History of communication
"The
history of communication dates back to prehistoric times, with significant
changes
in communication technologies (media and appropriate inscription tools)
evolving
in tandem with shifts in political and economic systems, and by extension,
systems
of power. Communication can range from very subtle processes of exchange,
to
full conversations and mass communication. Human communication was
revolutionized
with Origin of language|speech approximately 500,000 years ago.
Symbols
were developed about 30,000 years ago."
Communication
then became advanced as technology advanced and communication devices thus
developed.
Historic Examples of communication
Prior
to 20th
Prior
to 3500BC – Communication was carried out through paintings of indigenous
tribes.
3500s
BC – The Sumerians develop cuneiform writing and the Egyptians develop
hieroglyphic
writing.
16th
century BC – The Phoenicians develop an alphabet .
AD
26–37 – Roman Emperor Tiberius rules the empire from island of Capri by
signaling
messages with metal mirrors to reflect the sun.
105 –
Tsai Lun invents paper.
7th
century – Hindu-Malayan empires write legal documents on copper plate
scrolls
, and write other documents on more perishable media.
751 –
Paper is introduced to the Muslim world after the Battle of Talas.
1450 -
movable type created
1305 –
The Chinese develop wooden block movable type printing.
1450 –
Johannes Gutenberg finishes a printing press with metal movable type.
1520 –
Ships on Ferdinand Magellan's voyage signal to each other by firing cannon
and
raising flags.
1792 –
Claude Chappe establishes the first long-distance semaphore telegraph
line .
1831 –
Joseph Henry proposes and builds an electric telegraph .
1835 –
Samuel Morse develops the Morse code .
1843 –
Samuel Morse builds the first long distance electric telegraph line.
1844 –
Charles Fenerty produces paper from a wood pulp, eliminating rag paper
which
was in limited supply.
1849 –
Associated Press organizes Nova Scotia pony express to carry latest
European
news for New York newspapers.
1876 –
Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson exhibit an electric telephone
in
Boston .
1877 –
Thomas Ediso
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_communication_technology>
Some Image Examples
The
pigeon mail
As
fast as messenger could be, he wasn’t able to fly like a bird. The mail pigeons
made a
huge contribution to communication. A kind of short message service, because
the
dove could carry only a small load, a short letter or just a note.
The
letter and postman
The
postman played a huge rule in communication because it was the easiest way to
transport mail from one state to another and this would take days or even weeks
and the postman would either go on foot or one a horse, depending on how far
they had to take the mail.
The
newspaper
The
newspaper developed after the invention of movable type because, mass printing
was a possibility. More and more people became literate and with the newspaper
came a culture of coffee shops selling newspapers and serving people tea/coffee
whilst reading their daily news.
Newspapers
covered a lot at once.
The
telegraph
"An
electrical telegraph was independently developed and patented in the United
States in 1837 by Samuel Morse. His assistant, Alfred Vail, developed the Morse
code signalling alphabet with Morse."
<https://www.google.co.za/search?q=indian+telegram+machine&client.com
>
The
Radio
The
real break in technologies came after the radio invention. Thanks to it, people
could
get rid of wires and to set communication everywhere. Certainly, first of all,
the
military got this technology. Almost at once the radio started forcing out the
wire
telegraph. But, of course, it wasn’t at once.
The
telephone
"The
telephone emerged from the making and successive improvements of the
electrical
telegraph . In 1804, Spanish polymath and scientist Francisco Salva Campillo
constructed
an electrochemical telegraph."
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_telephone>
Ships
From the private collection of Simon Bang. Bought image with
full copyright.
SS Deutschland was a passenger liner built in Stettin and
launched in 1900 by the Hamburg America Line of Germany. The SS DEUTSCHLAND was a passenger
liner owned by the Hamburg America Line of Germany. She sailed for over 25
years under three different names. The second ship to have been built as a four
funnel liner, she was built by Hamburg America as a response to the Kaiser
Wilhelm der Grosse. She was the second of five German liners to have four
funnels. Though she was very successful at capturing the Blue Riband from the
British, she suffered from terrible vibrations.
