Detail map of Santa Monica, California, United States,Lexington, Massachusetts, United States

A: Santa Monica, California, United States, B: Lexington, Massachusetts, United States

Thomas Marill & Lawrence G. Roberts Conduct the First "Actual Network Experiment"

10/1965

In October 1965 Lawrence G. Roberts and Thomas Marill conducted what was later called "the first actual network experiment", tying MIT Lincoln LabsTX-2 computer in Lexington, Massachusetts to System Development Corporation's Q32 computer in Santa Monica, California.

This was the first time that two computers talked to each other, and the first time that packets were used to communicate between computers.

Marill, a psychologist who had studied under Licklider, approached ARPA and proposed a project to conduct an experiment linking Lincoln Laboratories TX-2 computer to the System Development Corporation Q-32 computer in Santa Monica. ARPA officials supported the project, and suggested that Marill carry out his experiment under the sponsorship of Lincoln Laboratories. Officials at Lincoln Laboratories put Roberts in charge of the project. 

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