The Trojan Room Coffeepot

One of the most popular computer peripherals that you can have in your computer is the webcam. Webcams enable you to view friends and loved ones from all over the world as long as they are connected to the Internet. It is interesting to note that the first ever image that was broadcasted by the first webcam is not a person but, of all things, a coffeepot! This coffeepot was placed in an office called the "Trojan Room" which is located in the old computer laboratory of the University of Cambridge, England.

Now you may wonder what is so special about a coffeepot being shown all over the Web. Well, people who were working in other parts of the building usually made useless trips to the said area just to check if there is coffee in the pot. Thus, in order to save time, some innovators placed a webcam pointing to the item. The image, a live greyscale picture of the thing, is then transmitted to the desktops of users in the building.

The camera started broadcasting on the local network in 1991. It was then hooked up to the Internet in 1993 by Daniel Gordon and Martyn Johnson during the time when Web servers were able to display images. Little did they know that the image of the coffeepot would soon become a well-known landmark in cyberspace. Finally, on August 22, 2001, after eight years of nonstop broadcasting, the camera was finally turned off. What happened to the coffeepot, you might ask. It was auctioned on eBay for 3,350 pounds in which Spiegel Online won the bid.