Cars
Henry Ford, James
Couzens, Elwood Rice and Gaston Plantiff in Ford Model K Car, 1907.
Most people don’t know that before starting the Ford Motor
Company in 1903, Henry Ford was a part of two failed automobile
enterprises. The first was the Detroit Automobile Company, which folded after
Ford failed to ship a working automobile. The second (the Henry Ford Company),
eventually became known as the Cadillac Automobile Company after some failed
partnership dealings.
There was one big reason for the failure of Ford’s first two
Automobile companies: Ford’s failure to get his product to market. He didn’t
ship. This changed, after starting the Ford Motor Company, because of one
man – James J. Couzens.
Henry Ford was, among other things, a perfectionist who cared
deeply about every minor detail of his automobiles. This perfectionist habit
worked in his favor most of the time. Ford racing cars usually outperformed
their counterparts simply because of their superior craftsmanship. Ford
certianly had a point. Quality matters, but in business, so does the almighty
dollar. After Couzens was brought into the Ford Motor Company as its
first Vice President, he became uniquely focused on business matters, and more
particularly, on shipping cars.
Hot Air Balloons
T.E. Mahoney the real
estate man
The basic idea behind
hot air balloons has been around for a long time. Archemedes, one of the
greatest mathematicians in Ancient Greece, figured out the principle of buoyancy more than
2,000 years ago, and may have conceived of flying machines lifted by the force.
In the 13th century, the English scientist Roger Bacon and the German
philosopher Albertus Magnus both proposed hypothetical flying machines based on
the principle.
But nothing really got
off the ground until the summer of 1783, when the Montgolfier brothers sent a
sheep, a duck and a chicken on an eight-minute flight over France. The two
brothers, Joseph and Etienne, worked for their family's prestigious paper
company. As a side project, they began experimenting with paper vessels
elevated by heated air. Over the course of a couple years, they developed a hot
air balloon very similar in design to the ones used today. But instead of using
propane, they powered their model by burning straw, manure and other material
in an attached fire pit.
Bicycles
The Rover Safety
Bicycle, as created by J.K. Starley, circa 1885. Photo Credit: U.S. Library of
Congress.
This stage of bicycle development came with
the creation of the safety bicycle, which transformed the bicycle from a
dangerous contraption limited to the realm of reckless young men to a reliable
and comfortable device that could be safely used by people of all ages for
everyday transportation.
Recognising the design limitations of the high-wheeler bicycles,
tinkerers continually looked for ways to improve the bike's basic form. A major
breakthrough came in 1885 with John Kemp Starley's the creation of (or maybe
"return to" is more accurate) a bike design that featured a rider
perched much lower between two wheels of the same size, coupled with a sprocket
and chain system that drove the bike from the rear wheel. This was the same
basic "diamond frame" design still in use in today's bikes.
All these factors combined to create the golden age of cycling.
People rode them for practical means and for leisure. It was transportation and
recreation all wrapped up in one package. The number and influence of cycling
grew so rapidly in the 1880s and 1890s that they formed groups like the League
of American Wheelman (now called the League of American Bicyclists), to lobby
for better roads in the days before automobiles were common.
Trains
'P' 1700 East Circular Quay, Sydney. N F Reed
In 1852, the first
railroad tracks were laid in Hilliard, Ohio. These railroad tracks were
completed in 1853 and the railroad opened in Hilliard. The railroad station was
made up of three boxcarsput
together to form a building, and it was called Hilliard’s Station. The trains
took people from the village of Hilliard, which was founded by John R. Hilliard
in 1853, to Pleasant Valley. The tripfare to
Pleasant Valley, what we now call Plain City, was 28¢. The railroad also had a
train that took people from Hilliard to Columbus for a fare of 10¢. This train
left Hilliard early in the morning for workers and shoppers to travel to
Columbus and then return back home to Hilliard in the evening. Around 1890, the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company replaced Hilliard’s Station with a new building.
This new building was a combination depot where the town’s transportation and communication needs
were met.
