Soon after arriving in Silicon Valley in 1979, British-born industrial designer William Moggridge landed a commission from a start-up, Grid Systems, to create a new kind of portable computer. Even the lightest PCs then on the market had to be lugged around in ugly sewing machine–style cases; the company wanted one that could fit inside a briefcase. Moggridge designed the Grid Compass around a revolutionary concept—a clamshell case that opened to reveal a 6-inch screen on top and a keyboard on the bottom. Three decades later, laptops are still based on Moggridge’s visionary idea.
Moggridge said the impetus for the Compass came from a senior White House official who complained to Grid founder John Ellenby that his computer was larger than his desk, said The New York Times. What the official wanted was the same computing power in a case that would fill half his briefcase. “That became our guiding principle,” said Moggridge. When the Compass was released, in 1982, its $8,150 price tag put it out of the reach of ordinary consumers, but it “quickly received recognition from the scientific and military community,” said The Washington Post. NASA appreciated the machine’s tough magnesium exterior and took it into orbit on the space shuttle.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Benjamin Zephaniah: trailblazing writer who 'took poetry everywhere'Why Everyone's Talking About Remembering the 'radical' wordsmith's 'wit and sense of mischief'
-
Shane MacGowan: the unruly former punk with a literary soulWhy Everyone's Talking About The Pogues frontman died aged 65
-
'Euphoria' star Angus Cloud dies at 25Speed Read
-
Legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett dies at 96Speed Read
-
Martin Amis: literary wunderkind who ‘blazed like a rocket’feature Famed author, essayist and screenwriter died this week aged 73
-
Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk legend, is dead at 84Speed Read
-
Barry Humphries obituary: cerebral satirist who created Dame Edna Everagefeature Actor and comedian was best known as the monstrous Melbourne housewife and Sir Les Patterson
-
Mary Quant obituary: pioneering designer who created the 1960s lookfeature One of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century remembered as the mother of the miniskirt
