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Wiring the World

Wiring the World. The telegraph and the dawn of the information society. Wheatstone-Cooke Five-needle telegraph, 1837. Morse Telegraph Key, circa 1850. Homemade Telegraph. Overview. Questions to ponder The communications landscape on the eve of electricity and life in the late 1800s

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Wiring the World

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  1. Wiring the World The telegraph and the dawn of the information society

  2. Wheatstone-Cooke Five-needle telegraph, 1837 Morse Telegraph Key, circa 1850

  3. Homemade Telegraph

  4. Overview • Questions to ponder • The communications landscape on the eve of electricity and life in the late 1800s • The telegraph and modern capitalism • the social shaping of the telegraph • the telgraphic shaping of society

  5. Questions to ponder • What were the goals and values of those who built and used early wired networks? • Who and was connected, and where? • What economic and social changes did the wiring of the world facilitate? • How did the telegraph and telephone reshape existing forms of communication? • How was the telegraph a model for subsequent telecommunications like the telephone and the Internet?

  6. The communications landscape before electricity Early 1800s: • Most of society still rural • Local and regional markets: no standard time; no standard prices • Books and newspapers available but reading public remained limited • Sources of light: the sun and candles • Communication bound to transportation

  7. If you were born in 1840 you would live through… • development of the continental RR • arrival of the telegraph and telephone • development of universal postal delivery • arrival of electric light & the typewriter • spread of mass newspapers and magzns. • invention of the phonograph • development of photography and movies • discovery of radio transmission

  8. How would this change your world… …if you were a common person? …if you were a business or government leader? …if you lived in a rural area …or an urban area? …if you lived outside the U.S.?

  9. Early wired communication telegraph: 1830s-1860s (global by 1900) telephone: 1870s-1920s • Initially developed to serve business and government • Altered communication/transportation relationship • Reorganized economic and social space • Set early patterns for telecommunications ownership and control

  10. Telecommunication was not new (electricity was) • since ancient times: messenger systems, fire and smoke signaling • postal system = human precursor of telegraph • 1600s: string telephones, megaphones • early 1800s: national semaphore systems • late 1700s/early 1800s: experiments with electrical signals (static electricity, pith balls)

  11. The telegraph: emergence • Multiple inventors and patent wars • Morse system simple, efficient • Industrialization creates demand • railroads (safety, surveillance) • stock exchange, banking • newspapers, wire services • corporate communications • imperialism

  12. The social shaping of the telegraph • Nation- and empire-building • National development: Government or corporate control? • Europe: Govt. control modeled on post • U.S.: Corporate control • initial Government support (1844), but w/drawn • patent and network battles (1850s-90s) • by late 1800s: Western Union monopoly

  13. The telegraphic shaping of society • communication as control rise of urban centers, corporations, imperial power • regional economies  national economy (Carey) • national culture • national press (language patterns) • national sense of time and space • modernity: the new, the up-to-date

  14. The telegraphic shaping of communications • Western Union: archetype of the modern corporation • structure: HQ + branch offices • ownership: investors provide capital • legal: patents protect technology; regulation • monopolistic tendencies (econ. of scale)

  15. The telegraphic shaping of communications • communication as commodity: • corporate tool (surveillance, decisionmaking) • profitable product • consumer appliance (e.g. telephones) • consumer/business services (telegraph, phone) • news/entertainment (magazines, newspapers)

  16. Discussion • What would have been the advantages and disadvantages of a “postal-service model” of the telecommunications in the U.S.? • What lessons from telegraph and telephone history can we apply to Internet policy today?

  17. Image Credits Wheatstone-Cooke telegraph“The FHTE Web History of Telecommunications”http://www.fht-esslingen.de/telehistory/1840-.html Morse Telegraph Key Tom Pereira, “Telegraph Web Museum” http://chss.montclair.edu/~pererat/m1000.htm Homemade telegraph Tom Pereira, “How to Build a Simple Telegraph Set” http://chss.montclair.edu/~pererat/perbuild.html

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