On December 9th, 1968, a Stanford researcher named Douglas Engelbart took the stage in San Francisco and showed a thousand computer professionals something they had never seen: text editing, clickable links, and video conferencing, all controlled by a small wooden block with a wire trailing out the back.The audience gave him a standing ovation. One witness said he was "dealing lightning with both hands."But the mouse didn't begin with Engelbart. In this episode, we follow the surprisingly tangled history of the world's most common computer peripheral and its origins as a Cold War secret. We'll also find out why your cursor is tilted at a 45 degree angle.In this episodeThe Mother of All Demos - the 1968 presentation that changed computing, and the device at the center of itDATAR - a classified Cold War radar project, and an unlikely contribution to computing historyThe Rollkugel - a German parallel invention and a patent rejectionXerox PARC and Apple - how the mouse finally reached the worldEpisode MusicJames Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0"Brocken Spectre""Shape of a Gun" "Hedgehog's Dilemma""Eternal Light"--Support the showLore in the Machine is a podcast about the hidden histories living inside the tools we use every day. Hosted by Daina Bouquin. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show. You can follow the show on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.