The First Mobile Phone

The history of mobile phones begins with early efforts to develop radio telephone technology and from two-way radios in vehicles and continues through emergence of modern mobile phones and associated services.

Radiophones have a long and varied history going back to Reginald Fessenden's invention and shore-to-ship demonstration of radio telephony, through the Second World War with military use of radio telephony links and civil services in the 1950s, while hand-held mobile radio devices have been available since 1973. Mobile phone history is often divided into generations (first, second, third and so on) to mark significant step changes in capabilities as the technology improved over the years.

Martin Cooper, widely regarded as the Father of the Mobile. introduced the brick-sized cell phone that had a hefty $4 per minute call charge.

  The First Mobile Phone

Inventor of the modern cell phone Martin Cooper recalls to the press, "As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973, there weren't cordless telephones, let alone cellular phones." Photo Credit Courtesy ArrayComm 

 Portrait of Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell was the first to patent the telephone, an "apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically", after experimenting with many primitive sound transmitters and receivers. However, the history of the invention of the telephone is a confusing collection of claims and counterclaims, made no less confusing by the many lawsuits which attempted to resolve the patent claims of several individuals. Speaking tubes remained common and can still be found today in a variety of locations, including ships.

The string or "lover's" telephone has also been known for centuries, comprising two diaphragms connected by a taut string or wire. Sound waves are carried as vibrations along the string or wire from one diaphragm to the other. The classic example is the tin can telephone, a children's toy made by connecting the two ends of a string to the bottoms of two metal cans, paper cups or similar items.

Bell speaking into a prototype model of the telephone

 The first telephone was installed in the Southern Pacific Depot. The telephone number was 1

 Tin Can Public Phone 

The First Telephone Call 
March 10, 1876
What were the first words ever spoken on the telephone? They were spoken by Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, when he made the first call on March 10, 1876, to his assistant, Thomas Watson: "Mr. Watson--come here--I want to see you." What would you have said?

The First Car ( automobile )

The history of the automobile begins as early as 1769, with the creation of steam-powered automobiles capable of human transport. In 1806, the first cars powered by internal combustion engines running on fuel gas appeared, which led to the introduction in 1885 of the ubiquitous modern gasoline- or petrol-fueled internal combustion engine. Cars powered by electricity briefly appeared at the turn of the 20th century but largely disappeared from commonality until the turn of the 21st century, when interest in low- and zero-emissions transportation was reignited. As such, the early history of the automobile can be divided into a number of eras based on the prevalent method of automotive propulsion during that time. Later periods were defined by trends in exterior styling and size and utility preferences.

The design of the Cugnot Steam Trolley (Jonathan Holguinisburg) (1769)

The First Keyboard

 Christopher Latham Sholes

The invention of the modern computer keyboard began with the invention of the typewriter. Christopher Latham Sholes was a U.S. mechanical engineer who invented the first practical modern typewriter, patented in 1868. Sholes invented the typewriter with partners S. W. Soule and G. Glidden, that was manufactured (by Remington Arms Company) in 1873. He was born February 14, 1819 in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania, and died on February 17, 1890 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Before the computer, the typewriter may have been the most significant everyday business tool. Christopher Latham Sholes and his colleagues, Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soulé, invented the first practical typewriting machine in 1866. Five years, dozens of experiments, and two patents later, Sholes and his associates produced an improved model similar to today's typewriters.

The type-bar system and the universal keyboard were the machine's novelty, but the keys jammed easily. To solve the jamming problem, another business associate, James Densmore, suggested splitting up keys for letters commonly used together to slow down typing. 

This became today's standard "QWERTY" keyboard.
 

The First Mouse

  

The trackball was invented by Tom Cranston, Fred Longstaff and Kenyon Taylor working on the Royal Canadian Navy's DATAR project in 1952. It used a standard Canadian five-pin bowling ball. It was not patented, as it was a secret military project.
Independently, Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute invented the first mouse prototype in 1963, with the assistance of his colleague Bill English. Engelbart never received any royalties for it, as his patent ran out before it became widely used in personal computers.
The invention of the mouse was just a small part of Engelbart's much larger project, aimed at augmenting human intellect.
The first computer mouse, held by inventor Douglas Engelbart, showing the wheels that make contact with the working surface

Several other experimental pointing-devices developed for Engelbart's oN-Line System (NLS) exploited different body movements – for example, head-mounted devices attached to the chin or nose – but ultimately the mouse won out because of its simplicity and convenience. The first mouse, a bulky device (pictured) used two gear-wheels perpendicular to each other: the rotation of each wheel translated into motion along one axis. Engelbart received patent US3541541 on November 17, 1970 for an "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System". At the time, Engelbart envisaged that users would hold the mouse continuously in one hand and type on a five-key chord keyset with the other. The concept was preceded in the 19th century by the telautograph, which also anticipated the fax machine.

A Smaky mouse, as invented at the EPFL by Jean-Daniel Nicoud and André Guignard

The first marketed integrated mouse – shipped as a part of a computer and intended for personal computer navigation – came with the Xerox 8010 Star Information System in 1981. However, the mouse remained relatively obscure until the appearance of the Apple Macintosh; in 1984 PC columnist John C. Dvorak dismissively commented on the release of this new computer with a mouse: "There is no evidence that people want to use these things".

