Over the next few years he and his colleague Bill English have built a three-button, two-wheel, palm-sized contraption that they dubbed a mouse. Instead of typing commands, a user could manipulate a mouse to control an on-screen tracking symbol, or cursor.
In 1972, Jack Hawley and Bill English came up with a mouse based on a single ball, pressed against two rollers, instead of the original two wheels, to track movement.
In 1982, Xerox released its 8010 star computer that came with an integral, two button mouse. This was an innovative machine, but it failed commercially because of its high price.
Microsoft developed its own version of the mouse and released it in June 1983. It engineers has been able to power the mouse through the serial port and they patent the invention.
Although initially there was no software for using the mouse, by November 1983 Microsoft was able to release Word, its word-processing software, which supported the mouse and has many features that used the mouse.
The mouse became an integral part of personal computers, especially in 1984, with the release of the Macintosh computer. The first mouse model was mechanical and developed in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Apple Computer, the first personal computer company to announce a system – the Lisa – that uses a mouse to control all applications, uses a single-button mouse.
Also in 1984, Microsoft started shipping its IBM PC mouse, a low price device had two buttons.
History of computer mouse
