History of Telecommunications

History Of Telecommunications

As it all began back in the prehistoric times, there has been methods of communications over large distances. Early methods would include fire signals, homing pigeons, mirror signals and of course, the basic messenger. All of these are simple but yet complicated was to tell messages. With all forms of communication these must be present: a source (or message), something or someone to send it, a place to receive it, something or someone to receive it.

With colonies starting across the country, people needed more reliable ways to communicate. In 1639, the first official note of a postal service in the colonies appeared. The General Court of Massachusetts designated a tavern in Boston as the official collection of mail brought from or sent overseas. In 1775, members of the Second Continental Congress agreed that a Postmaster General would be appointed. This meant across the beginning nation that mail carries would form monthly routes between cities and towns

The first and most useful form of telecommunication came in the early 1800s, which is none other than the telegraph. The telegraph printed codes from someone who could have a concept of how to work the telegraph keys. Later this method was changed by not printing, but to learn Morse by ear. Skilled Morse users could send 40 to 50 words per minute.

It wasn't until 1850, that the project was used by train dispatchers and some towns that had the transition wire fed to them. Over the next 100 years towns relied more on this form of communication. And for good reason the allowable words per minute increased. At the end of the telegraph, it was possible to have 72 transitions per minute.

After Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telegraph and as improvements were to be made, the telephone was invented. The telephone was a way to communicate electrically . It was established so that two people may talk over telephone wires, built from town to town. As the cables went through the town people who bought one of the machines was to connect theirs to the box outside of their houses (to the wires running through town.)

Sometime after Bell's telephone, came the photo-phone which used light to capture the senders message and send it to the receiver and have the message turn back into his voice. Although bell had trouble protecting transitions from outside sources like clouds, rain, and other atmospheric items.

As of 1895, the first radio message was received and send. The radio was proven effective for many oversea problems. It allowed ships to call in positions and message people ashore with their problems or discoveries. Underwater Sea Labs also found the use of radio transitions useful in later years. The radio used frequencies in the air to transmit a signal to a receiver which generated the signal output to listen to.

Years later, many basic computer were optional to by but stored no real purpose for the lack of space and options. Another 30 or so years later, more personal computers became available along with the discovery of online capabilities.

Today communication is possible over the internet. From Aol Instant Messenger, Msn, Yahoo; which includes: email and instant messaging to chat sites like myspace. Microsoft also has online meetings via webcam/voice chat. These are but a few things available over the internet.

Source: How Stuff Works