"Father of the Mouse"0

Doug Engelbart invented the mouse in 1963, for which the patent was issued to his employer, Stanford Research Institute, in 1970.1

Sitting in a conference on computer graphics in 1961, Engelbart's mind was mulling over the challenge of coming up with efficient pointing devices for interactive display technology. One idea he had was to use small wheels traversing the tabletop, one turning horizontally, one turning vertically, each transmitting their rotation coordinates for analysis. He sketched it out roughly. Later, when he was experimenting with interactive display technology, he reviewed his earlier notes with his lead engineer Bill English, who created the first working prototype -- encased in a carved out wooden block with perpendicular wheels mounted in the underbelly. This first mouse had only one button simply because that was all there was room for in the wooden casing. They had a small grant to test the efficiency of different pointing devices, and pitted the mouse against a half dozen other devices -- the mouse won, and was then included as standard equipment in their ongoing research (see 1965 Report detailing these experiments).


Original Mouse
Courtesy SRI International

See Logitech's short video of Doug telling about the invention, as well as the images of the first mouse and US Patent on the Mouse at the Stanford University MouseSite. See also notes from the Computer History Museum event "Early Computer Mouse Encounters" Oct 17, 2001 [press]. 2

Very quickly they got the idea to also offer a selection of buttons for the left hand to enter commands with while the right hand was busy pointing and clicking (shown above). The left hand device evolved into a telegraph-style five key "keyset" which was in full use by the time of the 1968 demonstration (shown here -- see also link to "Mother of All Demos" link below).3

In Doug's Words: 3a

"The mouse we built for the [1968] show was an early prototype that had three buttons. We turned it around so the tail came out the top. We started with it going the other direction, but the cord got tangled when you moved your arm.
I first started making notes for the mouse in '61. At the time, the popular device for pointing on the screen was a light pen, which had come out of the radar program during the war. It was the standard way to navigate, but I didn't think it was quite right.
Two or three years later, we tested all the pointing gadgets available to see which was the best. Aside from the light pen there was the tracking ball and a slider on a pivot. I also wanted to try this mouse idea, so Bill English went off and built it.
We set up our experiments and the mouse won in every category, even though it had never been used before. It was faster, and with it people made fewer mistakes. Five or six of us were involved in these tests, but no one can remember who started calling it a mouse. I'm surprised the name stuck.
We also did a lot of experiments to see how many buttons the mouse should have. We tried as many as five. We settled on three. That's all we could fit. Now the three-button mouse has become standard, except for the Mac. Steve Jobs insisted on only one button. Still shot from video interview We haven't spoken much since then."
– Source: The Click Heard Round The World, by Ken Jordan, WIRED 2004.3a1

Watch Doug explaining how he invented the mouse on this short videoclip from a 2004 interview by Logitech now available on the NMC site.3b

Debunking the "Xerox PARC created the mouse" Myth4

The mouse later migrated from Doug's lab at SRI to Xerox PARC, and then to Apple and others. One of the most common myths about the mouse is the mistaken belief that it was first developed at Xerox PARC. As noted by Curtis R. Carlson, President and CEO of SRI International, in a letter published in Time magazine issue November 20, 2000:4a

"Your article on Xerox noted that its research center Xerox PARC was responsible for the computer mouse. Douglas C. Engelbart and his team at SRI International (which was then known as Stanford Research Institute) invented the mouse and created the foundations for personal computing. The patent for the mouse was filed in 1967, three years before Xerox PARC was established in 1981."4a1

Mouse Alternatives5

Engelbart and his team tried out other ideas for pointing devices to test against the mouse for speed and accuracy. These included a foot pedal, knee apparatus, and helmet mounted device.5a

From Doug's lab mid'60s

A knee-operated pointing device
A gyro-stlye hand operated pointing device


See Also 6

From the Internet 6a

  • Visit MouseSite - the definitive website on the Mouse hosted by Stanford University.
    • 6a1

  • Visit Logitech's Billionth Mouse site - see the genesis of the mouse, scroll down to bottom to download an interview of Doug Engelbart describing how he invented the mouse.
    • 6a1

From Doug's Lab6b

  • Display-Selection Techniques for Text Manipulation, William K. English, Douglas C. Engelbart and Melvyn L. Berman, March 1967. This paper describes an experimental study into the relative merits of different CRT display-selection devices as used within a real-time, computer-display, text-manipulation system in use at Stanford Research Institute. The mouse was tested against other devices and found to be the most accurate and efficient.
    • 6b1
  • "The Mother of All Demos" (90 min Video/Film) Doug's 1968 debut of NLS (Augment's precursor) including hypermedia, the mouse, collaborative work, interactive computing, human computer interface, and overarching guiding principles. See especially Clip 12 where Doug, sitting in San Francisco, brings in a coworker sitting in his lab in Menlo Park, to demonstrate the mouse, and Clip 13 where Doug introduces the keyset.
    • 6b2
  • Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework, Douglas C. Engelbart. 1962. See for example how he envisioned an architect might work interactively with a computer in 1962 in the Introduction's summary of Section IV (quoted at right).
    • 6b3
  • Doug Engelbart - A Lifetime Pursuit, a short biographical sketch by Christina Engelbart (5 pages) describes the larger context of this early work.
    • 6b4

Genesis of the mouse:6

From Doug's Vision:
From the introduction of his Augmenting human intellect: A conceptual framework (1962): 6a

Let us consider an augmented architect at work. He sits at a working station that has a visual display screen some three feet on a side; this is his working surface, and is controlled by a computer (his "clerk") with which he can communicate by means of a small keyboard and various other devices.6a1

He is designing a building. He has already dreamed up several basic layouts and structural forms, and is trying them out on the screen. The surveying data for the layout he is working on now have already been entered, and he has just coaxed the clerk to show him a perspective view of the steep hillside building site with the roadway above, symbolic representations of the various trees that are to remain on the lot, and the service tie points for the different utilities. The view occupies the left two-thirds of the screen. With a pointer he indicates two points of interest, moves his left hand rapidly over the keyboard, and the distance and elevation between the points indicated appear on the right-hand third of thescreen.6a2

From Bush's Vision:
From Vannevar Bush's, As We May Think (1945, quoted by Engelbart in Augmenting human intellect):6b

"Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library.It needs a name, and to coin one at random, "memex" will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility.It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.6b1

"It consists of a desk, and while it can presumably be operated from a distance, it is primarily the piece of furniture at which he works. On the top are slanting translucent screens, on which material can be projected for convenient reading. There is a keyboard, and sets of buttons and levers. Otherwise it looks like an ordinarydesk.6b2

[...] Moreover, he has supplemental levers. On deflecting one of these levers to the right he runs through the book before him, each page in turn being projected at a speed which just allows a recognizing glance at each. If he deflects it further to the right,he steps through the book 10 pages at a time; still further at 100 pages at a time. Deflection to the left gives him the same control backward.6b3