The Trojan Room Coffee Machine

The coffee machine was set up in 1991 so that researchers at the Computer Laboratory, the University of Cambridge, England could know there was coffee in the machine before they traveled through the seven floor building to the one coffee machine in the department.It was originally broadcast across the network, and viewed with an application called xcoffee. Since 1993, when it became the world's first webcam, it has attracted around 2.4 million visitors worldwide.In March 2001 it was announced the coffee machine camera would be no more, since the laboratory was moving to a new building. The camera was finally switched off at 0954 UTC on Wednesday 22nd August 2001.One of the coffee pots, which starred on the web from October 1997 until March 2001, was auctioned on eBay, and fetched £3,350.

The Trojan Room Coffee Machine - The official site. Includes the final image of the machine being switched off, a non-technical biography, and an audio copy of a 1994 radio report.
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Guardian Unlimited - Plug Pulled on Web's Historic Coffee Pot - Report on the announcement that the first webcam was going to be taken offline, and a brief history of it.
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Demise of Early Online Star (a Coffee Machine) Puts Web's Evolution in Perspective - History of the coffee machine, covering the reasons for its invention, its impact on the web, and its demise.
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Philip Watson's Home Page - Includes an MPEG of the coffee pot, assembled by taking a snapshot of the machine every five minutes, for a day.
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CBC Radio - Pulling the Plug on World's First Webcam - Mary Lou's interview with Quentin Stafford-Fraser, in RealAudio format.
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Farewell, Seminal Coffee Cam (Wired) - Reuters report announcing the end of the coffee pot webcam.
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Creators to Pull Plug on Original Webcam - Article from the Washington Post, by Peter S. Goodman, looking at the camera's history, reason for invention, and demise.
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Ananova - Famous Coffee Pot Sold Online - Article about the selling of the coffee pot so that its owners can buy a new espresso machine.
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Ananova - Internet Coffee Pot Sells for £3,350 - Short article on the sale of the coffee pot, and what the owners plan to do with the money.
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CNN.com - Web Coffee Pot Goes off the Boil - Article on the origins, history, and demise of the coffee machine.
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Trailing Edge: Coffee Cam - Article outlining the machine's history.
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The Register: Do you Want to Own the Trojan Room Coffee Pot? - Article discussing the sale of the coffee pot on eBay.
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The Register: World's First Webcam Coffee Pot to be Scrapped - Article discussing the reasoning behind the coffee pot camera, its history, and its end.
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