Early Communications Systems - Telegraph - Essay Example

The development of the internet has further taken communications beyond the scope of time and distance.

Early communications systems involved guttural sounds, hand movements and occasional loud outbursts as individuals within the same tribe learned how to pass along important information.  As early as 3500 B.C., the Chinese people were busy using written alphabets and printing messages on paper-like material which was used to pass messages across long distances with the postal service that began around 900 B.C.  This printed form of language was bound into books beginning around 100 A.D.  The shortened form of books, newspapers, began appearing in the cities as early as 1450, but the typewriter wasn’t invented until 1714.  All of these methods of communication were effective, even to pass messages across space and time, but they all required the human component to transport them in order to be effective.

Joseph Henry invented the first telegraph in 1831 which broke this long-standing restriction, allowing messages to be passed as quickly as a signal could be sent over a wire.  Alexander Graham Bell reasoned that if a single sound could be sent via wire, why not a range of sounds, such as a human voice?  He perfected his telephone in 1876 and the wires were in place for the first transcontinental phone call to be made in 1914.   Things pretty much remained the same on the communications front for a while as inventors explored the possibilities of other forms of communication such as the radio, photography, cinema and television (Rowland, 1997). 

The development of the internet has further taken communications beyond the scope of time and distance.

Early communications systems involved guttural sounds, hand movements and occasional loud outbursts as individuals within the same tribe learned how to pass along important information.  As early as 3500 B.C., the Chinese people were busy using written alphabets and printing messages on paper-like material which was used to pass messages across long distances with the postal service that began around 900 B.C.  This printed form of language was bound into books beginning around 100 A.D.  The shortened form of books, newspapers, began appearing in the cities as early as 1450, but the typewriter wasn’t invented until 1714.  All of these methods of communication were effective, even to pass messages across space and time, but they all required the human component to transport them in order to be effective.

Joseph Henry invented the first telegraph in 1831 which broke this long-standing restriction, allowing messages to be passed as quickly as a signal could be sent over a wire.  Alexander Graham Bell reasoned that if a single sound could be sent via wire, why not a range of sounds, such as a human voice?  He perfected his telephone in 1876 and the wires were in place for the first transcontinental phone call to be made in 1914.   Things pretty much remained the same on the communications front for a while as inventors explored the possibilities of other forms of communication such as the radio, photography, cinema and television (Rowland, 1997).