Modern offices rely heavily on spreadsheets for calculations and sorting data. The idea of transferring what used to be a large sheet of accounts that had to be calculated by hand to a computer was first proposed by Professor Richard Mattessich in 1961. In 1969, a spreadsheet-type application was developed by Rene Pardo and Remy Lamau for use on mainframe computers and was used for budgeting in some major companies. The spreadsheet in its modern incarnation, however, was conceived in 1978 by Dan Bricklin {&. 1951), a student at Harvard Business School.
Bricklin imagined a computer program that would show the data it contained and enable easy manipulation and calculations. It would also recalculate instantly if the initial data changed. The prototype spreadsheet was not very powerful, so Bricklin recruited Bob Frankston (b. 1949), from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to improve it. Frankston added better arithmetic and the ability to scroll to the application. Importantly, he also kept the program size down to 20 kilobytes, making it ideal for running on the personal microcomputers of the day. The software was named VisiCalc.
VisiCalc became an almost instant success and was instrumental in convincing businesses to invest in computers (in this case the Apple II). It paved the way for other spreadsheet programs such as Lotus 1-2-3, which contributed to the popularity of the IBM PC, and Microsoft Excel, which is the most commonly run spreadsheet today. Bricklin and Frankston never patented their invention because software was not eligible for a U.S. patent until 1981.
