The Victorian Internet:
The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers
Tom Standage /// weblog by Michael Harry
Format: Paperback, 227pp.
ISBN: 0425171698
Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc.
Pub. Date: October 1999
INTRODUCTION
The internet reigns supreme as being the most significant leap in technological communication if the twentieth century, if not all time. Where else in history have we seen all forms of communication come together in a quick, easy to navigate system? What could top the internet in terms of its impact on business, global linkage, sharing of information and simple entertainment.
It is often forgotten by tech-heads in 2001 that revolutions of similar global impact have happened often in the past, for example the revolutions of telephone, radio, and television are just three conveniences we have come to rely on in the last century.
Yet, none of these inventions has had the impact of the telegraph, which was developed over 150 years ago. This invention changed the way the world spoke to each other. After centuries of relying on boats, animals and trains to deliver information, the telegraph allowed people to communicate at the speed of light.
This was one hell of a worldwide web, one which spread messages and information faster and more freely than ever before. The impact on the business world was felt immediately with the limitless possibility of the telegraph, and fortunes were quickly made and lost. Many of the features of the internet were seen in the telegraph at its earliest beginnings. A book written by Ella Cheever Thayer, titled "Wired Love", was released in 1879, and dealt with love and loss on-line.
In the Victorian Internet, written by science and technology journalist Tom Standage, thoroughly explores to notion that the telegraph was akin to the Internet in its impact on the history of the world. Taking into account that it was the first invention of the sort, it is even more remarkable. The Internet is more a combination of other forms of media and communication technology than an outright invention.
In fact, Standage argues the development of telegraphic communication in the 19th century did more to change society than the development of today's Internet. Before the Internet, developed countries were getting immediate news from television and radio before the emerging online services opened up this sort of information onto personal computers. Before e-mail, we could already talk to each other through a telephone and organise our business portfolio's by calling a stockbroker. But before the 1840s, messages moved only through slow means of transport.
Standage writes with considerable flair in what is a somewhat dry topic. He is fairly humorless with his vast slabs of history, however they are written in an uncomplicated, dynamic way so as to not sedate the reader. He moves off the obvious parallel between the telegraph and today's internet - focussing more on the background of an invention most of the worlds looks upon as completely redundant.
HISTORY
Jean-Antoine Nollet, the Abbot of the Grand Convent of the Carthusians in Paris wanted to tested his theory that electricity traveled through cables over long distance in a relatively short amount of time. On a spring day in 1746, Nollet sent out 200 monks in a line, each spaced with a 25-foot iron wire.
Nollet hooked up a battery to the end of the line and saw that each monk was appropriately swearing or writhing in electrical contortions almost simultaneously. He had proven the swiftness of electrical currents.
This story of the early days of electrical experimentation opens The Victorian Internet, before detailing how the telegraph, invented by Claude Chappe, began as an optical system in France after the revolution. His systems of towers, telescopes, and various signaling spread across Europe so comprehensively that nearly 1000 towers were erected and in operation across six countries by the mid 1830's.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 1832, painter Samuel B. Morse was sailing back from Europe when he caught the telegraph bug. Seven years earlier, he had been traveling to Washington, D.C. to do Lafayette's portrait and had received a letter that his wife had died. He raced back home, but the letter took so long in transit that he missed her funeral. That experience marked him, and the idea of an electric telegraph hit home.
In 1844 Morse got his line up and running between Washington and Baltimore and transmitted his first message:
"What Hath God Wrought?"
The new medium was a huge success. By 1850, 12,000 miles of telegraph lines had weaved its way through the United States. The lines quickly circled the world and created a massive global network and truly began the concept of multi-national industry.
THE BOOK
Standage is an impressive writer who manages to mesh together all the history of the telegraph in an exhaustively researched and ultimately easy to digest format. He resists the temptation to labor his point and get trapped in the minute details of technology or theory, yet fully explains the information on how the telegraph grew as a piece of technology, and how that technology shaped the world we live in today.
Through the book lies many impressive facts and figures, and it is clear that Standage could have written a much longer book on the subject, yet keeps the idea simple - this is the most redeeming feature of the book. Although the reader is reminded of the similarity between the internet and the telegraph, it is not continually mentioned in the book - rather it is touched on at the beginning and the end, leaving the main body of the book to flesh out historical aspects of the story.
Historical books are not normally my cup of tea, however I really enjoyed this account of a past technology. No doubt students of the future will be looking at todays internet in a similar way in the years to come - what a scary thought!
