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1991·Early web, before YouTube

The Trojan Room coffee pot

The world's first webcam, pointed at a coffee machine so nobody would walk to an empty pot.

You might remember it as Cambridge coffee cam

From the early web

This Moment began as a web page, not as a video.

The story

What this was

A 128x128 greyscale camera in the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory watched a filter coffee machine so researchers on other floors could see whether it was worth the walk. Built in 1991 for the building's own network, it was connected to the web in November 1993 — just as browsers learned to display images — and became one of the early internet's landmarks. It was switched off at 09:54 UTC on 22 August 2001.

It first appeared in 1991, during early web, before YouTube.

The same internet

Early web, before YouTube

More like this

Related

Nothing related yet. Relationships are recorded where evidence supports them, not inferred from similarity.

Behind the record

Where it came from

There is no original upload to identify: this Moment did not begin as one. ViralWorld holds no copy of it either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is the record.

Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This Moment began as a web page, not as a video.

Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.

What happens
A 128x128 greyscale camera in the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory watched a filter coffee machine so researchers on other floors could see whether it was worth the walk. Built in 1991 for the building's own network, it was connected to the web in November 1993 — just as browsers learned to display images — and became one of the early internet's landmarks. It was switched off at 09:54 UTC on 22 August 2001.
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