These historic photos depict elements of Doug Engelbart's work beginning in the early 1960s at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International). For more background, see the brief biography "A Lifetime Pursuit," as well as Engelbart's 1986 lecture The Augmented Knowledge Workshop and its companion paper "Workstation History and The Augmented Knowledge Workshop" for a guided tour of these and other photos in their historical context. 1a
Display selection experiments. In search of a best way to select screen objects for interactive display workstations; Engelbart launched experiments managed by Bill English, beginning in late 1963 or early 1964. They selected a variety of available pointing devices -- light pen, track ball, joystick, and Grafacon (pictured here), and also invented one that would roll around on the table top called a 'mouse'. The devices were compared for speed and accuracy, with the mouse coming out on top. Still other prototypes were later built and tested, including foot-pedal operated, knee-operated, even head-operated ("nose pointing").2a
First mouse. - Doug Engelbart invented the computer mouse in 1963, built by his lead engineer Bill English as part of an experiment to find better ways to point-and-click on a display screen. Made in a shop at SRI, the casing was carved out of wood. It had only one button, which was all there was room for. Subsequent models featured three buttons. Engelbart would have gone for even more buttons, but there was only room for three of the needed micro-switches available in those days.2c
First mouse perspectives. - Two wheels, perpendicularly mounted to one another in the mouse's innards track the X-Y position that is communicated to the screen. The mouse was patented in 1970 as an "X-Y Position Indicator." Xerox Park is often credited, erroneously so, with the invention of the mouse, but they do have to their credit the trackball that has replaced the perpendicular wheels.2d
Workstation with mouse.- The mouse was invented for use with display workstations that were pioneered in Engelbart's laboratory, the Augmentation Research Center. This model, of _circa_1964-1966, was custom-built for roughly $80,000. A second device with buttons, on the left, is the forerunner of the keysetdesigned for the rapid input of command codes for manipulation of blocks of text. The keyset is, for that purpose, more efficient than the common keyboard.2e
First production keyset. - Engelbart invented a document generation and editing system with which a number of people can work together. It was known as the NLS (oN-Line System). It called for streamlining the commands for operating the computer and manipulating documents. Engelbart looked for single-character inputs, such as a d for delete. He then came up with the keyset for chording the command keys with the left hand while the mouse was worked with the right hand.2f
A cue card for the keyset, or "chord". - The keyset's five keys permit 31 combination of pressed keys. That covers more than the alphabet. Letters, beginning with a, are shown on this cue-card chart. Uppercase characters are obtained by simultaneously pressing the middle mouse button. With the left mouse button pressed, the keyset is used for entering digits and punctuation marks. Tests done in the early '60s showed that temporarily secretarial helpers (known as the "Kelly Girls") mastered the keyset in less than two hours no-matter what method of training was used. They also demonstrated that the regular keyboard is more efficient for straightforward typing, but that for editing and maneuvering text, the mouse-keyset combination is the more efficient.2g
Production mouse. - This model was used by the Augmentation Research Center group and the customers served over the ARPAnet. It is also the mouse used in the 1968 FJCC demo.2h
Production workstation and mouse. - The first production model of the mouse was made in 1967. It had a plastic casing on a metal base plate. Although the casing was originally designed for the cord to be attached to the wrist side of the device, it is seen here with the cord coming out from the other end.2i
Ergonomic keyboard console. - This console was custom-made by Herman Miller furniture company of Zeeland, Michigan, and used during the 1968 Fall Joint Computer Conference at which Doug Engelbart gave his historical demonstration of on-line computing. The setup included a tilt-swivel office chair.2j
Doug Engelbart and mice. - Engelbart, in his office at Tymshare, shows the original mouse next to the then latest, 1984 model. Upon acquiring the NLS co-operative text-editing system from SRI, Tymshare renamed the system Augment.2k
Engelbart in his ARC office. - Doug Engelbart at his first personal display workstation, - This station was installed in his own office in 1974. Until then, all the ARC's display workstations were situated in an open arenashared by all his engineers.3b
Pictures (top and bottom) show Doug and staff using NLS to support 1967 meeting with sponsors -- probably the first computer-supported conference. The facility was rigged for a meeting with representatives of the ARC's research sponsors NASA, Air Force, and ARPA. A U-shaped table accommodated setup CRT displays positioned at the right height and angle. Each participant had a mouse for pointing. Engelbart could display his hypermedia agenda and briefing materials, as well as the documents in his laboratory's knowledge base. See also Father of Groupware and Working Together. 3c
NIC archives (1971). - The host mainframe at ARC was the second such unit linked into the ARPANet, which was the precursor of the Internet. Engelbart's lab had been assigned by ARPA to run the Network Information Center (NIC), which has since grown into the InterNIC. This photo shows the NIC archives vault with its library of NIC publications and backup tapes (magnetic 7- or 9-track tapes).3e
Tree of evolution. - Chart shows progression of ideas from Engelbart's Augmentation Research Lab at SRI (SRI-ARC) migrating to Xerox, the Apple Computer Co., and beyond. (Slide by Charles Irby who migrated from Engelbart's lab to Xerox PARC, Metaphor, and is now at SGI.) 3f
See our 1968 Demo page for a bit of background and links to the demo and other related resources.4a
First ever video teleconference. - A screen shot of simultaneous on-screen video teleconferencing and shared screen shows ARC's Bill Paxton piped in from the SRI lab in Menlo Park as he demonstrates NLS's information retrieval capability.4e
Forty miles from the conference site. - Display-driver equipment room at Engelbart's SRI laboratory in Menlo Park during a rehearsal for 1968 FJCC demonstration. From left to right, unknown woman, Martin Hardy, Dave Casseres, Ed van de Reit, unknown man, Stewart Brand, Roger Bates, Bill English.4c
Using early display technology. - At the ARC lab in Menlo Park, a commercial camera was used to capture and pipe the computer's display imagery to the desired workstation real-time. Up to twelve workstations could be served thusly simultaneously from a bank of such cameras. For the demo, the live capture piped to Doug's workstation was transmitted via phone lines to San Francisco's Civic Auditorium 40 miles away, onto Doug's monitor where he sat on stage and also projected on a huge screen for the audience benefit. An engineer is seen adjusting the camera's focus.4d
Potter's wheel. - An example of how any trade or profession has evolved tools and methods in which the tradespeople become extremely proficient in their use. The knowledge work profession is relatively young and less evolved, and professionals are not expected to become proficient soon except in the most rudimentary skills.6d
Helicopter pilot. - For those who are not highly trained or certified, the services of a pilot are the answer. Passengers are not expected to fly a helicopter; the pilot does that. Similarly, we should expect executives and average knowledge workers wishing to fly through complex or unfamiliar information space to employ cyber pilots. Those can take them were they need to go, help find what is needed, give guided tours, etc. This assistance could quite easily be done remotely, for example, by video teleconferencing as shown above.6e
Hangglider. - Engelbart often concluded his presentations with this inspirational parable of soaring elegantly up above the horizon.6f
