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British and Canadians Invent the Trackball

1946 to 1952 to 1953
Prototype (circa 1951) of trackball used in the successful 1953 sea trials of DATAR.

Prototype (circa 1951) of trackball used in the successful 1953 sea trials of DATAR. The ball floated on air-suspension. This is probably the earliest known Trackball.

In 1946 English engineer Ralph Benjamin invented the first trackball called roller ball, which was patented in 1947.[1] 

In 1952 British electrical engineer Kenyon Taylor and team, working on the Royal Canadian Navy's DATAR (Digital Automated Tracking and Resolving) project (a pioneering computerized battlefield information system) invented a trackball precursor of the computer mouse. It used a standard Canadian five-pin bowling ball. The DATAR system was first successfully tested on Lake Ontario in autumn 1953. 

 

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