The Radio Broadcast that Panicked America

One of the most memorable radio broadcasts occurred on October 30, 1938 before most of us were even born. At the Mercury Theatre in New York, Orson Welles (pictured at left) directed a radio play called, “War of the Worlds” that was being broadcast from coast-to-coast. The science fiction story was written by H.G. Wells (no relation) about Martians landing in New Jersey and taking over the world. This broadcast produced such amazing sound effects and acting that it caused hysteria across the country, even though, the audience was told before and during the broadcast that it was not real. The next day, The New York Times headline read, “Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact.” Thousands of people in panic fled from their homes, police stations were bombarded with phone calls, reports of early births and miscarriages, and possibly some deaths but were never confirmed. The radio broadcast had everyone believing that the Eastern United States had been invaded by aliens from the planet Mars. The reason this broadcast had fooled so many people was because most people had been listening to the “Chase and Sanborn Hour”. The show stopped for a musical section so people changed the station and heard “The War of the Worlds” already in progress. Hours later after people realized it was not real, most were outraged and some even sued. Orson Welles adapted this story for radio to get more people to listen to the show, basically to improve ratings. Plus, we have to understand this was before the television era; people listened to the radio for music, plays, and news for their entertainment. People were accustomed to believing everything they heard on the radio without question. Unfortunately, they learned a cruel lesson that you should not believe everything you hear.
http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/a/warofworlds_2.htm and
http://radio.about.com/od/historicalradioshows/a/WarOfTheWorlds.htm

Enormous Progress in Reducing Size of Computers

It's interesting to see how drastically the size of computers was reduced in such a short period of time. From 1949 to 1966 computers went from filling an entire room (Illiac 2 in previous post) to fitting on a desktop (HP 2115 below).

1966 HP 2115

In 1968 a computer was being used to guide the Apollo space missions.


1968 Apollo Guidance Computer













By 1972 we were carrying relatively powerful computers around in our pockets.

1972 HP-35

Invention of the Radio

The invention of radio was developed thanks in part to the telegraph and telephone. The first radio signal sent and received was by Guglielmo Marconi in Italy in 1895. In 1899, he sent the first wireless signal across the English Channel and two years later sent a transatlantic radiotelegraph message from New England to Newfoundland. The radio waves same dot-dash messages used in the telegraph is the basis for radio-telegraphy. Radio was originally used as a way to communicate from land to ships at sea and for emergency rescues at sea. Before the Navy adopted a wireless system in 1902, they used visual signals and homing pigeons as a way to communicate. By 1906, the weather bureau experimented with radio-telegraphy in order to speed up notification of weather conditions. Lee Deforest invention of the space telegraphy resulted in the development of AM radio that allowed the broadcast of multiple radio stations. During World War I in 1917, the U.S. government and Navy controlled all radio developments and patents to prevent enemy spies its use. After the war ended in 1919, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was established to distribute all future radio patents. True radio broadcasting began in 1920 with Westinghouse’s broadcast of the Harding-Cox election and eventually a daily schedule of radio programs. In 1922, the first two-way radio conversation occurred between Deal Beach, New Jersey and the S.S. America stationed 400 miles away. By 1929, the high seas public radiotelephone service could communicate up to 1,500 miles away. In 1933, Edwin Howard Armstrong invented the frequently-modulated or FM radio which improved audio signals of radio by controlling the noise static. Radio technology continued with Bell Labs invention of the transistor in 1947 and a Japanese company, Sony introduced the transistor radio in 1954 (picture at top). By 1965, individual FM stations could broadcast simultaneously through the FM antenna system from one source that was erected from the Empire state Building in New York City.
http://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/radio_2.htm

Early Computers in Photos

All photos from: http://www.computerhistory.org



1939 Hewlett Packard

1944 Colossus

1949 Illiac2

Some Interesting Facts from the Computer History Museum

In 1939 David Packard and Bill Hewlett founded Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, California. Today we know the company as HP and most of us own at least one piece of equipment manufactured by Hewlett-Packard. Walt Disney Pictures used eight of Hewlett-Packard’s computers for the sound effects in the 1940 movie ‘Fantasia’.

In 1941 a computer called ‘Bombe’ was completed by the British and used during World War II to decode Nazi encrypted messages, which was a great advantage to the Allied war efforts.

In 1944 a computer named ‘Colossus’ was put into operation to decipher Nazi coded transmissions. The Colossus reduced the time it took to decipher the code from weeks to hours and this computer was kept secret until the 1970’s.

In 1945 on September 9^th, the very first computer bug was documented – and it was an actual bug, a moth flew into the Harvard Mark II and temporarily interrupted operation of the massive computer.

