Rare Artifact from the Inventor of the Mouse to go on public display in NUI Galway

 

A rare specimen of a human-computer interface used by technology pioneer Douglas Engelbart in his legendary 1968 ‘Mother of all Demos’ presentation will go on public display at the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland located at the internationally renowned Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) of NUI Galway as part of National Engineers’ Week.

The five finger chorded keyset was used for the first time by one of the greatest of all modern inventors Douglas Engelbart at a presentation in the San Francisco Convention Centre on December 9^th 1968. It was a seminal moment in modern history as it introduced many of the key technologies of the Digital Age such as the computer mouse, video conferencing, word processing and hypertext. The keyset was used in combination with one of his other new inventions, a three-button mouse, to allow fast data entry and computer interactions. 

The artifact Is on loan to the museum from Karl Flannery of the Galway-based Storm Technologies who received it from Engelbart in the mid-1980s whilst working in the USA.

At the time of the ‘Mother of all Demos’ in 1968, Doug Engelbart was working at the famous Stanford Research Institute located in Menlo Park California.

The keyset will go on public display at 3pm on Saturday March 3^rd as part of National Engineers Week and will form the centre piece of a fascinating collection of artefacts that represents significant milestones in the history of communications technology.

 Bell Laboratories of New Jersey, probably the most influential research facility of modern times, has loaned to the museum for one more month replicas of the world’s first telephone and first transistor. 

 The telephone or ‘electrical speech machine’ was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. 

The ‘transistor’ was developed in 1947 and became the building block of modern electronic devices. Bell Labs, owned by the Alcatel-Lucent corporation which is a partner of DERI, can list amongst its achievements the laser, synchronised sound and motion picture, the solar cell and the Telstar space satellite. 

The museum also has a replica of the original Google server from 1998 that was constructed by Scoil Bhríde Menlo in conjunction with  Cumann na bhFear in Ballinfoile. The company’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, put together a server consisting of 10 hard disks of 4 gigabytes each, then the largest capacity drives available, encased in a cabinet covered with children’s Lego bricks.  

This school was selected for this task as Google was founded in a garage in Menlo Park, California, so named in the 1850s by  two Irish immigrants,  Oliver and McGlynn, in honour  of their Galway birthplace.

The Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland operates under a multi-sectoral board chaired by Dr. Chris Coughlan of Hewlett-Packard with representatives from Engineers’ Ireland, NUIG IT, GMIT, small businesses and Irish Diaspora groups as well as DERI.

First Telephone, Transistor and Google Storage Device replicas On Show at Galway Science Exhibition

A press release that was published in the current edition of Galway City Tribune:

A unique series of exhibits were unveiled at the remarkable and highly successful Galway Science and Technology Festival Exhibition that took place in NUI Galway (Galway university) on Sunday last. 

Visitors to the Computer Museum exhibit at the Galway Science & Technology Festival

Replicas of some of the most important inventions in the history of modern communications were  displayed in the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland which was re-located to the main campus for the event. 

 Replica of Google Server at Scoil Bhríde Mionloch stand

“Three recently arrived artifacts represent significant milestones in the history of communications technology,” according to Brendan Smith Outreach Officer of the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at NUI Galway. 

First Telephone 

Replica of Alexander Graham Bell's first telephone on display at the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland

in DERI, NUI Galway

“The telephone or ‘electrical speech machine’ was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. He later founded what became known as Bell Laboratories, probably the most influential research facility of modern times, which can list amongst its achievements the laser,  synchronised sound and motion picture, the solar cell and the Telstar space satellite.  Today it is a part of the Alcatel-Lucent corporation, an industrial partner of DERI. 

First Transistor Comes to Galway

One of their engineers Toby Joyce  originally from Clifden, arranged for the transfer from Bell Labs in New Jersey to Galway of not only a replica of the first telephone but also that of probably their greatest invention, namely the ‘transistor’ that was developed in 1947 and became the basic building block of modern electronic devices.

Replica of first transistor

“DERI has passed on these fascinating artifacts to the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland that operates under a multi-sectoral board chaired by Dr. Chris Coughlan of Hewlett-Packard with representatives from Engineers’ Ireland, NUIG, GMIT, small businesses and Irish Diaspora groups as well as DERI.

Google- the Galway & Irish Connection

“The museum will also play host to a very intriguing exhibit being constructed by Scoil Bhríde Menlo (Mionloch)  and Cumann na bhFear in Ballinfoile. It is a model of the Google original storage device from 1996 . The company’s founders put together a server consisting of 10 hard disks of 4 gigabytes each, then the largest capacity drives available, encased in a cabinet covered with children’s Lego bricks.  

It is appropriate that this school is undertaking this task as Google was founded in a garage in Menlo Park, California, so named in the 1850s by  two Irish immigrants,  Oliver and McGlynn, in honour  of their Galway birthplace.

Our institute has had a close working relationship with Scoil Bhríde as we have provided laptops on loan for the last four years to all their pupils in fifth and sixth year classes in an effort to promote eLearning education."

The Cumann na bhFear (Irish for "Men's Club") is a recently formed group in Ballinfoile Mór that is modeled on the Men's Shed movement that originated in Australia. Two of its founding members, Michael McDonnell and Michael Tiernan, helped construct the metal stacking unit (above), secured many of the old hard disks and made an exact copy of the 'clouded' perspex panels used as the sides of the original Google server by cutting out sections from a shower door!

Michael McDonnell and Michael Tiernan cutting panels out of an old Shower Door

Developing Links Between Ireland's Technology Heritage Museums

The Communications and Computer Museum (which I helped establish it as part of my Outreach work) at DERI NUI Galway intends to establish links with the telecommunications museum at the Alcatel-Lucent plant in Dublin.

I held discussions yesterday with the corporation’s Toby Joyce with a view to developing an ongoing working relationship between the two technology learning facilities that are unique to Ireland with the aim of promoting an awareness of technology innovation particularly amongst young people.

Toby is an ex-employee of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) Galway and attended the DEC Reunion that was held in DERI last February.

Alcatel-Lucent’s R&D element is the New Jersey-based Bell Laboratories whose proud ancestry goes back to Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone who founded a research centre to focus on the analysis, recording and transmission of sound.

Bell Laboratories was one of the greatest communications research facilities of modern times, developing a wide range of revolutionary technologies that have helped change the world including the transistor, the laser, solar cell battery, synchronous sound motion pictures, the UNIX operating system, C & C++ programming languages. 7 Nobel Prizes were awarded for work at Bell Laboratories.

The corporate’s Blanchardstown plant has a museum that exhibits many of these inventions including a replica of the first telephone (1876),

a 1915 air-to-ground two way voice radio communications apparatus (consisting of a leather pilot helmet with built-in radio receiver and a microphone)

a 1923 Loop Antenna (Western Electric engineers used a similar device to send the first transatlantic telephone signal 1915);

an early fax tele-photograph machine (1925)

a 1926 Vitaphone record and project system (first talking movie).

Telstar model (somewhat smaller than the original) with Toby Joyce

My favourite artifact was the tiny solar-powered Telstar (first communications satellite) to relay television signals, telephone calls and fax images (1962).

There was also a fine collection of early telephones including a 1926 telephone switchboard contained in a beautiful carved wooden cabinet. The unit was from Newbliss County Monaghan and had only 3 customers (Garda Siochana, Post Office and Tyrone Guthrie) when it was installed was operated non-stop for 60years by one man Patrick McCabe. When it was replaced by an automatic service Patrick was made redundant at the ripe old age of 90years!