The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers
Tom Standage /// weblog by Michael Harry
Format: Paperback, 227pp.
ISBN: 0425171698
Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc.
Pub. Date: October 1999
INTRODUCTION
The internet reigns supreme as being the most significant leap in technological communication if the twentieth century, if not all time. Where else in history have we seen all forms of communication come together in a quick, easy to navigate system? What could top the internet in terms of its impact on business, global linkage, sharing of information and simple entertainment.
It is often forgotten by tech-heads in 2001 that revolutions of similar global impact have happened often in the past, for example the revolutions of telephone, radio, and television are just three conveniences we have come to rely on in the last century.
Yet, none of these inventions has had the impact of the telegraph, which was developed over 150 years ago. This invention changed the way the world spoke to each other. After centuries of relying on boats, animals and trains to deliver information, the telegraph allowed people to communicate at the speed of light.
This was one hell of a worldwide web, one which spread messages and information faster and more freely than ever before. The impact on the business world was felt immediately with the limitless possibility of the telegraph, and fortunes were quickly made and lost. Many of the features of the internet were seen in the telegraph at its earliest beginnings. A book written by Ella Cheever Thayer, titled "Wired Love", was released in 1879, and dealt with love and loss on-line.
In the Victorian Internet, written by science and technology journalist Tom Standage, thoroughly explores to notion that the telegraph was akin to the Internet in its impact on the history of the world. Taking into account that it was the first invention of the sort, it is even more remarkable. The Internet is more a combination of other forms of media and communication technology than an outright invention.
In fact, Standage argues the development of telegraphic communication in the 19th century did more to change society than the development of today's Internet. Before the Internet, developed countries were getting immediate news from television and radio before the emerging online services opened up this sort of information onto personal computers. Before e-mail, we could already talk to each other through a telephone and organise our business portfolio's by calling a stockbroker. But before the 1840s, messages moved only through slow means of transport.
Standage writes with considerable flair in what is a somewhat dry topic. He is fairly humorless with his vast slabs of history, however they are written in an uncomplicated, dynamic way so as to not sedate the reader. He moves off the obvious parallel between the telegraph and today's internet - focussing more on the background of an invention most of the worlds looks upon as completely redundant.
HISTORY
Jean-Antoine Nollet, the Abbot of the Grand Convent of the Carthusians in Paris wanted to tested his theory that electricity traveled through cables over long distance in a relatively short amount of time. On a spring day in 1746, Nollet sent out 200 monks in a line, each spaced with a 25-foot iron wire.
Nollet hooked up a battery to the end of the line and saw that each monk was appropriately swearing or writhing in electrical contortions almost simultaneously. He had proven the swiftness of electrical currents.
This story of the early days of electrical experimentation opens The Victorian Internet, before detailing how the telegraph, invented by Claude Chappe, began as an optical system in France after the revolution. His systems of towers, telescopes, and various signaling spread across Europe so comprehensively that nearly 1000 towers were erected and in operation across six countries by the mid 1830's.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 1832, painter Samuel B. Morse was sailing back from Europe when he caught the telegraph bug. Seven years earlier, he had been traveling to Washington, D.C. to do Lafayette's portrait and had received a letter that his wife had died. He raced back home, but the letter took so long in transit that he missed her funeral. That experience marked him, and the idea of an electric telegraph hit home.
In 1844 Morse got his line up and running between Washington and Baltimore and transmitted his first message:
"What Hath God Wrought?"
The new medium was a huge success. By 1850, 12,000 miles of telegraph lines had weaved its way through the United States. The lines quickly circled the world and created a massive global network and truly began the concept of multi-national industry.
THE BOOK
Standage is an impressive writer who manages to mesh together all the history of the telegraph in an exhaustively researched and ultimately easy to digest format. He resists the temptation to labor his point and get trapped in the minute details of technology or theory, yet fully explains the information on how the telegraph grew as a piece of technology, and how that technology shaped the world we live in today.
Through the book lies many impressive facts and figures, and it is clear that Standage could have written a much longer book on the subject, yet keeps the idea simple - this is the most redeeming feature of the book. Although the reader is reminded of the similarity between the internet and the telegraph, it is not continually mentioned in the book - rather it is touched on at the beginning and the end, leaving the main body of the book to flesh out historical aspects of the story.
Historical books are not normally my cup of tea, however I really enjoyed this account of a past technology. No doubt students of the future will be looking at todays internet in a similar way in the years to come - what a scary thought!
posted by City Of Churches at
3:20 PM
