The Victorian Internet is a book reflects the story of telegraph invention which opened the doors for many technological communications inventions, such as the telephone and consequently the internet. Tom Standage the author who wrote this book born in 1969.He graduated from Oxford University then he persuaded a career as journalist and author (Word Press). Standage wrote the first copy of the Victorian Internet in 1998, which is only few years after the internet invention. The author’s title “the Victorian-era telegraph” was impartial, because he described events happened in the Victorian-era with any exaggeration or degradation, although he was biased in his text towards the telegraph invention. The author in his book described two main reasons …show more content…
He used a comparison pattern to describe telegraph invention with the internet, and how was more important to invent this device similar to the internet invention. Reading through the book gives a different criterion of the implementation and evolution of the telegraph device in Europe and United States. Although Standage’s book lacks deep technical aspects, he tells the story of telegraph invention in simple and interesting chronical way. In fact, he started his first chapter by mentioning the rumors of inventing a magical device to transfer letter between people mile apart in the late of the sixteen century. By 1791 two French scientist brothers Claude and Rene Chappe invented the first version of the Telegraph. The working principle of this device was mechanical and optical, which had failed in the dark. The Chappe brothers continued their trials until 1793 they succeeded to invent the first dependable device to transmit messages over long distances. At this time, the telegraph first named tachygraph from the Greek word tachy which means fast, then they changed to telegraph. The new invention became fully operational by 1794, where it played an important role to send a report of the capture of town from the Austrians and Prussians. The success of using the telegraph in civilian and military matter encouraged Napoleon to build wider telegraph network by 1804. During the nineteen century, the telegraph machine evolved to a wider global communication network to cross the continents especially in England and the United States, where Samuel Morse developed a newer version of the telegraph by
Wireless is a methodical account of the early development of wireless telegraphy and the inventors who made it possible. Sungook Hong examines several early significant inventions, including Hertzian waves and optics, the galvanometer, transatlantic signaling, Marconi's secret-box, Fleming's air-blast key and double transformation system, Lodge's syntonic transmitter and receiver, the Edison effect, the thermionic valve, and the audion and continuous wave. Wireless fills the gap created by Hugh Aitken, who described at length the early development of wireless communication, but who did not attempt "to probe the substance and context of scientific and engineering practice in the early years of wireless" (p. x). Sungook Hong seeks to fill this gap by offering an exhaustive analysis of the theoretical and experimental engineering and scientific practices of the early days of wireless; by examining the borderland between science and technology; depicting the transformation of scientific effects into technological artifacts; and showing how the race for scientific and engineering accomplishment fuels the politic of the corporate institution. While the author succeeds in fulfilling these goals, the thesis, it seems, is to affirm Guglielmo Marconi's place in history as the father of wireless telegraphy.
The urgency of communication was never much felt until the beginning and use of telegraphy. It was much easier to transmit and receive messages over long distances that no longer needed physical transport of letters.
The way that the author forms his article is by first giving a rather exhaustive history of the telegraph, and reviews the impact that it had when it became a major form of fast communication. He then goes over some factors that are essential to understanding the evolution of society. One, that technology is of the nature of a "joint stock of knowledge for humankind"; two, the role institutions and organizations (like the government) play in the development of the technology; three, a so-called ceremonial encapsulation and path dependency; and four, the unpredictability of technological change and it’s impact on society.
"Internet History Sourcebooks." Internet History Sourcebooks. Fordham University, Aug. 2000. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. .
Morse created the telegraph, a machine that sends messages in a series of dots and dashes. This made him famous because now, people had a way to communicate with people from long distances. He didn’t make it himself, because he got the idea from other people in Europe. That's why, when he received his patent, people were saying that he had stolen the idea from others. The arguments in the United States Supreme Court state that Samuel Morse was first to create the first working telegraph.
The Victorian era in Britain was one of great dependency upon the women employed in domestic service. Domestic service was a very popular line of work for women in this period, in fact “about 40 percent of all women in Victorian Britain were employed…and a majority were domestic servants,” which showcases both the popularity and dependency upon domestic servant jobs. Many of the servants during this period were considered maids of all work, and it was this type of servant who ensured the efficient running and maintenance of many middle class households. This was because “the average middle class household did not usually have a valet, footman, or butler, but a cook, housemaid, and a maid of all work were essential.” Thus, revealing the reliance on a maid of all work to ensure that all duties of the household were completed.
