Dr T. Matthew Ciolek,
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies,
Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au
http://www.ciolek.com/PEOPLE/ciolek-tm.html
Document created: 9 Jan 1999. Last updated: 9 Mar 2002
This document, intended as a reliable electronic reference tool,
provides a timeline for three types of developments and milestones:
(1) advances in long distance person-to-person communication;
(2) advances in storage, replication, cataloguing, finding, and retrieval of data;
(3) standardisation of concepts and tools for long distance interaction.
The advancements may have a:
T echnical (hardware),
C onceptual (software),
or an O rganisational aspect,
or represent an important M ilestone in the history of a given invention,
and are annotated as such in the timeline.
This document is only as good as the collated information itself. Please email any additional
data and corrections to tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au. Your
collaboration and input is warmly appreciated.
work in progress - tmc
19th c.
- [M] The postal service of China has 2,000 express stations; 30,526 horses; nearly 50,000
foot messengers, and about 70,000 service personnel
(Thomas 1995:236).
1800
- [M] Paper production in England totals 12.4 mln tons
(Thomas 1995:251), and 15,000 tons in Germany (App 1995). [The discrepancy between the two figures
to be checked - ed.]
1804
- [T] George Baxter (d. 1867) patented letterpress process for
color printing (Knops 1998).
1804
- [T] Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834), an engineer and architect,
develops in Lyon, France a loom controlled by perforated cardboard cards for weaving
elaborate ornamental silk textiles. This revolutionary technology paves the way
for future storage of information in binary (yes/no) format and for development
of programs which control operations of machinery (Faculte de
Medecine, Universite H. Poincare, Nancy 1996).
1804
- [M] Napoleon orders optical telegraph line to be built between Paris and Milan, Italy
(via Dijon, Lyons and Turin) (Standage 1998:15).
1806
- [O] Bonaparte's Postmaster General, Antoin Lavalette, establishes
government express post with locked dispatch cases. The system was centred on
Paris and linked Naples, Milan, Kotor, Madrid and Amsterdam. A letter from
Paris to Milan travelled in 4 days, and to Naples in 7.5 days
(Elting 1997:106).
1808
- [T] Carbon paper, invented by Pellegrino Turri in Italy (Anonymous Kevin nd.).
1809
- [T] Napoleon Bonaparte builds between Strasbourg and Vienna (via Munich and Passau) (670 kms)
military mobile optical (soldiers with telescopes and black, white and red flags) network (Elting 1997:106).
1809 Aug
- [T] During the British siege of Flushing, the town's garrison used empty howitzer shells
to communicate with French troops on the other side of the Scheldt channel (Elting 1997:109).
The howitzer fire ranges between 600-1200 meters.
1810 Oct
- [M] Wellington's engineer, Col. Richard Fletcher
(1768-1813), builds for the fortification lines of Torres Vedras,
north of Lisbone, Portugal, two networks of stationary optical telegraph.
Five semaphore stations, most likely of the type devised in 1795 by
George Murray, were placed at intervals along the first line of
redoubts, and four in the second line. In favourable weather a message
could be passed across some 22 miles between the Atlantic and river
Tagus coasts in 7 minutes (Chandler 1999:407-408) i.e. at a speed of
188 kms/hr.
1812
- [T]
Cylinder press, first built in Britain by Friedrich Koenig (1774-1833) (Knops 1998).
It enables production rate of some 1,100 sheets per hour (Georges 1992:106).
1814
- [M] The Times (est. 1785) in London is selling 5,000 copies a day (Thomas 1995:397)
1815
- [M] There are approximately 5,000 chronometers in the world (Sobel 1996:163).
1818
- [O] Stamped postal paper introduced in Sardinia (Thomas 1995:387)
1822
- [T] Charles Babbage (1791-1871) builds a small mechanical
calculator (aka difference engine) able to carry out complex
operations (at a rate of about 12 calculations a minute) using only the
mechanism for addition. Babbage announces (on June 14) his
invention in a paper 'Note on the application of machinery to
the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables' read to
the Royal Astronomical Society, London, UK. In 1823 he embarks on
a construction of an industrial strenghth calculator but, due to
a series technical and bureaucratic problems the project is terminated in 1834
(O'Connor, & Robertson 1998a).
