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The telegraph was the first Internet. It permitted messages to travel across a country in seconds instead of of days. For example the Battle of New Orleans, 29
by peter303 9y ago
The telegraph was the first Internet. It permitted messages to travel across a country in seconds instead of of days. For example the Battle of New Orleans, 29 years before the first telegraph, was fought after the peace treaty for the War of 1812 was signed.
The first telegraphs had only a rate of 20 bits a second (measured in those days at 40 words per minute). Various inventions like multiplexing and speeds via punched tape could increase that an order of magnitude. Thomas Edison inevented several of these speedups.
- timthorn 9y agoBeacons enabled rapid messaging in Roman times - message size was clearly limited but messages could cross a country in minutes.
- NoGravitas 9y agoThis reminds me strongly of the Clacks in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels (which is heavily based on the real-world telegraph, though it was a mechanical semaphore system). It quickly took on internet-like characteristics, including image transmission, and then, rather soon, image compression. X-Clacks-Overhead "GNU Terry Pratchett" http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com/ http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com/