History of telecommunications
Early attempts at long-distance communications include torches and light beacons in Ancient Greece, drums and bugles on battlefields, tom-toms in the savannah, smoke signals used by Native Americans, horns at fortified castles and yodelling in the Alps.
However, light and sound signals can only carry a few miles. The first real communications network appeared at the end of the French Revolution. The visual telegraph, developed by Claude Chappe, linked Paris and Lille by a series of towers along which coded messages were sent using semaphore.
Half a century later, it was superseded by the electric telegraph. This transmitted signals using metal wires, meaning it could also be used at night and in adverse atmospheric conditions. The system was later improved by the introduction of Morse code.
The telephone also appeared around this time. Based on the concept of electromagnetism, it converts the sound vibrations of the human voice into electrical signals using a magnetic field. |
|
Event | |
Antiquity | First messages transmitted using optical and acoustic systems in Greece, Egypt, Rome, Gaul and China |
1792 | French engineer Claude Chappe unveils the visual telegraph |
12 July 1793 | First transmission between Belleville and Saint-Martin-du-Tertre (near Paris), a distance of 35 kilometres |
August 1794 | Opening of the visual telegraph line between Paris and Lille |
1837 | Advent of the electric telegraph |
24 May 1844 | First transmission of an electric telegram using a printing telegraph and Morse code |
1846 | Opening of France's first operational electric telegraph line, between Paris and Lille. |
1851 | First underwater electric cable laid between England and France |
18 August 1858 | First transatlantic telegraph message |
1868 | Transmission of uncoded messages using the electric telegraph |
June 1876 | First telephone conversation |
1877 | First urban telephone networks established in New York |
1901 | Wireless link between Cornwall and Newfoundland, a distance of 3,400 kilometres |
1904 | First transmission of a photograph, between Munich and Nuremberg |
1908 | Radiotelephone link between Brittany and Paris |
1923 | Advent of television, based on the same principles used today |
10 November 1935 | Official launch of television broadcasting in France |
1940 | First operational use of analogue cordless telephones, in the United States |
1946 | Telex introduced in France |
10 July 1962 | Launch of Telstar, the first telecommunications satellite, in the United States |
1977 | First commercial fibre-optic telephone link, in the United States |
10 July 1981 | Launch of Minitel, France's viewdata service |
1982 | Official adoption of standard Internet protocols |
1992 | Market launch of second-generation mobile telephones, which use the GSM digital network |
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