In 1947 the first transistor was tested and after improvements by AT&T Bell Labs, the transistor went on to revolutionize computing.

http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline

The Cathode Ray Tube.http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/CathodeRayTube.htm

The "cathode ray tube" was invented in 1897 by Ferdinard Braun, but it wasn't in use until the early 1900. This Piece of equipment was responsible for all electronic television images and if you have a electric television today, then you are aware. It is a "specialized vacuum tube in which images are produced when electron beam strikes a phosphorescent." The "cathode ray tube" contain a heated filament, the heated filament is created in the vacum, which is a glass tube. The "ray" is a stream of electrons that pours heated "cathode" into the vacuum. So, whenever you look at a television remember that it was someone invention that has brought us this far.

Telephone History 1960-1980's

The 1960’s brought different styles and colors of phones and the launch of the first communication satellites. Although there were a few negatives, such as, customer-owned telephones installations and union strikes which disrupted service. The biggest blow to Bell Telephone came in 1970 when the FCC allowed independent companies to install and maintain communication systems for businesses. By 1971, 100 million telephones were in service. In 1974, the government once again filed suit against Bell Telephone to break up the company’s domination in the telephone industry. The suit was not settled until 1983 when under Judge Harold Greene, Bell Telephone was officially broken up into seven smaller companies. Some people argued that the break up would cause a rich field of technological advances and higher service costs, neither materialized. If anything, it created greater competition and advancements continued at unbelievable speed. Above are pictures of telephones over the years.
http://www.telephonymuseum.com/

Telephone History 1940-1950's

After World War II broke out in Europe and Pearl Harbor was attacked, the volume of telephone service increased dramatically. Thousands of telephone men were placed into service. Western Electric spent a majority of its time to war-related projects which left very little time for home telephone service. Bell Laboratories invented a gun director and improved the radar (see above). Once the war ended, men returning from the war were hired to assist in the demand for telephone service. Between 1946 and 1948, the first commercial mobile phones were installed in St. Louis and Microwave Radio was introduced for use in the long distance market. It also marked the beginning of television service and two scientists at Bell Laboratories invented the transistor that earned them the Nobel Peace Prize. The first signs that Bell might be broken apart were in 1949 when the Justice Department filed a lawsuit under the Sherman Antitrust Act. The suit was settled in 1956 which kept Bell Telephone intact, but limited the company’s business communications and required the sharing of technical information.

www.telephonymuseum.com

Telephone History 1900-1940

The early part of the Twentieth century was a tough time for Bell Telephone. At one point, independent companies had more subscribers than Bell. The government and public began to dislike Bell’s domination of the telephone industry. With the increased public outcry and competition, Bell had to make some changes. They created a “universal theme” where every person in the United States would have a telephone in their home. Bell then merged the research and development departments into one plant at Western Electric. Looking to expand across the country, in 1915, Bell ran the first coast-to-coast line from New York to San Francisco and developed a “wireless” system to connect with other countries. Advancements continued into the 1920’s with the invention of radio, “talking” motion pictures, and testing began on the television. By 1921, Bell opened its first public dial service office in Dallas, before that it was only available in independent areas and introduced the ”French” telephone (pictured above). The late 1920’s brought an economic downturn; mostly due to the depression; massive layoffs and a decline in telephone service and long-distance calls. In the mid-1930’s, the government formed the Federal Commerce Commission to regulate the telephone industry and began investigating AT&T. The most important discovery was that Western Electric was charging too much money for equipment. The investigation slowed after a major hurricane hit the east coast and the start of World War II grabbed much of the government’s attention.
http://www.telephonymuseum.com/

Television: How Far We Come.

Could you imagine having this television in your living room, well this is what was used in the early nineteen century and it was called the "junk box." Do you ever wonder how this amazing technology came into your home? It was the creativity of several men,The invention of the television is credited to more than one persons, but the main focus was on two men.

The two most important people that started it all was Vladimir Zworykin and Philo Farnsworth. They each had somethingvaluable to the evolution of technology, it was the "patent and the picture." They used something called the "iconoscope" which was a "electronic image scanner, which is euaivalent to a television camera that is used today. Fransworth became the first sucesss story when he first tried to transmit the television signal, which was on september 7, 1927. Zworykin, his fellow colleaguhttp was not able to produce his result until 1938, but the effort of these two men and others lead to a great technological evolution in society. The very first brocast of the regular television was not until 1929.The very first Olympic games was brocasted live from Berlin in 1936.

History of Technology - History of Humanity

According to sociologists and anthropologists, the history of technology is the history of the invention and use of tools, and corresponds to the history of humanity. There are theories of social and cultural evolution that credit technological progress as the primary factor driving the development of human civilization.
Some theories of the early evolution of human civilization use stages of development which are based on the tools used during each period. Some of those tools are: fire, the bow (for hunting), pottery, domestic animals, metalworking, the alphabet, and then written language.