1823 Sep 27
- [T] Steam locomotive, is built by George Stephenson for commercial use on a public
line operates between Stockton and Darlington, in Britain
(Lee 1994). The introduction of train increases
the speed with which people, goods and mail can be transported over long distances,
and frees manufacturing from its dependence on water transport.
1828
- [T] The first four-cylinder press invented by Augustus Applegath and Edward Cowper for The Times.
It enables production rate of some 4,000 sheets per hour (Georges 1992:106).
1830
- [M] George Stephenson's Manchester & Liverpool railway line opens in Britain (Lee 1994).
1832
- [C] Charles Babbage proposes in his book Economy of
Machinery and Manufactures a "simple contrivance of tin tubes for
speaking through". According to his calculations it would take 17
minutes for words spoken in London to reach Liverpool. He also
envisaged messages "enclosed in small cylinders", to be sent along
wires suspended from high pillars and church steeples (Lee 1994).
1834
- [C] Charles Babbage completes his drawings for a
mechanical computer (aka analytical engine). It is remarkably
similar in logical components to a present day electronic
computer. Babbage describes five logical components, the store
[memory, initially able to hold 1,000 numbers each of 50 digits],
the mill [the CPU], the control [program
recorded on punched cardboard cards used in Jacquard looms], the
input [raw data] and the output [processed data]. The work on the
project, privately financed by Babbage himself and carried out in
association with Lady Ada Lovelace, is stopped by his
death, in 1871 (O'Connor, & Robertson 1998a).
1837
- [T] The first electric telegraph (deflected needle technology) installed in England on a 13 mile stretch
between Paddington and West Drayton,
by William F. Cooke and Charles Wheatstone (d. 1875) (Standage 1998:45).
1838
- [T] Charles Knight patented a method of colour
printing with four wood or
metal blocks rotated and impressed in turn on to a sheet of
paper (Knops 1998).
1839 Aug 19
- [T] Louis J.M. Daguerre's invention of one-of-a-kind photochemical pictures on a metal plate
(daguerreotype) is bought by the French government and made public (Grolier 1993).
1840s
- [C] The introduction of the railways in Britain leads
to the adoption of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as a national time
system which replaces the local time in major towns and cities
(Greenwich 2000 Network 1999).
1840
- [T]
The silvered glass mirror, invented by Justin Liebeg, paves the way for the invention
of heliograph (1865)
(Coe 1993:8, cited in Sterling & Kadrey 1999, note
05.6).
1840
- [T] William H. Talbot invents negative-to-positive process for creation of
multiple photochemical pictures on paper (Grolier 1993)
1840
- [O] Poststamp introduced in Britain (Thomas 1995:387). The
introduction of standardized and pre-paid postal fees facilitates
(together with the steadily growing general literacy) the widespred
use of mail.
1841
- [T] The first paperbacks published by Tauchnitz Verlag
Germany (Knops 1998).
1841
- [M] There are over 1,300 miles of rail in Britain (Lee 1994).
1844 May 1
- [T] Samuel F.B. Morse (d. 1872) publicly proves the
viability of electric telegraph (with dots & dashes automatically
written on a paper tape) by receiving in Washington a message from a
distance of 25 miles, and 64 minutes ahead of the parallel message
sent by train
(Standage 1998:49).
1844 May 24
- [T] Samuel F.B. Morse uses his electric telegraph
to send the message "What hath God wrought"
on a completed 40 miles long line from Baltimore to Washington. The second message sent immediately
after the first one was "Have you any news?"
(Standage 1998:49,139).
1844 August 6
- [M] The telegraph is used to announce the birth of Queen Victoria's second son,
Alfred Ernest, at Windsor. Within 40 minutes the news is printed and distributed in London
by The Times (Standage 1998:50).