Samuel Morse contributed many things to American society. In 1832 when returning from Europe from a period of art study on the ship Sully, Samuel overheard a conversation about the newly discovered electromagnets and came up with the idea of an electric telegraph. By 1835 he had his first telegraph model working in the New York University building. In 1837, he acquired two partners to help him develop his telegraph. Leonard Gale and Alfred Vail were the two men that he chose. They applied for a patent in 1837 for the telegraph, which included the dot and dash code.
Being poor, Morse used materials like an old artist's canvas stretcher to hold his invention, a home-made battery and an old clock-work to move the paper on which dots and dashes were to be recorded. In 1837 Morse got two partners to help him develop his telegraph. One was Leonard Gale, a quiet professor of science at New York University, who taught him how to increase voltage by increasing the number of turns around the electromagnet. The other was Alfred Vail, a young man who made available both his mechanical skills and his family's New Jersey iron works to help make a better telegraph model.... ... middle of paper ...
... The history of the internet takes us back to the pioneering of the network and the development of capable technologies. The explosion of the internet’s popularity in the 1990’s was large and dramatic, boosting our economy and then helping to bring it into a major recession. One can only hope that the explosion becomes organized and slightly standardized in the interest of the general public.
Works Cited The 1920s an Overview. Digital History. N.p., n.d. Web. The Web. The Web.
...l Morse?s 1832 invention. It is quite possible that more social changes were triggered by the telegraph, than from any other invention. Before the telegraph, communications were delivered by boat, train, horseback, or hand. Now, news and messages could be received immediately.
The earlier version of the internet was shipping which was the main way of trade and transportation. It then brought about innovation to improve shipping which the telegraph, early version of the telephone, and radios which improved communication and many other ways of living. In the early 1850s the first commercial cable has been laid across the English Channel, which a specialized ship named Goliath that laid the copper coated wire but it was a failure. But the transatlantic cable was just the opposite it was the first successful cable. It did have its flaws which were to taken into consideration with many advances and repairs still today with the cable being damaged by currents, fishing trawlers, anchors, earthquakes, and occasionally shark bites. And last but not least the internet we have today it spread the development of the race toward a worldwide society through the innovation of cheaper, faster, and easier ways of communicating with people, the exposure to infinite knowledge, and the growth of commercial trades piloted electronically on the internet also known as
The history of the internet shows that the internet is not a new medium. The internet was initially created in the 1960's to as a way for the United States to stay connected in case of a nuclear fallout due to the possible consequences of the Cold War. F...
Cell phones have immensely changed the way people communicate today. A cell phone can be all a person need for interaction. From a cell phone, a person can make calls, send text messages, emails, and send and also receive directions, buy things online, do online banking, listen to music and much more. Since someone can do everything with one device, there is no longer a need to go around with multiple devices about. Greek hydraulic semaphore systems were used as early as the 4th century. The hydraulic semaphores, which functioned with water filled containers and visual signals, functioned as optical telegraphs. However, they could only apply a very limited range of pre-determined messages, and as with all such visual telegraphs could only be deployed during good visibility conditions. Experiments on communication using electricity was carried out in 1729 but was not successful. The experiment was proposed by William Fothergill Cooke. In 1837, William invented a practical electric telegraph which entered commercial use in 1838 (J. B. Calvert, May 2004). The first telephone was invented in 1878 by Alexander Graham Bell. He experimented with a ‘phonautograph’, it is a machine shaped like a pen that can draw shapes of sound waves on smoked glass by tracing vibrations.
Term Paper: The History of the Internet The Internet began like most things in our society, that is to say that the government started it. The Internet started out as an experimental military network in the 1960s. Doug Engelbart prototypes an "Online System" (NLS) which does hypertext browsing, editing, email, and so on. The Internet is a worldwide broadcasting resource used for distributing information and a source for interaction between people on their computers. In 1973, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiated a research program to investigate techniques and technologies for interlinking packet networks of various kinds.