Technology And Communication During The Nineteenth Century

The nineteenth century was a time full of significant innovations. During this period, technology made huge strides in both transportation and communication. With the beginnings of the post office and the technological advancements in printing, trains, and more, it is safe to say a communication revolution occurred. Many people place heavy credit on the improvements in printing technology causing this revolution, but I think it is much more than that. Although some credit is definitely deserved, there were a number of “revolutionary” inventions and advancements that blended together to create this rapid change in the way we communicated. Understanding the progression of human communication helps to appreciate what humans are capable today. I think when you boil down the definition of communication, it is simply transferring information. This can be verbal, written, or visual and any advancement in those three areas will change the way humans transfer information. This means that advancements in transportation affect communication, since faster transportation results in a faster transfer of information. Written communications, newspapers and letters namely, were extremely popular at that time. This rapid change in distribution of written information
Letters were essential in that warfare process in order for generals to communicate with each other and Congress. The Second Continental Congress decided to make a committee to build a postal system. After the committee had the structure completed, it was approved and Ben Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. This was the beginnings of the postal services in the US. Soon after, post offices, post roads, and the resulting post routes came to light as the operation grew, mostly with horse drawn carriages. With an organized and growing operation to deliver mail, books and newspapers filled with information could be dispersed to nearly