1844
- [M] The first chess-game is conducted via telegraph. The players are from Washington
and Baltimore, respectively. Also, the line is used by a Baltimore businessman to verify with
the Bank of Washington the credit worthiness of his customer
(Standage 1998:50).
1845 Jan 9
- [M] In its pre-telegraph era, The Times, the newspaper in London which prides itself on getting
the news by fastest means possible, publishes reports from Berlin (1 week old); New York (4 weeks
old); Rio (6 weeks) and the Cape (8 weeks old) (Standage 1998:138).
1845 April 1
- [M] The Washington-Baltimore telegraph line is commercialised. The tariff is one cent
per four characters. Magnetic Telegraph Co. is formed in May in USA, and Electrical Telegraph Co, in
Britain (Standage 1998:54,56).
1845
- [C] The first public codes for electric telegraph used in USA (Standage 1998:106). The
system, based on numbered (later letter-coded) dictionaries of words, compresses the length of messages,
improves the transmission speed and provides some
privacy to messages (Standage 1998:106).
1846 Jan 27
- [M] Magnetic Telegraph Co. completes the link between New York and Philadelphia.
The tariff is 25 cents per 10 words (Standage 1998:55).
1847
- [M] 4,000 miles of telegraph lines in Britain, established by the Electrical Telegraph Co. (Thomas 1995:389).
1847
- [M] In Paris, 500,000 photographic plates are sold (Thomas 1995:396).
1847
- [M] Marinioni's machine automatically printing the
verso and recto of each sheet came into service in France for
the newspaper La Presse. The newspaper is printed on four
machines producing 60,000 papers per hour, which once trimmed and
folded are ready for distribution (Georges 1992:107).
1848
- [M] 2,000 miles of telegraph lines in USA, established by the Magnetic Telegraph Co.
(Standage 1998:58).
1848
- [M] The first marriage is performed via telegraph, for a bride in Boston and
groom in New York. The transaction, like other business contracts conducted through the wire, is legally binding.
(Standage 1998:121).
1849
[M] Prussian state telegraph service established (Thomas 1995:389)
1849
- [T] Julius Reuter's news agency uses homing pigeons to bridge the Aachen/Brussels gap between the German
(Berlin-Aachen) and French (Paris-Brussels) telegraph lines
(Levinson 1997:53)
1850s
- [O] The so called 'first class' telegraph operators can
handle about 60 messages an hour, at a rate 25-30 words per minute.
The 'bonus men' can process accurately 40 words per minute or more
(Standage 1998:132).
1850
- [M] 12,000 miles of telegraph lines in USA, established by 20 different companies.
Britain has 2,215 miles of wire.
(Standage 1998:58,60).
1850
- [M] Britain has 16,200 miles of railway. Trains travel up to 100 km/hr,
and carry annually 60 mln tons of freight and over 100 mln
passengers (Thomas 1995:343).
1850
- [O] Money orders by telegraph can be sent in Britain (Thomas 1995:389)
1851
- [M] "The telegraph is used by commercial men to almost as great extent as the mail",
remarks the superintendent of a telegraph line from Wall Street, New York to Boston (Standage 1998:157).
1851 - [T] photographic glass plate (replacing paper)
covered with 'collodion' (a solution of gun-cotton in ether),
introduced by Frederick Scott Archer, enables the mass production of
albumen prints of extremely fine detail
(Grolier 1993, Thomas 1995:390).
1851 Nov
- [T] The first underwater telegraph cable laid between Calais, France and Dover, UK
by John and Jacob Brett (Levinson 1997:54; Standage 1998:70)
1852
- [M] The first direct message from London to Paris is sent (Standage 1998:70)
1852
- [M] 23,000 miles of telegraph lines in USA are established,
with another 10,000 under construction. Eleven separate lines radiate
out from New York. Some bankers send and receive 6-10 messages a day
(Standage 1998:58).
