The 1960s gadget made of... firewood?
Picture the sleek, ergonomic mouse sitting on your desk right now. Now, strip away the optical lasers, the RGB lighting, and the smooth plastic. Replace all of that with a block of raw timber, a couple of exposed metal wheels, and a lone red button that looks like a prototype detonator.
Welcome to 1964.
That year, a brilliant tech pioneer named Doug Engelbart looked at the giant, clunky computers of the era and thought, “We need a better way to point at things.” Naturally, his solution was to carve a rectangular shell out of a piece of wood.
Because it had a long cord trailing out of the back like a tail, everyone in the lab started calling it a “mouse.” The name stuck; the wood did not.
Next time your Bluetooth mouse dies, just be glad you don’t have to worry about getting a splinter.