The first ball-based computer mouse was developed by German company Telefunken for their TR 86 process computer system. The device was named Rollkugel (German for "rolling ball") and released on October 2, 1968. Telefunken considered their invention too small to apply for a patent.
Independently, American inventor Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) invented his first mouse prototype in the 1960s with the assistance of his lead engineer Bill English. Engelbart released his demo on December 9, 1968.
Engelbart and English christened the device the mouse as early models had a cord attached to the rear part of the device looking like a tail and generally resembling the common mouse.
SRI applied for a patent in 1967 and received it in 1970. In the patent application Engelbert's mouse is described as an "X-Y position indicator for a display system".
SRI had no idea of the mouse's value and later licensed it to Apple Computers for around $40,000. Engelbart made virtually no money from his brainchild.
The mouse remained relatively obscure until the 1984 appearance of the Macintosh 128K, the first consumer computer to popularize the pointing device.
Minesweeper and Solitaire were added to Windows back in the 3.1 days, to train mouse discipline without the users even realizing they were learning. Solitaire was added to teach users how to Drag and Drop, Minesweeper taught using the right/left mouse buttons and mouse precision/control
The mouse's cursor is tilted because in the early days it was first a vertical arrow pointing up, but it was difficult to see a vertical line on a low resolution screen, so it was tilted to make it easier to find.
The plural of "computer mouse" has long been disputed. Some say "mice", some say "mouses".
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| The first ball-based computer mouse, the Telefunken Rollkugel RKS 100-86 . By Marcin Wichary - Wikipedia |
Independently, American inventor Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) invented his first mouse prototype in the 1960s with the assistance of his lead engineer Bill English. Engelbart released his demo on December 9, 1968.
Engelbart and English christened the device the mouse as early models had a cord attached to the rear part of the device looking like a tail and generally resembling the common mouse.
SRI applied for a patent in 1967 and received it in 1970. In the patent application Engelbert's mouse is described as an "X-Y position indicator for a display system".
 |
| Engelbart's prototype of a computer mouse. By SRI International - Wikipedia Commons |
The mouse remained relatively obscure until the 1984 appearance of the Macintosh 128K, the first consumer computer to popularize the pointing device.
Minesweeper and Solitaire were added to Windows back in the 3.1 days, to train mouse discipline without the users even realizing they were learning. Solitaire was added to teach users how to Drag and Drop, Minesweeper taught using the right/left mouse buttons and mouse precision/control
The mouse's cursor is tilted because in the early days it was first a vertical arrow pointing up, but it was difficult to see a vertical line on a low resolution screen, so it was tilted to make it easier to find.
The plural of "computer mouse" has long been disputed. Some say "mice", some say "mouses".
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