EOTO #1 Communication Timeline (Wired and Wireless Telegraph)

The Wired Telegraph

Most People nowadays will use a communication device known as the smart phone. one of the most common smart phones out there is the iphone. there are also other smart phones out their like the absolute BRICK of a phone, The PK18 Smartphone made by Energizer (Its a literal brick).

But how exactly did we get here? Where did it all begin? Well to answer that question we have to take a step back in time to the 1800's. In this presentation I will be talking about the creation of the Wired and Wireless Telegraph. 

Samuel F.B. Morse

Way back in 1832 there was a New York University Professor by the name of Samuel F.B. Morse (Sound Familiar). Morse began working on his machine in 1832 this machine was called the Wireless Telegraph. This machine would send electric signals from one point to another using a wire. During this process he developed a communication language called Morse Code, which was a set of sounds that corresponded with letters in the English alphabet. By 1832 he was ready to present his idea to the U.S. Congress. Now it is worth noting that by this time many other people have claimed to have invented the wired telegraph and the reason why we give credit to Morse is because he was the first one to get political backing on the product. 

In order to send a message from one person to another there had to be a really long wire that went from one persons telegraph device to the other persons device. in 1842, with the help of congress, he build one of these systems from Washington D.C. all the way to Baltimore. And finally on May 2nd 1842 the first message was sent using the Wired Telegraph. 

"What hath God wrought" 

Later when Morse was spreading his invention to the rest of the United States there was a "problem" when communication with people. This was known as the Last Mile Problem. Even if you wanted to talk right to the person your communicating with, it still must go through someone else before it gets to you. Because of the cost, one of these telegraphs wouldn't be in your home, it would be in a building near your house which you would go to and request a message to be sent. Lets put it this way. You live in the great state of New Jersey and you want to send a thank you letter to your Grandma all the way in Florida because she sent you a gift. You would have to write down your thank you note, send it to the telegraph company near you. The telegraph company would then send the message to where it needs to go. That message is then received, re-written on paper and delivered to your grandmas house. Now, although that sounds like a lot of steps and a lot of time, it was still much faster than sending the letter through mail. 

Since Morse's invention the world grew much smaller. the main communication method hadn't changed in many years. It would have taken days or even weeks to get messages written on paper sent out across the U.S. and the world. However ever since the Wireless telegraph a message could be sent from the U.S. to London in minutes. This was also a big change in politics as well. This is beacuse most of their communication methods relyed on paper and pen to send their messages. Political figures would have to plan weeks ahead, now they didn't have to. 

Guglielmo Marconi with the Wireless Telegraph

In order to understand the Wireless Telegraph you need to understand something first. Like most devices nowadays, in order to send information form one location to another you need the electromagnetic spectrum. James Maxwell, A Scottish Physicist was the first to predict and theorize of the existance of the Electromagnetic spectrum. Later a man named Heinrich Hertz, using Maxwells theories, would discover and prove of the electromagnetic spectrums existence. He did this by sending sparks from one side of a room to another. 

Moving into 1895 Guglielmo Marconi began his experiments for the Wireless Telegraph. Marconi is viewed as the father of and credited with inventing the wireless telegraph. in 1895 he filed a patent for his machine which was approved of later in 1897. Of course he used the electromagnetic spectrum to help build his machine. Here is how his invention worked. He would give one person a receiver which was set to a certain frequency. another person had a transmitter set to the same frequency as the receiver. The frequency would move from the transmitter and find its way to the receiver. Marconi then found a way to disrupt this frequency which the receiver detects. Now the human voice could not be transmitted across this system which is why Morse code would still be used. Marconi would go on to create two companies. American Marconi, and British Marconi. Later American Marconi would be renamed to The Radio Corporation of America and British Marconi would turn into General Electric, later renamed to Marconi plc. 

Like the Wired telegraph the Wireless telegraph would continue to allow people to communicate faster with one another. However the Last mile problem would be solved as these devices could be placed directly into ones home. This invention would also put the Wireless Telegraph out of business although Morse code would still be used.