1852
- [M] 1,493 miles of telegraph lines in Prussia; 1,053 in Austria; 983 in
Canada, 750 in France (which is handicapped by its own extensive optical telegraph network);
electric telegraphs in operation in Australia, Bavaria, Chile,
Cuba, Holland, Saxony, Spain, Russia, Tuscany,
(Standage 1998:58).
1853
- [M] Telegraph cable links England and Ireland (Standage 1998:71)
1853
- [M] Coach with springs, imported from America by G.F.Train used for passenger transport
between Sydney, Melbourne, and the Victorian goldfields (Clark 1986:119).
1854
- [M] The Times (est. 1785) in London is selling 50,000 copies a day (Georges 1992:113).
1854
- [M] One in eight telegrams sent between New York
and New Orleans is in code (Standage 1998:106).
1854
- [M] Telegraph cable links Corsica and Sardinia to Genoa, Italy (Standage 1998:71).
1854
- [C] George Boole (1815-1864) publishes An investigation
into the Laws of Thought, on Which are founded the Mathematical
Theories of Logic and Probabilities. In the book
Boole formulates the basis for the algebra of logic (Boolean algebra)
which now finds application in computers and switching circuits (O'Connor, & Robertson 1998b).
1854
- [T] The first pneumatic mail tube (1.5 inch diameter, 220 yards long) installed underground
by Josiah Latimer Clark between London Stock Exchange and Central Telegraph Office. A steam engine
is used. Cyllindrical message carriers move with the speed of 20 feet/sec. The tube is used in place
of the most busy short-range telegraph lines
(Standage 1998:90-91).
1855
- [M]The Times in London publishes a speech by Napoleon III
telegraphed to them by Reuter's man in Paris (Thomas 1995:390).
1858
- [T] Automatic telegraph, patented in Britain by Charles Wheatstone.
Information comes in Morse code from a pre-punch tape (hence the nickname "Electric Jacquard").
Inker is used to print the received signals on a moving paper tape. The transmission speed is
up to 400 words per minute.
(Grolier 1993)
1858
- [T] ABC Telegraph, known as 'the communicator', using
two dials to indicate sent/received letters of alphabet,
patented in Britain by Charles Wheatstone. The system becomes used on thousand
of private lines in Britain since it does not require a trained operator (Standage 1998:177-178).
1858 Aug 5
- [M] The first underwater telegraph cable laid between America and Europe.
Queen Victoria exchanges epic messages with President Buchanan, but the system is
experiences problems so it takes 16.5 hrs to transmit the first message. The system fails totally
on 1 Sep 1858 (Standage 1998:77,81).
1858
- [M] The second pneumatic mail tube (2.4 inch diameter, nearly 1 mile long) installed in London
(Standage 1998:91).
1858 Jul
- [M] Melbourne and Adelaide, linked by electric telegraph in Australia. Sydney and Melbourne were linked in October
of the same year (Clark 1986:145).
1858
- [M] Hyman Lipman of Philadelphia and Joseph Rechendorfer
of New York City both patent the idea of putting an eraser on
the end of a pencil (Cardman nd.).
1860 Apr 3
- [M] St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California are
linked by the Pony Express. Four
hundred horses, especially selected
for speed and endurance were used on a 10 day (12-16 day in winter), 3210 kilometer
route. Each rider had to cover sixty miles (100 km) in six hours, using
six different ponies. 18 months later (Oct 24, 1861) the express rider service was
closed down due to the completion of the transcontinental telegraph
line between the two states
(Schietinger, Jörg and Linda Brüggemann 1998).
1861
- [M] Sydney and Brisbane, linked by electric telegraph (Clark 1986:145).
1861
- [M] Eberhard Faber builds in New York City the first pencil factory in the
United States (Cardman nd.).
1862
- [T] Abbé Giovanni Caselli (1815 - 1891), the Italian physicist, builds pantelegraph. The device, a precursor of the fax machine,
uses telegraphs and electrochemical processes to transmit copies of photographs, printed texts and drawings.