The first computer mouse, held by inventor Douglas Engelbart, showing the wheels that make contact with the working surface

 

The First Computer

Unfortunately this question has no easy answer because of all the different types of classifications and types of computers. Therefore this document has been created with a listing of each of the first computers starting with the first programmable computer leading up to the computers of today. Keep in mind that early inventions such as the abacus, calculators, tablet machines, difference machine, etc. are not accounted for in this document.

First programmable computer

The Z1 originally created by Germany's Konrad Zuse in his parents living room in 1936 to 1938 is considered to be the first electrical binary programmable computer.

See our Z1 dictionary definition for additional information about this computer.

The first digital computer

Short for Atanasoff-Berry Computer, the ABC started being developed by Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and graduate student Cliff Berry in 1937 and continued to be developed until 1942 at the Iowa State College (now Iowa State University). On October 19, 1973, US Federal Judge Earl R. Larson signed his decision that the ENIAC patent by Eckert and Mauchly was invalid and named Atanasoff the inventor of the electronic digital computer.

See our ABC dictionary definition for additional information about this computer.

The ENIAC was invented by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania and began construction in 1943 and was not completed until 1946. It occupied about 1,800 square feet and used about 18,000 vacuum tubes, weighing almost 50 tons. Although the Judge ruled that the ABC computer was the first digital computer many still consider the ENIAC to be the first digital computer.

See our ENIAC dictionary definition for additional information about this computer.

Because of the Judge ruling and because the case was never appealed like most we consider the ABC to be the first digital computer. However, because the ABC was never fully functional we consider the first functional digital computer to be the ENIAC.

The first transistor computer

The TX-O (Transistorized Experimental computer) and first transistorized computer is demonstrated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1956.

The first stored program computer

The early British computer known as the EDSAC is considered to be the first stored program electronic computer. The computer performed its first calculation on May 6, 1949 and was the computer that ran the first graphical computer game.

See our EDSAC dictionary definition for additional information about this computer.

The first minicomputer

In 1960 Digital Equipment Corporation released its first of many PDP computers the PDP-1.

The first personal computer

In 1975 Ed Roberts coined the term personal computer when he introduced the Altair 8800. Although the first personal computer is considered to be the Kenback-1, which was first introduced for $750 in 1971. The computer relied on a series of switches for inputting data and output data by turning on and off a series of lights.

The Micral is considered the be the first commercial non-assembly computer. The computer used the Intel 8008 processor and sold for $1,750 in 1973.

The first workstation

Although never sold the first workstation is considered to be the Xerox Alto, introduced in 1974. The computer was revolutionary for its time and included a fully functional computer, display, and mouse. The computer operated like many computers today utilizing windows, menus and icons as an interface to its operating system.

The first laptop or portable computer

The first portable computer or laptop is considered to be the Osborne I, a portable computer developed by Adam Osborne that weighed 24 pounds, a 5-inch display, 64 KB of memory, two 5 1/4" floppy drives, and a modem.

IBM PCD later released the IBM portable in 1984, it's first portable computer that weighed in at 30 pounds. IBM PCD later announced in 1986 it's first laptop computer, the PC Convertible, weighing 12 pounds. And in 1994 introduces the IBM ThinkPad 775CD, the first notebook with an integrated CD-ROM.

The first PC (IBM compatible) computer

In 1953 IBM shipped its first electric computer, the 701. Later IBM introduced its first personal computer called the "IBM PC" in 1981. The computer was code named and still sometimes referred to as the "Acorn" and had a 8088 processor, 16 KB of memory, which was expandable to 256 and utilizing MS-DOS.

The first PC clone

The first PC clone was developed by Compaq, the "Compaq Portable" was release in March 1983 and was 100% compatible with IBM computers and software that ran on IBM computers.

See the below other major computer companies first for other IBM compatible computers

The first Apple computer

Steve Wozniak designed the first Apple known as the Apple I computer in 1976.

The first computer company

The first computer company was the Electronic Controls Company and was founded in 1949 by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the same individuals who helped create the ENIAC computer. The company was later renamed to EMCC or Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and released a series of mainframe computers under the UNIVAC name.

The first multimedia computer

In 1992 Tandy Radio Shack becomes one of the first companies to release a computer based on the MPC standard with its introduction of the M2500 XL/2 and M4020 SX computers.

Other major computer company firsts

Below is a listing of some of the major computers companies first computers.

Compaq - March 1983 Compaq released its first computer and the first 100% IBM compatible computer the "Compaq Portable."
Dell - In 1985 Dell introduced its first computer, the "Turbo PC."
Hewlett Packard - In 1966 Hewlett Packard released its first general computer, the "HP-2115."
NEC - In 1958 NEC builds its first computer the "NEAC 1101."
Toshiba - In 1954 Toshiba introduces its first computer, the "TAC" digital computer.

The First Website

The first ever "website" was not really a website but a linking page between the Pentagon and several nearby Universities in the early 70's. The computers involved in the networking weighed over 5 tonnes each and the computers involved themselves weighed over 100 tonnes each. It was originally done as an experiment to see if wires could handle mass information migrations (useful to the Pentagon as they could now send info to all their bases around the USA).
Some guy Tim Berners-Lee (an Oxford grad in physics) invented the web as a way of posting information for physicists at the European Particle Accelerator at CERN. The physics postings got caught up in red tape, but a couple of other people got interested. Currently he spends his time trying to regulate the way the web is used.