Before YouTube, TikTok, and 24/7 live streams — there was a coffee pot.

In 1991, researchers at the University of Cambridge set up the world’s first webcam — not to monitor a lab experiment or a security feed, but to keep an eye on whether the communal coffee pot in the "Trojan Room" was full or empty.

The idea was born out of frustration:
Scientists working in different rooms would walk to the coffee machine, only to find it empty. So a small black-and-white camera was hooked up to a computer and updated an image of the pot every few seconds on the local network.

It was later connected to the internet — and people around the world began checking in on a British coffee pot in real time.

That humble stream became the origin of webcam culture. Millions of people now broadcast their lives daily. And it all began because a few nerds didn’t want to waste a trip for coffee.

The pot was finally retired in 2001 and sold on eBay… for nearly £3,500. A true tech relic.