| Late 1991 |
A group of thirsty researchers including Paul
Jardetzky and Quentin Stafford-Fraser point a camera at a
coffee pot and write custom software to allow the image
to be displayed on all their screens. |
| Feb 1992 |
Bob Metcalfe writes about XCoffee in CommWeek |
| Feb 1993 |
Marc Andreessen
proposes that a new IMG tag be added to HTML to allow
images to be embedded in web pages. |
| Mar 1993 |
Beta release of NCSA Mosaic 0.10 contains support for
embedded images. |
| November 1993 |
Dan Gordon modifies original system to allow it to
respond to web requests. With Martyn Johnson, he connects
it to the web, and XCoffee is transformed into the first
webcam. |
| � |
A huge amount of media coverage over the next few
years. We start to keep a list but then lose track. |
| May 1995 |
Enough people ask about the story that we publish the
Trojan Room Coffee Pot
Biography. |
| 1996? |
Hits on the Coffee Pot image pass one million.
Journalist Steve Farrar points out that it has had more
'visitors' than King's College
Chapel and is therefore the number one tourist
attraction in East Anglia. More media coverage. |
| May? 1998 |
Hits on the Coffee Pot image pass 2 million |
| � |
Media start to describe pot as 'historical item'
instead of 'novelty'. |
| April 2001 |
News spreads that the impending move of the Computer
Lab means that camera will be switched off. Much media
coverage including front page of both London Times
and Washington Post. |
| July 2001 |
Article subtitled "When
Convenience was the Mother of Invention" appears in
the Communications of the ACM. |
| Aug 2001 |
Longest-serving pot is auctioned on eBay to raise
money for coffee facilities in the new lab. Sold to Spiegel Online for
£3350. |
| 10.54 22 Aug 2001 |
Coffee pot camera finally switched off. |