Brief History of Communication

3500 BC
to 2900 BC
The Phoenicians develop an alphabet.
The Sumerians develop cuneiform writing - pictographs of accounts written on clay tablets.
The Egyptians develop hieroglyphic writing.

1775 BC
Greeks use a phonetic alphabet written from left to right.

1400 BC
Oldest record of writing in China on bones.

1270 BC
The first encyclopedia is written in Syria.

900 BC
The very first postal service - for government use in China.

776 BC
First recorded use of homing pigeons used to send message - the winner of the Olympic Games to the Athenians.

530 BC
The Greeks start the very first library.

500 BC
to 170 BC
Papyrus rolls and early parchments made of dried reeds - first portable and light writing surfaces.

200 BC
to 100 BC
Human messengers on foot or horseback common in Egypt and China with messenger relay stations built.
Sometimes fire messages used from relay station to station instead of humans.

14
Romans establish postal services.

37
Heliographs - first recorded use of mirrors to send messages by Roman Emperor Tiberius.

100
First bound books

105 BC
Tsai Lun of China invents paper as we know it.

305
First wooden printing presses invented in China - symbols carved on a wooden block.

1049
First movable type invented - clay - invented in China by Pi Sheng.

1450
Newspapers appear in Europe.

1455
Johannes Gutenberg invents a printing press with metal movable type.

1560
Camera Obscura invented - primitive image making.

1650
First daily newspaper - Leipzig.

1714
Englishmen, Henry Mill receives the first patent for a typewriter.

1793
Claude Chappe invents the first long-distance semaphore (visual or optical) telegraph line.

1814
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce achieves the first photographic image.

1821
Charles Wheatstone reproduces sound in a primitive sound box - the first microphone.

1831
Joseph Henry invents the first electric telegraph.

1835
Samuel Morse invents Morse code.

1843
Samuel Morse invents the first long distance electric telegraph line.
Alexander Bain patents the first fax machine.

1861
United States starts the Pony Express for mail delivery.
Coleman Sellers invents the Kinematoscope - a machine that flashed a series of still photographs onto a screen.

1867
American, Sholes the first successful and modern typewriter.

1876
Thomas Edison patents the mimeograph - an office copying machine.
Alexander Graham Bell patents the electric telephone.
Melvyl Dewey writes the Dewey Decimal System for ordering library books.

1877
Thomas Edison patents the phonograph - with a wax cylinder as recording medium.
Eadweard Muybridge invents high speed photography - creating first moving pictures that captured motion.

1887
Emile Berliner invents the gramophone - a system of recording which could be used over and over again.

1888
George Eastman patents Kodak roll film camera.

1889
Almon Strowger patents the direct dial telephone or automatic telephone exchange.

1894
Guglielmo Marconi improves wireless telegraphy.

1898
First telephone answering machines.

1899
Valdemar Poulsen invents the first magnetic recordings - using magnetized steel tape as recording medium - the foundation for both mass data storage on disk and tape and the music recording industry.
Loudspeakers invented.

1902
Guglielmo Marconi transmits radio signals from Cornwall to Newfoundland - the first radio signal across the Atlantic Ocean.

1904
First regular comic books.

1906
Lee Deforest invents the electronic amplifying tube or triode - this allowed all electronic signals to be amplified improving all electronic communications i.e. telephones and radios.

1910
Thomas Edison demonstrated the first talking motion picture.

1914
First cross continental telephone call made.

1916
First radios with tuners - different stations.

1923
The television or iconoscope (cathode-ray tube) invented by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin - first television camera.

1925
John Logie Baird transmits the first experimental television signal.

1926
Warner Brothers Studios invented a way to record sound separately from the film on large disks and synchronized the sound and motion picture tracks upon playback - an improvement on Thomas Edison's work.

1927
NBC starts two radio networks.
CBS founded.
First television broadcasts in England.
Warner Brothers releases "The Jazz Singer" the first successful talkingmotion picture.

1930
Radio popularity spreads with the "Golden Age" of radio.
First television broadcasts in the United States.
Movietone system of recording film sound on an audio track right on the film invented.

1934
Joseph Begun invents the first tape recorder for broadcasting - first magnetic recording.

1938
Television broadcasts able to be taped and edited - rather than only live.

1939
Scheduled television broadcasts begin.

1944
Computers like Harvard's Mark I put into public service - government owned - the age of Information Science begins.

1948
Long playing record invented - vinyl and played at 33 rpm.
Transistor invented - enabling the miniaturization of electronic devices.

1949
Network television starts in U.S.
45 rpm record invented.

1951
Computers are first sold commercially.

1958
Chester Carlson invents the photocopier or Xerox machine.
Integrated Circuit invented - enabling the further miniaturization of electronic devices and computers.

