History of communications

Communicating information always has been extremely important.  Throughout history, some information has had value beyond measure.  The lack of information often costs huge amounts of money and, sometimes, many lives.

From the beginning of human history, information traveled only as fast as a ship could sail. Or a horse could run. Or a person could walk.

People experimented with other ways to send messages.  Some people tried using birds to carry messages.  Then they discovered it was not always a safe way to send or receive information.

A faster method finally arrived with the invention of the telegraph.  The first useful telegraphs were developed in Britain and the United States in the eighteen thirties.

The telegraph was the first instrument used to send information using wires and electricity.  The telegraph sent messages between two places that were connected by telegraph wires.  The person at one end would send the information.  The second person would receive it.

On November second, nineteen twenty, radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania broadcast the first radio program.  That broadcast gave the results of a presidential election.

In the nineteen fifties, two important events took place that greatly affected the communication of information.  The first was a television broadcast that showed the East Coast and the West Coast of the United States at the same time.  A cable that carried the pictures linked the two coasts.  So people watching the program saw the Pacific Ocean on the left side of the screen.  They saw the Atlantic Ocean on the right side of the screen.

 The number of radio and television stations around the world increased.  It became harder for a dictator to control information.