The automatic phone system is introduced, the first significant Internet worm is launched and the most popular mobile OS is unveiled… It all happened This Week in Tech History.
This week in 1846 – An artificial leg was patented by B.F. Palmer of Meredith, NH who according to the US Patent Office, “got a leg up” on all other competition. His product, characterized by its smoothly articulated knee, ankle, and toe joints, as well as its elegant and lifelike appearance, was an immediate success.
In 1892 – The first successful automatic telephone system was introduced in Laporte, IN. Almon Strowger, an undertaker by trade, came up with the idea because the non-automatic system made it possible for his customers calls to be intercepted by his competitor who was in a relationship with the telephone operator.
1988 – The Morris worm, the first Internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant media attention, was launched by Cornell University graduate student, Robert Tappan Morris. It resulted in the first conviction in the US under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. A floppy disk, containing the original source code for the worm is housed at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
And this week in 2007 – Google unveiled their Android mobile operating system. In September of the following year, the very first Android smartphone was announced: the T-Mobile G1, also known as the HTC Dream in other parts of the world. Today, Android dominates the Smartphone market with about an 80 percent market share worldwide.