1963
Zip codes invented in the United States.

1966
Xerox invents the Telecopier - the first successful fax machine.

1969
ARPANET - the first Internet started.

1971
The computer floppy disc invented.
The microprocessor invented - considered a computer on a chip.

1972
HBO invents pay-TV service for cable.

1976
Apple I home computer invented.
First nationwide programming - via satellite and implemented by Ted Turner.

1979
First cellular phone communication network started in Japan..

1980
Sony Walkman invented.

1981
IBM PC first sold.
First laptop computers sold to public.
Computer mouse becomes regular part of computer.

1983
Time magazines names the computer as "Man of the Year."
First cellular phone network started in the United States.

1984
Apple Macintosh released.
IBM PC AT released.

1985
Cellular telephones in cars become wide-spread.
CD-ROMs in computers.

1994
American government releases control of internet and WWW is born - making communication at lightspeed.

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

RSS Feed in Morse Code

Searching for Inspiration

after obtaining a basic understanding of the “examples for consideration” that were stated in the brief I started my search for inspiration. The Steampunk website became the first stepping stone in my inspiration into how old and new could be fused together and still have relative functionality. I was immediately drawn the the creation of a telegraph that “clacked out” and RSS feed directly from a computer in Morse code. This is practically what the Assignment specification has asked us to do. Fuse together two communication technologies so they are functional(though we are not required to build a prototype such as this). There is a video of the telegraph in use below.

for a guide on how this was built please go to this website http://steampunkworkshop.com/telegraph.shtml

More Semaphore

Wiki Definition “Semaphore Flags are a system for conveying information at a distance by means of visual signals with hand-held flags, rods, disks, paddles, or occasionally bare or gloved hands. Information is encoded by the position of the flags; it is read when the flag is in a fixed position. Semaphores were adopted and widely used (with hand-held flags replacing the mechanical arms of shutter semaphores) in the maritime world in the early 1800s. Semaphore signals were used, for example, at the Battle of Trafalgar. This was the period in which the modern naval semaphore system was invented. This system uses hand-held flags. It is still used during underway replenishment at sea and is acceptable for emergency communication in daylight or, using lighted wands instead of flags, at night.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_semaphore

Semaphore

Semaphore is a similar concept to Morse code, each letter of the alphabet is converted into another form, the main difference is that morsel code is mainly used to send messages over a telegraph line. Semaphore is used as a way of communicating information over long distances using a visual method. The newest version of semaphore has different coloured flags to portray whether the message has been sent by sea or on land.

This is the semaphore Alphabet:

African Drum Language

The traditional drumming found in Africa is actually of three different types. Firstly, a rhythm can represent an idea (or signal). Secondly it can repeat the profile of a spoken utterance or thirdly it can simply be subject to musical laws.

Drum communication methods are not languages in their own right; they are based on actual natural languages. The sounds produced are conventionalized or idiomatic signals based on speech patterns. The messages are normally very stereotyped and context-dependent. They lack the ability to form new combinations and expressions.

In central and east Africa, drum patterns represent the stresses, syllable lengths and tone of the particular African language. In tone languages, where syllables are associated with a certain tone, some words are only distinguished only by their suprasegmental profile. Therefore, syllable drum languages can often communicate a message using the tonal phonemesalone.

In certain languages, the pitch of each syllable is uniquely determined in relation to each adjacent syllable. In these cases, messages can be transmitted as rapid beats at the same speed as speech as the rhythm and melody both match the equivalent spoken utterance.

Misinterpretations can occur due to the highly ambiguous nature of the communication. This is reduced by context effects and the use of stock phrases. For example, in Jabo, most stems are monosyllabic. By using a proverb or honorary title to create expanded versions of an animal, person's name or object, the corresponding single beat can be replaced with a rhythmic and melodic motif representing the subject. In practice not all listeners understand all of the stock phrases; the drum language is understood only to the level of their immediate concern.

Some people such as the Melanesians extend this idea further by freely inventing signs to make up their drum signals. This is in sharp contrast to the Efik tribe of Nigeria who use notes which exactly correspond to the tones of their morphemes. Different still is the Ewe language found in Togo, where only full sentences and their combinations are translated into the drum language. No smaller units are used; a sound picture represents a whole thought. This is similar to the Tangu tribe of New Guinea, where signals represent phrases, the mnemonics of which are parts of song melodies, quasi-poetic rhythms or purely personal rhythms.

When a drum is used in speech mode, it is culturally defined and depends on the linguistic/cultural boundaries. Therefore, communication suffers from translation problems as in vocal communication. There is no international drum language.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_(communication)

Smoke Signals

During my research on smoke signals I found that this is in fact one of the oldest forms of communication dating back over 5000 years ago, it was typically used to communicate news, danger or to signify a gathering.

At the time it was the quickest way of communicating messages over long distances. Smoke signals are still in use today, in Rome they use smoke to indicate the selection of a new pope, if you see black smoke this indicates that the selection process has been unsuccessful, though if you see white smoke it indicates that a new pope has been elected.

Assignment Specification

You are required to research and examine outmoded means of communication and re-purpose  the most appropriate for the new digital media age. Your challenge is firstly, to understand how the chosen method affected change in the context of its time and secondly, to propose and construct a contemporary response.

Keep a blog of your work and try to draw inspiration from your research – avoid the prosaic. Some examples for consideration are:

• Smoke Signals
• Drums
• Semaphore
• Flags
• Heliographs

The final pieces may end up entirely on screen or become integrated into real objects into real objects – see Steam Punk for inspiration.