The story of Elite

JohnnyBoy · Post by **JohnnyBoy** » Tue May 06, 2008 9:49 pm

I don't know whether you guys already know about this, but the story of how Braben and Bell developed 'Elite' is told in one chapter of a book that I've bought called "Backroom Boys" by Francis Spufford. The book only has 6 chapters, so each chapter has 30 or 40 pages and each is dedicated to one story of British technical innovation. Chapter 3, "The Universe in a Bottle" is the one about Elite. Amazon have some sellers who have priced it at 1 pence - if you're interested!

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Tue May 06, 2008 10:16 pm

Thanks for the heads up, i've ordered one.

JohnnyBoy · Post by **JohnnyBoy** » Wed May 07, 2008 3:04 pm

Griff wrote:
Thanks for the heads up, i've ordered one.

Nice one, Griff! I'm glad I mentioned it!

Gareth3377 · Post by **Gareth3377** » Wed May 14, 2008 9:11 pm

Nice one. Looking forward to the other chapters in the book too.

JohnnyBoy · Post by **JohnnyBoy** » Wed May 14, 2008 10:43 pm

It's a good book and there are some great stories of how a few British boffins did some incredible work with a limited budget and no official support. Typical for this country, really.

Frame · Post by **Frame** » Thu May 15, 2008 9:32 pm

JohnnyBoy wrote:
It's a good book and there are some great stories of how a few British boffins did some incredible work with a limited budget and no official support. Typical for this country, really.

yeah kind a sad USA nicks most of your inventions, or put economic pressure to make you drop your inventions...

Saw on the Telly how you treat your inventors... The Dyson Vacuum cleaner, Dynamo Radio and so on...

Cant recall the name of the Inventor of the Dynamo Radio though, but he was really P..... at the "society" of inventors and the Goverment,...

I´m from Denmark, but i do fell your inventions allways gets neglected or nicked/replaced by an inferior version from USA.

Post by **Disembodied** » Fri May 16, 2008 1:25 am

Trevor Bayliss invented the clockwork radio.

I think the UK/USA invention thing is, to be fair, less to do with ideas being nicked and more to do with corporate inertia in the UK -- an unwillingness to invest, and to take capital risks (unless it's with other people's money in a great big comedy casino, as recent events in the banking world have shown). I blame the class system, myself: deep down, UK money tends towards the small-c conservative, and doesn't trust innovation. There's historically always been a bit more financial imagination on the other side of the Atlantic.

JohnnyBoy · Post by **JohnnyBoy** » Wed May 21, 2008 11:04 pm

Yes, in the US there seems to be far less embarrassment about saying "I'd like to make some money" and knowledge of finance, commerce and marketing is seen as essential.

In the UK, that's been a real problem because we've been much more reserved, and so great inventions have sat in the lab until the Americans have seen the opportunity, taken the risk and turned them into revenue generating products.

Another great book that reflects this story is "A Computer Called LEO" by Georgina Ferry. Basically, the Brits invented the office computer in the 1950s and made some great strides until the government interfered in the late 60s. The story ended the way that they normally do in this country....

Post by **Disembodied** » Wed May 21, 2008 11:46 pm

...although there's also just common or garden stupidity to consider, too, which is never in short supply anywhere in the world. Xerox (USA) invented the GUI and the mouse and then sat on it because they were frightened a paperless office would scupper their photocopying business. So Apple (USA) nicked their idea -- and had it swiped from them by Microsoft (also USA)...

On a not-terribly-related note, I've just recently read a very thought-provoking book on technology and 20th century history called The Shock of the Old, by David Edgerton (ISBN 9781861973061, for the UK edition anyway). It raises some points about the "progress" model of history, especially about how some of the most important technologies in the world are often overlooked because they're not new and flashy. An interesting read, if you like that sort of thing!

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Thu May 22, 2008 12:44 am

Xerox did not invent the mouse. Invention of “the GUI” is rather vague.

Post by **Disembodied** » Thu May 22, 2008 10:10 am

Ah, right enough, neither they did... Xerox were the first to market it as an integrated computer control system, though. The point is, there's often a difference, no matter where you are, between who first develops an invention, and who makes the big bucks on the back of it!

JohnnyBoy · Post by **JohnnyBoy** » Thu May 22, 2008 10:45 pm

I think that the mouse is usually attributed to Doug Englebart.

I read about Englebart (here comes another book recommendation...) in "The Dream Machine" by M. Mitchell Waldrop. It's a well-written account of the entire history of why and how our computers came to be the way that they are, and it centres around a guy called J.C.R. Licklider who was dishing out the Pentagon's money in the 1960s to promising computer technologies, including that which Englebart was working on.

TBH, I like this book almost as much as "Hackers" by Steven Levy.

Selezen · Post by **Selezen** » Fri May 23, 2008 8:46 am

Just ordered myself a copy. yeah, late as usual.

Not bad bargain! 2 of your british pence for a NEW copy! Nice.

JohnnyBoy · Post by **JohnnyBoy** » Fri May 23, 2008 2:47 pm

That's great, Selezen.

Perhaps you guys who've ordered could report back with what you thought of the chapter/book?

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:27 pm

Joining this very late but I'm guessing the book title which started this thread off is what has now been turned into the Channel 5 series starting on Friday 20th June as mentioned elsewhere in Outworld https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t=4709 - will be taping that.

Xerox aren't completely daft - they took up the first prototype of the Photocopier when Kodak turned the inventor down,,,

I was told by my uni lecturer while doing "Smalltalk" (allegedly the first proper OO language) that the guys who created it invented "Windows" (as a concept of class inheritance and the mouse simply to move between their new GUI easily. - Can't find any proof of it anywhere though.