The desktop mouse is encased in an off-white plastic rectangular shell. A crease between the two parts of the shell is visible around the full perimeter of the device. The top of the mouse is contoured by an off-center peak. The front of the mouse has a longer, shallower slope and a centered, square button. The back of the mouse is steeper and shorter, with a small punched apple logo in the bottom right-hand corner. The mouse is equipped with a cable for attachment to a computer. The cable is insulated in grey plastic. It has a round, male, four round pin and one rectangular pin plug in a grey plastic cylindrical casing at the free end.

Signedunsigned [Apple logo punched on mouse]

FunctionMice are manual input devices through which users communicate with a computer. Mice are central to the WIMP interface infrastructure of most personal computers (windows, icons, (dropdown) menu, pointing device). They translate the two-dimensional motion of a user's hand onto the computer monitor. By clicking on icons and menus users are able to control many of the computer operations. This particular keyboard was used by the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments in conjunction with an Apple personal desktop computer (1999-1-0014a).

Click here for a description of mice, a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIMP_(computing)"target="_blank">here for a description of WIMP interface protocol, and a

ProvenanceFrom the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments.