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Bill English, co-creator of the computer mouse, has passed awayThank you and farewell
Thank you and farewell
Bill English, co-creator of the computer mouse with his colleague Doug Engelbart, has passed away at the age of 91. The two built the first computer mouse in 1963 at the Stanford Research Institute. A block of wood with two wheels and potentiometers that would measure movement forever changed how we interacted with computers.
Watch on YouTube
Watch on YouTube
After leaving SRI, he went on to work for Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre. It was there that he would refine his invention, creating the ball mouse.
The mouse ushered in a more precise way of engaging with the PC. We’re still swooshing cursors after all these years, and probably using it in a manner of ways that he couldn’t have predicted. The video demonstrates that they were already using the device to move things around and draw with, and we’re doing that today. But could he have envisioned just how many kids would be using his device to dig out their first base in Minecraft?
I, perhaps foolishly, never really thought of the mouse as an ‘invention’, and until today had never heard of Bill English. It was a genuine pleasure to find out about both, even if it is in such sad circumstances.
