction feeling he would be too tempted to bid; describing his business as an 'adult toyshop', and has even connected a 1938 TV to a digital set-top box 'to prove it can be done.'

The going price for bits of hardware and paperwork from the first commercially sold computer was set at £8,400 when the LEO II/3, the 1958 Lyons Electronic Office electronic programmable storage computer was  for at auction in London.

By comparison, a job lot of an Osborne 'suitcase' computer and a Commodore 64 went for £60. The visionary vehicle design classic, the Sinclair C5, went for £288.

The Early Technology (left) sale at Bonhams was a market test for for all kinds of scientific and tech kit. It included a large collection of pre-war TVs, C17th and C18th scientific and medical kit, and first generation calculators.

LEO II/3 was the third order of the second generation of LEO machines. But as it was the first sold and used, it can be describe it as 'first commercially sold computer' bought by Stewart & Lloyd's, Corby and first run in May 1958. Lyons used the first LEO themselves.

Bennet-Levy who ran Early Technology from his Old Craighall home, went to the defence of mercury barometer in June 2006 when the EU proposed to ban both manufacture, repair and import. "This ban is complete nonsense. With mercury barometers it's not in any concentration that would ever be harmful. There are several million British people walking around with mercury fillings - there's no sign of them having mercury poisoning." 

In the event, the art of  barometer manufacture which came to Edinburgh from Italy over 400 years ago with Edinburgh and London becoming world leaders in the trade was saved.  MEP Martin Callanan tabled an amendment to a report on "Measuring devices containing mercury". The amendment, excluding barometers from a ban on new "fever and room thermometers" and blood pressure gauges, was approved in a 327-274 vote in Strasbourg.

The Federation of Small Businesses said the result meant small firms repairing barometers could carry on business - ensuring old barometers are not jettisoned, preventing mercury from polluting the environment.

FSB spokesman Matthew Knowles said banning barometers had been a "bizarre suggestion" - saved from becoming reality by Martin Callanan and UK businessman Philip Collins, who championed the cause: "They have prevented the strange situation where more mercury would have entered the environment in the name of green policies," he said.