If your mouse has stopped working, perhaps because its battery died, you probably remember how difficult it was to try to do anything on your computer. with keyboard only. This peripheral is not only one of the best allies in terms of productivity and gaming, but also a practically indispensable element of desktop computers.

The world has changed a lot since the first computer mouse appeared in the 1960s. It was a wooden device with metal wheels and a single button on top. Currently, we have the opportunity to choose our favorite accessory from a wide range of options, the price of which generally varies between 2 and 400 euros.

first commercial mouse

So, have you ever wondered what the first commercial mouse was? We need to go back to 1969 to find the answer. Xerox was doing research at the time. new business avenues. The American company had introduced the first photocopier in history in 1959 and dominated the market, but it needed to continue growing.

Xerox had a research center in Rochester, New York, but management gave the green light to establish a second research center aimed at developing the “Office of the Future” concept. The Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) was literally on the other side of the United States, which in some ways gave its team more freedom.

Xerox PARC in 1977

One of the lab’s most notable projects was called Xerox Alto. This was a personal computer that looked like it was from the future, as it integrated an operating system with a bitmap display, graphical user interface (GUI), and Ethernet connectivity. Moreover, came with a mouseAn innovative accessory that will evolve significantly before reaching the public a few years later.

The first two mouse concepts from Xerox

The first Xerox mouse ran on wheels and had three buttons arranged below each other; This was something that was not very practical. The second concept had no wheels, two vertical buttons and a ball that offered greater precision. However, in addition to being expensive, these options were sensitive to dirt, which negatively affected the user experience.

Xerox Alto (left), Xerox Star (right)

However, Xerox engineers have come up with a very different alternative. They developed an optical mouse with no moving parts, which solved the problems of previous concepts. This optical mouse was unlike existing optical mice. I needed someone special mat it was stamped with flats to work with, but despite this requirement it was much cheaper than other offerings.

The Xerox Alto did not become a commercial product. Xerox’s chief engineer, Charles Thacker, said that the first computer cost the company $12,000, so the market price would be about $40,000. This computer’s innovations laid the groundwork for the Xerox Star, which was offered with keyboard and mouse in 1981 for $16,500 ($56,000 today).

With this move, the mouse, which had been in the laboratory for a long time, became a commercial product. Xerox Star’s price was exorbitantSo this computer was not a bestseller. Some time before that, in 1979 to be exact, there was Steve Jobs’ famous visit to Xerox PARC; here he had an almost perfect understanding of where PCs were heading.

Pictures | Marcin Wichary | Michael Hicks | Bubba73 | Coolcaesar | Xerox PARC (Richard F. Lyon)

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