Enveronment

A Brief History of Data Communications

Presently, the United States is the most technologically advanced country in the area of telecommunications with about; 126 million phone lines, 7.5 million cellular phone users, 5 thousand AM radio broadcast stations, 5 thousand FM radio stations, 1 thousand television broadcast stations, 9 thousand cable television systems, 530 million radios, 193 million television sets, 24 ocean cables, and scores of satellite facilities!

This is truly an "Information Age" and sometimes, you need to look at where we've been in order to see the future more clearly!

Data Communications Milestones

What hath God Wrought?

These famous words were telegraphed by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1844, although the patent for the "electric telegraph" was submitted in 1937 by Charles Wheatstone. By the time of the Civil War, telegraph communications spanned the United States, and in 1866, the first trans-Atlantic cable was laid between the US and France (Werner von Siemens from Germany was one of the pioneers in the development of reliable submarine cables).

The basic elements of Morse code were the dot ("dit") and the dash ("dah"). In International Morse code (the most prevalent of the Morse code variants), the dot was the minimal duration element, with the dash equal to three times the duration of the dot. Electrically, current flows with both dots and dashes. The time between each element of the same character was one dot. The amount of time between each character was three dots; and the time between words was equal to seven dots! During these "idle" time intervals, the telegraph line was open (no current flow).

Unfortunately, Morse code suffered from a couple of drawbacks. Skilled telegraph operators were required, and the work of these operators was grueling (Can you imagine banging on a single key all day?). Also, because the code had varying numbers of elements between characters, it was very difficult to automate. But, it still beat the Pony...