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Smoke Signals
A smoke signal is a form of visual communication used over a long distance, the use of smoke signals began around the same time in America by Native Americans and in China. There is no standardized code for smoke signals; the signals are often of a predetermined pattern discerned by sender and receiver. Because of this, smoke signals tend to only convey simple messages, and are a limited form of communication. This advancement helped further the drive for instant long distance communication. -
Christopher Sholes and the typewriter
Christopher Sholes was an American mechanical engineer, born on February 14, 1819 in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania.He invented the first practical modern typewriter in 1866, with the financial and technical support of his business partners Samuel Soule and Carlos Glidden. This technological innovation led to faster press reports which intern led to a further spead of news. With news reaching parts it never had more people could involve themselfs in political and economic issues. -
The Electric Telegraph
In 1830, Joseph Henry, demonstrated the potential of a William Sturgeon device for long distance communication by sending an electronic current over one mile of wire to activate an electromagnet which caused a bell to strike. However the Telegraph was not commercialized until the 8th of February when Samuel Morse publicly demonstrated it to a scientific committee at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. -
Pony Express
The Pony Express began as a result of a Califonia Gold Rush in which many able bodies joined causing a rift between them and their family members. This distance barrier was crossed by typically young males under the age of 18 who were often orphans. This demographic was generally in desparate need of money so the risk of death on such a trek was not a problem for them. The Pony Express was able to turn a trip that would take about three to four weeks into an about ten day wait. -
Transcontinental Rail Road
The transcontinental railroads created a nation-wide transportation and communication network that united the country. Its construction was made possible by the Congress through the passage of Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1867. -
Evolution of the Telegraph into the Telephone
The telegraph and telephone are both wire-based electrical systems, and Alexander Graham Bell's success with the telephone came as a direct result of his attempts to improve the telegraph. Speaking through the instrument to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, in the next room, Bell utters these famous first words, "Mr. Watson -- come here -- I want to see you." -
The first audio recordings
Thomas Edison began experimenting with the diaphragm of a telephone receiver by attaching a needle to it. He reasoned that the needle could prick paper tape to record a message. The word phonograph was the trade name for Edison's device, which played cylinders rather than discs. This cylinder phonograph was the first machine that could record and reproduce sound created a sensation and brought Edison international fame. It would later cause great trouble for President Richard Nixon. -
The Roots of Radio
The radio owes its development to two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone, all three technologies are closely related. Radio technology began as "wireless telegraphy". With the invention of the radio, which owes its credit to many innovators such as Nikola Tesla, Guglielmo Marconi, and American dentist Mahlon Loomis, America now moved into the age where news could be streamed live from coast to coast. This would later unite America with FDR's "fireside chats -
Television in America
The television was not invented by a single inventor, instead many people working together and alone over the years, contributed to the evolution of television. Around 1930 the first television broadcast began to srpout in American homes. -
Entering the Computerized Age
A computer is a complex piece of machinery made up of many parts, each of which can be considered a separate invention. That being said the first commercially sold computer was the UNIVAC Computer developed by John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly. Even then it would be over twenty years before the first home computers were sold. -
Zoning Improvement Plan or Zip Codes
The change in character of the mail, the tremendous increase in mail volume, and the revolution in transportation, coupled with the steep rise in manpower costs, made adoption of modern technology imperative and helped produce the ZIP Code or Zoning Improvement Plan. With a change from an agricultural economy to a highly industrial one America was reaching a point of high population density in order to account for such changes in population adopting this system was a very efficient choice. -
ARPAnet Grandfather of the Internet
ARPA stands for the Advanced Research Projects Agency, a branch of the military that developed top secret systems and weapons during the Cold War. Designed as a computer version of the nuclear bomb shelter, ARPAnet protected the flow of information between military installations by creating a network of geographically separated computers that could exchange information. -
Dawn of the Home Computer
Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs released the Apple I computer and started Apple Computers. The Apple I was the first single circuit board computer. It came with a video interface, 8k of RAM and a keyboard. About two hundred Apple Is were built and sold over a ten month period. With the home or 'personal' computer we we're finally able to update, respond, and share with each other from a long distance with out the use of a middle man. -
Selling The Cell Phone
The basic concept of cellular phones began in 1947, when researchers looked at crude mobile (car) phones and realized that by using small cells (range of service area) with frequency reuse they could increase the traffic capacity of mobile phones substantially. However at that time, the technology to do so was nonexistent. Cell phones allowed for instant long distance communication, allowing people such as doctors, police men and firemen to respond quicker to emergencys.