First, documents are chemically treated so that their surfaces start conduct electricity. Next the transmitter scans a large number of paralell lines on the document's
surface. Dark and light portions of the document are detected by the reading stylus as different electrical impulses. These signals are
sent by telegraph to a receiver where the writing stylus moves across a chemically-treated sheet of paper and replicates the original document.
Both sides of the operation are kept in sync by two synchronised pendulums (Museo Nazionale della Scienzia e della Tecnica nd).
1865 Feb 16
- [M] The pantelegraph, invented 1962 by Caselli, is introduced into service by the Marseille Railways between
Paris and Lyons, and Paris and Le Havre. The invention is phased out five years later, in 1870 (Museo Nazionale della Scienzia e della Tecnica, nd).
1865
- [T] Henry Christopher Mance (1840-1926), of British Army
Signal Corps, builds a heliograph, an optical sunlight-based
signalling device. It had tripod-mounted mirrors, with one mirror
linked to a key mechanism. The key tilted the mirror to flash on and
off at the distant station in accordance with the dots and dashes of
the Morse code. Range was line-of-sight, hence hills and mountain tops
were regularly employed, and was limited by atmospheric conditions. A network
of lightweight portable instruments could span ranges of up to 100 miles.
(Coe 1993:8, cited in Sterling & Kadrey 1999, note
05.6).
1865
- [M] The telegraph links India and Europe (Thomas 1995:389). Message can be telegraphed
from London to Bombay in less then 4 minutes (Standage 1998:96).
1865
- [M] Pneumatic tube networks built in Berlin, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester
(Standage 1998:92).
1865
- [C] International Telegraph Union (ITU), later renamed
to International Telecommunication Union, is born in Paris at a
conference involving delegates from 20 countries. The ITU
determines rules and standards for international communications
(Standage 1998:105).
1865
- [T] The first fax is sent from Lyon to Paris (Swerdlow 1995:7).
1866
- [M] Pneumatic tube networks built in Dublin, Marseilles,
Milan, Munich, Naples, New York, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, and
Vienna
(Standage 1998:92).
1866 July
- [M] The first functional underwater telegraph cable laid between America and Europe. It was
followed by another line established
two months later (Standage 1998:85-86).
1867
- [M] Ticker, printing on a paper tape fluctuations in stock
prices, invented by E.A Callahan in New New York
(Standage 1998:164).
1868
- [M] The telegraph links Malta and Alexandria, Egypt (Standage 1998:96).
1869
- [O] Postcard introduced in Austria (Thomas 1995:387)
1869
- [O] Britain's private telegraph companies are taken into
public control and absorbed by the Post Office. [C] Centralised
address (or 'nickname') system is introduced. Addresses can be
rented on annual basis. They are assigned on first come, first served basis and are
cross-referenced with actual postal delivery addresses (Standage
1998:162).
1870s
- [M] Proliferation of commercial, governmental and military
codebooks and codes used on transoceanic telegraph networks. This provides
compression rates about 1:8, on character for character basis
(Standage 1998:106).
1870
- [M] The telegram sent from Ems by King Wilhelm I of Prussia is construed by
Bismarck to justify the Franco-Prussian War (Thomas 1995:391)
1870
- [M] The 3 inch pneumatic mail tube becomes a norm. It can move up to 60 messages at a time.
One such tube is an equivalent of 7 telegraph wires and 14 operators working flat out
(Standage 1998:93).
1870
- [M] The telegraph links Europe, Hong Kong, China and Japan (Standage 1998:96).
1870
- [M] There are over 13,500 miles of rail in Britain (Lee 1994).
1870
- [T]
During the five-month-long (Sep 1870-Jan 1871) siege of Paris during
the Franco-Prussian War, balloons are launched from Paris to carry
mail, passengers, and homing pigeons for carrying messages back to the
city (Grolier 1993).
1871
- [M] The telegraph links Australia and Europe (Standage 1998:96) [1873 acc.
to Thomas 1995:389 - ed.].
1872
- [M] Port Augusta, in South Australia, and Darwin, linked by electric telegraph (Clark 1986:145).
