The first comprehensive history of the Information Age... how we got there and where we are going The exchange of information is essential for both the organization of nature and the social life of mankind. Until recently, communication between people was more or less limited by geographic proximity. Today, thanks to ongoing innovations in telecommunications, we live in an Information Age where distance has ceased to be an obstacle to the sharing of ideas. The Worldwide History of Telecommunications is the first comprehensive history ever written on the subject, covering every aspect of telecommunications from a global perspective. In clear, easy-to-understand language, the author presents telecommunications as a uniquely human achievement, dependent on the contributions of many ingenious inventors, discoverers, physicists, and engineers over a period spanning more than two centuries. From the crude signaling methods employed in antiquity all the way to today’s digital era, The Worldwide History of Telecommunications features complete and fascinating coverage of the groundbreaking innovations that have served to make telecommunications the largest industry on earth, including: Optical telegraphy Electrical telegraphy via wires and cables Telephony and telephone switching Radio transmission technologies Cryptography Coaxial and optical fiber networks Telex and telefax Multimedia applications Broad in scope, yet clear and logical in its presentation, this groundbreaking book will serve as an invaluable resource for anyone involved or merely curious about the ever evolving field of telecommunications. AAP-PSP 2003 Award Winner for excellence in the discipline of the "History of Science"

Experimental telephones / Bell and Edison / improved speaking and listening / electrophone / coinbox / early telephones from France, Sweden and Germany / first British post office phone / first world war telephones / laryngaphone.

This book applies the approach of technology assessment to the telephone. The author's analysis forecasts the effect of the telephone on society and compares it with the reality. This book not only examines the social consequences of the telephone, but provides a model for future efficient assessments of new technologies. It documents a largely unknown piece of the history of American technology and anlayzes the requirements for success in technological forecasting.

Explores the technology & the history of the telephone, from the Coffin sets of the 1870s to the Princess phones of the 1960s and beyond.

Beauchamp (1923-99, retired from the U. of Lancaster, UK) devotes the first half of the book to terrestrial telegraphy, from the beginnings of communication with mechanical signaling to the electrical system using Morse code, including a large chapter on the laying of submarine cables across the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. The second half, on aerial telegraphy, discusses its beginnings with Marconi and its use on board ships and aircraft in both world wars. Dozens of maps show routes of telegraph cable and figures depict old telegraph equipment. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR.

Despite his accidental death in June 1942 at the age of 38, Alan Dower Blumlein was unquestionably one of the century s most creative engineers and filed some 140 patents. He was the driving force and inspiration behind a vast number of fundamental innovations in the fields of radar, electronics and sound recording, amongst which he held perhaps the landmark patent enabling stereo sound. Surprisingly, until 1999 there had been no biographies of this remarkable man. The IEE is proud to rectify this by publication of this scholarly treatment of Blumlein's life, which includes a foreword by his eldest son.

This book presents a balanced, thorough history of television to 1940, considering the factors technical, financial and social which influenced and led to the establishment of many of the world's high-definition TV broadcasting services. This is a major book in the study of history of science, technology and media.