Humble mouse hits 40

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 9 Dec 2008 at 08:25

The computer mouse has celebrated its fortieth birthday today.

The first mouse was demonstrated on 9 December 1968 by Dr Douglas Engelbart as a novel way of interacting with computers. Though undeniably simple, the device remains instantly recognisable. Built by engineer Bill English at the Stanford Research Institute, it was constructed of wood, had two wheels, a single button and a thick cord protruding from the back. The device was christened after this "tail" and the name stuck.

The mouse was considered a revelation, with Engelbart showing off features we now take for granted, including the ability to easily cut and paste text in documents. The demonstration, held at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, was also notable for a number of other innovations including hypertext linking, multiple windows, real-time on-screen text editing and even shared-screen teleconferencing.

English would later take his knowledge to Xerox, which would develop the first commercial mouse in 1981, bundled with its Xerox 8010 Star Information System.

The mouse has had a rough ride recently, with many observers, including Bill Gates, predicting its end at the hands of touchscreen, or voice recognition technology.

However, so far none of these technologies have managed to take its throne. Indeed, the mouse still appears to be going strong with Logitech announcing last week that it had manufacturered its billionth mouse.