1872
- [M] Western Union company implements a new secure system for
telegraphic transfer of sums up to $6,000 in 15 designated major
cities, and up $100 throughout the rest of USA. The system divides the
country in 20 regions each with uniquely numbered, secure code books
and passwords known only to regional supervisors
(Standage 1998:105).
1872
- [T] Duplex technology, which allowed the
transmission of one telegraph message in each direction, patented by Joseph B. Stearns of Boston
(Standage 1998:181).
1873
- [T] Remington and Co. puts a typewriter, an invention of Christopher Sholes (1819-1890),
a journalist from Pennsylvania, on the market (Thomas 1995:394, Knops 1998)
1874
- [T] Automatic telegraph linking 4-6 sending/receiving apparata to a single
line, invented in France by Jean Maurice Baudot (Standage 1998:181).
1874
- [T] Quadruplex technology, which allowed the
transmission of two telegraph messages in each direction,
a total of four messages transmitted simultaneously, invented by Thomas Alva Edison (Grolier 1993).
The 'Quad' saves the Western Union Co. $500,000 a year in the construction of new lines (Standage 1998:183).
1875
- [M] The Central Telegraph Office in London houses 450 telegraph instruments on three
floors, linked by 68 internal pneumatic tubes
(Standage 1998:94).
1876 Feb 14
- [T] The patent for telephone (originally conceived as a "speaking telegraph") is filed by
Alexander Graham Bell, in USA. The patent was granted 3 weeks later, on 3rd of March
(Standage 1998:185).
1877
- [T] The first telephone conversation between Boston and New York (Thomas 1995:392).
1877
- [M] Adelaide and Perth, linked by electric telegraph (Clark 1986:145).
1877 Jun
- [M] The telephone is an instant success. By the end of June there are 230 telephones installed.
In August there were 750, and in September 1,300 phones in use.
(Standage 1998:186).
1877
- [M] Western Union telegraphic money transfer is used in 38,669 separate transactions and
ships nearly $2.5 mln annually
(Standage 1998:113).
1878
- [T]
Frederick Wicks of Glasgow invents typecasting machine (Knops 1998).
1878
- [M] The first telephone exchange opens in Melbourne. The exchanges in other cities follow
Brisbane (1880), Sydney (1881), Adelaide and Hobart (1883), Pert (1887) (Clark 1986:145).
1878
- [T] Thomas A. Edison patents the recording of sound onto discs and cylinders (SoundSite 1998).
1879
- [O] Fixed price, regardless the length of the document, for
pneumatic-tube messages introduced on Paris network. Messages are
written on special forms which could be purchased, prepaid, in
advance. Messages are deposited in one of the many hundreds of
dedicated mailboxes (in post-offices, on streets and backs of trams),
collected by the postman, sent by tube across the city, and delivered
by a messanger to an addressee
(Standage 1998:95).
1880
- [M] There are almost 100,000 miles of undersea telegraph cable. The British
'inter-imperial telegraphy' now forms a separate network interconnected with the
global telegraph network at key points (Standage 1998:97).
1880 Aug 2
- [M] Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) adopted officially by British Parliament
(Greenwich 2000 Network 1999).
1880 - [M] There are 30,000 telephones in use around the world
(Standage 1998:186).
1880
- [T] Cyclostyle (carbon paper duplicator), patented by David Gestetner (Anonymous Kevin nd.).
1883 Nov 18 noon
- [M] Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is adopted by the United
States (USA). Telegraph lines are used to transmit time signals
to all major cities. Prior to that standardisation there were
over 300 local times in the USA (Greenwich 2000 Network 1999).
1884
- [T] Linotype composing machine invented by Ottmar
Mergenthaler of Hachtel,
Germany. A skilful hand compositor was capable of composing a
maximum of 1500 characters per hour. The linotype increased the speed
to up to 6-8,000 characters an hour (PWN 1965b: 533; Georges
1992:106-107).
