What Was the First Computer Mouse Made Of?
The world's first computer mouse was a wooden box with just one button.
Invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1964, the original mouse was carved from a block of wood. It used two perpendicular metal wheels to track movement instead of modern sensors. It was nicknamed the 'mouse' because its connecting wire looked like a tail. This invention shifted computing from text commands to a simple point-and-click interface.
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Douglas Engelbart developed the first mouse prototype at the Stanford Research Institute in 1964. He officially debuted the device during a 90-minute live presentation on December 9, 1968, which is now famously known as 'The Mother of All Demos.' This event showcased revolutionary concepts like hypertext, video conferencing, and the graphical user interface.The original device was constructed from a hollowed-out block of cherry wood. Inside the casing, two metal wheels were positioned at 90-degree angles to each other. One wheel tracked horizontal movement while the other tracked vertical movement, allowing the cursor to move across a screen in two dimensions.Engelbart applied for a patent for the 'X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System' in 1967 and received U.S. Patent 3,541,541 in 1970. Despite the brilliance of the invention, Engelbart never received royalties because his patent expired before the mouse became a commercial success in the 1980s. The term 'mouse' was coined by his team because the cord originally exited the back of the device, resembling a rodent's tail.The first commercial use of a mouse occurred with the Xerox Alto in 1973, but it was not until the release of the Apple Macintosh in 1984 that the device became a household staple. Modern mice have replaced the mechanical wheels with optical sensors and laser technology, but the fundamental concept of the X-Y coordinate system remains the same.
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FP-0002437 · Feb 16, 2026