Industrialization
Industrialization in the late nineteenth century had worldwide effects. As modern transportation developed, the need for better communication was recognized by both business and the military. Business saw an ever-expanding market and required a way to reach that market. Military leaders in the United States and Europe saw an ever-shrinking world and a need to understand what was happening in all parts of it.
Western Europe and the United States were the world=s leaders in industrialization. Some of the earliest recorded telecommunications breakthroughs occurred in the 1830s, when Germany erected a telegraph network spanning 8,000 feet and Georg Ohm developed the Ohm=s law for defining electron flow through a conductor. These innovations opened the door to more extensive developments in the 1840s.
By the mid-1840s, use of the telegraph had spread rapidly. The U.S. Congress spent $30,000 for a telegraph line running from Washington to Baltimore. During the same period, Samuel F. B. Morse was developing a telegraph device and code, to be known later as the Morse Code.
Europe was also working diligently on telegraph enhancements. By the 1850s, European telegraph wires and underwater cables were already in use.
While the telegraph would continue to be used by the military and by business for many years, innovators were researching other methods of communication. Few workers had the skill required to send and receive messages on a telegraph, and technological breakthroughs in electromagnetic transmission of information inspired researchers to experiment with new products. During the 1840s, Heinrich Hertz conducted lab work on electrical waves, and Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction.
Computers also began to break onto the scene during the 1830s and 1840s. The Jacquard loom made use of punch cards for machine control, and Charles Babbage created the first mechanical, digital computer, called the Babbage Analytical Engine.
CHAPTER 2: DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGY, 1850 – 1900
Development of a World Market
By the 1850s a world market had developed, and the growing needs of commerce and business spurred the first attempt at laying a transatlantic telegraph cable. Although this experiment was doomed to failure, success in laying the cable was realized by 1866.
Other telecommunications developments of the 1850s included the Wheatstone bridge, a four-part circuit used to measure the resistance of an unknown resistor, developed by Charles Wheatstone. While it would be another twenty years before sound could be used to communicate at any distance, during the 1850s L. Scott created the phonautograph, one of the first sound-recording devices.
Researchers continued their experiments on electromagnetic conduction of information throughout the 1850s and 1860s. James C. Maxwell defined the mathematical principles of electromagnetic waves, and the mathematician George Boole created Boolean Algebra, which is used in electronic logic circuits. These advancements led directly to the development of the telephone in the 1870s.
The American Civil War
The American Civil War (1861-1865) was a powerful motivator in the development of telecommunications technology. Both the North and South scurried to gain information on the movements of their opponent. During this time the U.S. telegraph industry sent 6,000,000 messages across 200,000 miles of line, using 1,500 operators.
Colonization
From 1860 until the 1890s, America was also fiercely driven by colonization. Industrial leaders–factory owners and workers alike–were interested in acquiring the raw materials needed to further their businesses. Quota productions and the need to keep a watchful eye on acquisitions led to further telecommunications developments.
The 1870s Depression
International trade peaked from 1850 to 1870, spurring many developments that furthered business abroad. When a major economic depression hit the United States during the 1870s, however, the tide turned. Both business and industry focused their efforts on home. One of the most significant developments in telecommunications was made during this period. Alexander Graham Bell developed the telephone in 1875, and he and Elisha Gray filed for a patent in 1876. Bell later offered to sell his telephone patents to Western Union telegraph company for $100,000 but was turned down. Not more than a decade later, the telephone permanently took its place on the telecommunications scene.
In the 1880s, more than 140,000 Americans subscribed to telephone service, and more than 800 telephone exchanges were in operation. The decade also saw the advent of long-distance telephone service between New York and Chicago.
