Ethernet cables are used to connect everything with an Internet connection today. Even wireless devices like tablets and smartphones have to connect to other devices like routers that are themselves run off ethernet. While the world wide web did not start booming until the late 90s, ethernet’s origins can be traced back to the 1970s.


Robert Metcalfe, the engineer who laid the groundwork for the Internet by co-inventing ethernet.


1974: Xerox PARC finishes developing the first ethernet cable, pioneered by Robert Metcalfe.

1975: Xerox files a patent for the ethernet cable. Metcalfe is listed as the inventor along with his colleagues David Boggs, Chuck Thacker, and Butler Lampson.

1976: The first ethernet system is privately deployed. Upgrades to the system eventually result in 10 Mbit/s ethernet, the first cable released to the public market later on.

1976: Metcalfe and Boggs publish the paper “

Read more »