Other theories gauge the evolution of human culture by the ability to ‘harness and control energy’. Specifically, the efficiency of the use of energy by a culture directly correlates to the level of advancement that culture achieves. Good examples of efficient use of energy in advanced cultures would be ancient Roman, Greek, and Egyptian cultures. When people are freed from the daily struggle for the basic necessities of life (clean water, food, shelter, and safety) they use their brains to advance human civilizations.

Modern sociologists and anthropologists theorize that information is the key to the advancement of society and civilizations. Gerhard Lenski is a Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and he believes that the more information and knowledge a society has, the more advanced it is, and is capable of becoming. He bases the stages of human development on the history of communication, believing that advancements in communication create advancement in economic and political systems.

Computers are the greatest leap ever in the history of human communication and are proving Lenski correct as evidenced by the huge disparities between cultures that are utilizing computers and the internet, and cultures that are not.


From the History of Technology, on Wikipedia, at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_technology

Telephone Changes in the Late 1800's

The invention of the telephone has been one of the most technological advances in our history and continued to grow into the end of the ninetieth century. In 1878, the first switching board (at left) was introduced in New Haven, Connecticut which allowed phones to be connected with a single exchange. The first switchboard operators, believe it or not, were teenage boys. Within a few years the boys were replaced, due to their rude behavior, with females who were more patient and polite. Men would not return as operators until the 1960’s. Switchboards opened up exchanges throughout the country. By the 1880’s, an upgrade from one-wire to two-wire circuits, also called “metallic” circuits was developed and provided less noise over the one-wire ground circuits. In the 1890’s with Bell’s patents running out, smaller companies were formed mostly in smaller towns and rural areas where Bell Company was not interested in. The twentieth century would continue to see new developments.
http://www.telephonymuseum.com/

Invention of the Telephone

Who could have imagined a hundred and thirty-four years ago how the telephone would change our lives forever and lead to such inventions as the television, computers, fax machines, internet, and more. Of course, we all know Alexander Graham Bell (pictured at top-left) invented the telephone. Bell’s attorney filed for the patent titled, “Improvements of Telegraphy”, in Boston, Massachusetts on February 14, 1876 (Valentine’s Day). But, did you know that within hours of Bell filing for his patent that another gentleman, Elisha Gray, would file for a Caveat. Basically, Gray filed a Caveat that stated, “the art of transmitting vocal sounds telegraphically through electrical wires”, with the intention to file for a patent within three months. The Bell Telephone Company was formed in 1877. Can you imagine hearing Gray Telephone instead of Bell Telephone? Somehow it just does not have the same ring to it. The very first telephone invented by Bell is pictured at top-right.
http://www.telcomhistory.org/

The Very Beginning of Telecommunications

Telecommunication is defined as ‘communication at a distance’ by Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc. Publishers, Springfield, MA, 1989.

Telecommunication as we know it today would not exist without electricity, and particularly, the invention of the battery or ‘electric cell’, which was first called the ‘voltaic pile’ after Alessandro Volta who invented it in 1800. (Hmm…now we know where the word ‘volt’ comes from.) The battery allowed the storage and controlled release of electricity⁽¹⁾ and was the beginning of modern telecommunications.

In 1899 Waldmar Jungner invented the first nickel-cadmium rechargeable battery, and in 1901 Thomas Edison invented the alkaline storage battery.⁽²⁾

We still use these today but they are unrecognizable from the earliest versions.

http://library.thinkquest.org/6064/history.html

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbattery.htm

How they communicated.

What can we say about communication? It has surely come a long way. Just take a look at what people used back in the 17 and 18 century. An amazing type of technology that enables pepople to send and receive massages through writings. It was a system of wires with an operator and a messangers at a particular station. Samuel B. Morse, an american, experiemented with wires and his conclusion was that wire transmitted signals. There were others inventors but he is credited with the invention because he was the first to actually put it to use.

The invention of the Morse Code

The morse code with the aid of an electro-magnetic telegraph was invented in the 1830’s by Samuel B. Morse. The code included the use of dots and dashes that formed the alphabet and the numbers 0 to 9. These signals could be transmitted at any distance. Although, Morse began his career as an artist, his interest in communication came about due to the slow communication process of his time. It would take days or even weeks for letters to travel from one location to another depending on the distance. However, with the use of electrical impulses, a message could be sent in an instant. The first transmission, “What hath God wrought”, took place on May 24, 1844 from Washington to Baltimore. The morse code is still in use today through sound or light from experienced operators who can text 20 to 30 words per minute. In emergencies, distress signals are transmitted when no other communication is available. Below is an example of the morse code that was developed.

http://www.answeringenesis.org/creation/v13/i1/morse.asp
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/morsecode.htm