1884 - [C] The delegates from 26 countries meet at the
International Meridian Conference held in Washington, D.C., USA, to
declare Greenwich as the global reference point for 0 (zero)
longitude (Sobel 1996:167-168). This decision displaces Ferro, Paris,
Berlin and Washington as the reference points (PWN 1964b:418).
1884 Nov 1 - [M] Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is adopted universally by the
International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, USA. The
International Date Line is drawn up and 25 integer time zones
(Zone 0 GMT, plus 24 zones each covering 15 degrees of longitude
measured East and West from the Prime Meridian at Greenwich) are
created (Greenwich 2000 Network 1999).
1884
- [T]The first practical fountain pen, invented by Lewis Edson
Waterman, a 45 year old American insurance broker (Sanford Berol nd.a).
1885
- [O] British Post Office announces a new pricing structure. It costs
less to send a message to a shorter telegraphic 'nickname' (Standage 1998:162).
1886 - [M] There are 250,000 telephones in use around the world
(Standage 1998:191).
1886 - [M] The Berne Convention provides the basis for
development of international norms with
regard to copyright [est. 1710 in UK] protection (Brennan 1998).
1888
- [T] George Eastman's Kodak box camera brings photography to the masses (Grolier 1993).
1889 Sep 26 - [C] Meter, originally adopted in 1799 as a standard unit of measurement, is re-defined
to make the standard more accurate. The 1889 definition is subsequently refined in 1960. (PWN 1966:235-236)
1889
- [M] Over 35,000 unique telegraphic addresses are registered with British Post Office (Standage
1998:162).
1890s
- [T] The first newspaper pictures begin to appear, for example, in
the New York Daily Graphic (Thomas 1995:395)
1890
- [T] Punched cards and a card-sorting device, used by Herman Hollerith
in the 1890 U.S. census to sort statistical data (Grolier 1993).
1890
- [T] George Eastman's Kodak camera uses flexible celluloid roll film (Thomas 1995:395).
1894 Sep 17
- [M] Capt. W. A. Glassford, of US Signal Corps, and a
detachment of signal sergeants surpass the previous world-record (125
miles) for long distance optical communication by exchanging
heliograph signals between stations on Mount Ellen, Utah, and Mount
Uncompahgre, Colorado, 183 miles apart (Coe 1993, cited in Sterling
& Kadrey 1999, note 05.6).
1895 Apr
- [T] Guglielmo Marconi (25 Apr 1874-20 Jul 1937) sucessfully
transmits in Pontecchio near Bologna, Italy a "dot-dot-dot" radio
signal (the Morse code for letter "S") between two reciprocally
invisible points separated by a hill and a distance of a few hundred
meters. The radio communication is born (Brunero & Valori 2001).
1895 Dec 28
- [T] A portable film camera and a functional projector, the Cinematographe, based on T.A Edison's experimental
machine (Kinetograph) are used by Louis and Auguste Lumiere, in Paris, France
(Grolier 1993).
1897 Jul
- [M] Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in establishing in La Spezia,
Italy a radio session (using Morse code) spanning a distance of 18 km
between an arsenal and the battleship 'San Martino' (Brunero & Valori 2001).
1898 May
- [T] Guglielmo Marconi constructs equipments with tuning
circuits to secure the independence of simultaneous radio
communications between more stations (the future and famous patent
7777) (Brunero & Valori 2001).
1899 Mar 27
- [M] First international radio transmission (a press
communication in Morse code) between South Foureland near Dover,
England, and Wimereux near Boulogne-sur-Mer, France is achieved by
Guglielmo Marconi (Beeching 1993:47, Brunero & Valori 2001).
Maintainer: Dr T.Matthew Ciolek (tmciolek@ciolek.com)
Copyright (c) 1999-2002 by T.Matthew Ciolek. All rights reserved.
Permission is granted for use of this document in whole or in part for
non-commercial purposes as long as this Copyright notice and a link to
this document, at the archive listed at the end, is included. A copy
of the material the "Milestones" appear in is requested. For commercial
uses, please contact the author first.
This page has been tested for full accessibility
URL http://www.ciolek.com/GLOBAL/1800.html