Computers and technology in an ever changing society
Society’s changes have gone way beyond what many may have thought possible generations ago. Imagine your grandparent’s shock and awe at today’s advancements.
Due to the impact of technology and computers, the face of the world has been transformed. From the Pony Express to emails, fax machines and computers, the processes of information exchange have become more and more sophisticated, simplifying the working lives of society and making it less laborious on many levels.
Communication in the 1800s was a far cry from our interaction today. Here’s a brief history lesson on pre modern technology.
Before man had created any type of communication, there was fire! In a matter of hours, soldiers could warn their comrades miles away of impending enemy attack by using smoke signals.
In 1844, the first telegraph message traveled 40 miles and read “What Hath God Wrought?
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell spoke the first words “come here, I want to see you” by the first successful telephone call.
Alexander Graham Bell originally wanted the greeting for the telephone call to be “Ahoy” but Thomas Edison preferred “Hello”, a word he coined himself.
In 1877, the first record was of “Mary Had A Little Lamb”. Thomas Edison, who invented the phonograph, recited and recorded it.
Fiber Optics
In the 1920’s, optic fiber is introduced. One thread of optic fiber is slightly thicker than a human hair. One million threads of optic fiber can fit in a tube that is 1/2 inch in diameter.
Englishman John Logie Baird and American Clarence W. Hansell patented the idea of using arrays of transparent rods to transmit images for television and facsimiles respectively.
This idea was originally demonstrated to the Royal Society by John Tyndall in 1854 by showing that light could be conducted through a curved stream of water, proving that a light signal could be bent.
In 1930, Heinrich Lamm, who was a German medical student, was the first person to assemble a bundle of optical fibers to carry an image. Lamm’s goal was to look inside inaccessible parts of the body.
During his experiments, he reported transmitting the image of a light bulb. Being of poor quality, his effort to file a patent was denied in addition to the fact that Clarence W. Hansell already obtained a British patent.
In 1946, the Swedish police used the first mobile phone. It could only make 6 phone calls before the battery from the car died.
Cell Phone Transformation Over The Decades
The old clunker has become so much smaller and lighter, not to mention how much technology has changed to offer so many more
In 1973 The first cell phone is introduced. Martin Cooper invented the first official cell phone. Named the Motorola Dyna-Tac, it’s completely unlike any phone we carry around today. This big monster weighed approximately 2 pounds and measured a whopping 9 x 5×1.75 inches.
A Bit Of Trivia
Did you know that in 1978, the first spam email was sent to 393 users on ARPANET by a man named Gary Thuerk to advertise a new kind of computer?
In 2006, to “google” became an officially recognized verb when both Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary also recognizes it.
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