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Billions of mice have been shipped since then, but it took years for the mouse to catch on. In 1984 Apple bought the mouse patent for its Macintosh; Engelbart never saw a penny from mouse sales.
The very first mouse (not used in the demo) was built in 1964 by Bill English of SRI. It consisted of a small pine box equipped with a red clicker button on top. No laser, LED or even ball was used to track movement; two wheels at right angles underneath tracked horizontal and vertical motion.
As to why Engelbart called the now ubiquitous pointing device a mouse, I quote from the demo:
I don't know why we call it a mouse. Sometimes I apologize. It started that way, and it never did change.
The event will be celebrated today at Stanford University in an afternoon program titled "Engelbart and the Dawn of Interactive Computing: SRI's Revolutionary 1968 Demo." Attendees will include Engelbart, now 83, and many others who worked with him.
Watch a section of the demo focusing on the mouse, attached to this article.
Posted December 9th, 2008 by Michael Santo
