Everyone has heard the term "Internet" and we use it every day to communicate with people worldwide and perform multiple other tasks. The world is pretty dependent on the Internet, but what in the devil's sorcery is it?
In a nutshell, the Internet is a global network of billions of computers and other electronic devices. Due to this technology, it has become possible to access almost any information, communicate with anyone else in the world, and do much more. You can do all this by connecting a computer to the Internet, which is also called going online. When someone says a computer is online, it's just another way of saying it's connected to the Internet.
In this article, we will be learning about how the internet came into being because it surely did not fall out of the blue on some random day. There is a whole lore behind how the internet was made, and we? We will be uncovering this lore today, so fasten your seatbelts it's about to be a bumpy ride fellas!
The Pre-Internet Era Pt.1 - Invention of the Telephone (1830 - 1890s)
An era where the internet did not exist yet, can you imagine that? You could not just hit enter on your keyboard and send a message across the world, sending any kind of message was quite a challenge back in the day, A message would travel for days and months before it reached its destination, The luxury of the internet came into being after a lot of struggles, you might be wondering, that how did communication work back in the days of the internet did not exist right? Well, let us uncover the truth.
Early Communication, a World Before Instant Messages
Ancient Times
Usage of Smoke Signals
Communication was pretty interesting back in the day, civilizations like China, Native Americans, and Ancient Greeks utilized smoke to communicate with each other.
The Great Wall of China had a system where smoke signals warned about enemy movements. One puff meant "small enemy force" and multiple puffs meant "large force". They all used the same medium to communicate different types of messages, for example, the Greeks used smoke signals to send messages between cities, often in times of war.
Even other methods such as drums and beacon fire were used to communicate in the old times.
Usage of Animals
You probably are familiar with this method because I am sure all of you watch movies, so Yes, animals like horses were used to carry messages, civilizations like the Mongols (1200) and The Persian Empire (500 BC) utilized horses to make efficient relay system that allowed them to communicate fast.
In World War 1 and World War 2, pigeons were used to send messages when the radio signals failed to deliver messages. Even before the World War, civilizations like The Romans used them to deliver military messages and even news of gladiator fights.
Fun fact: A pigeon named Cher Ami saved 194 soldiers in WWI by delivering a message while being injured.
Written Communication Before the Internet
Handwritten Letters
By the 1800s Letters became the most common medium of communication before the invention of some technologies although it would take months or weeks to send letters to the destination still it was the best shot people had back in the day.
Civilizations like Ancient Rome used scrolls to write their messages on them and then they would send it to wherever they wanted to send it through their slaves.
Postal System
The first real postal system came from the Persians (500 BC), where riders switched horses at relay stations to ensure messages reached their destinations as quickly as possible. At that time, however, postal services were not available to an average Bashir, they were strictly reserved for rulers, empires, and governments. It was only later that such an invention became available to the common man back in the day.
These days, a message flies across the world in a blink. But for most of history? Anything that could run or fly was used to deliver the messages So next time you check your mailbox, remember you’re part of a system that’s been running for 5,000 years.
Telegraph and Telephone: How They Came Into Being
Before the Internet, there was always a need for long-distance communication, whatever medium was used to send messages, it did deliver the message but the ground it could cover was only so much and that was a major problem that led to the invention of the telegraph and later, the telephone. These technologies laid the foundation for modern communication networks.
Telegraph: The Birth of Long-Distance Communication (1830 - 1860s)
The idea of sending messages over long distances without physical transport existed for centuries. Early methods included smoke signals and drum beats but they had a lot of downsides, they were slow, unreliable, and much more.
Invention and Development of the Telegraph
In the 1700s, scientists were exploring electricity and its properties, but there was no practical technology yet that could use electrical signals for communication until the Telegraph was introduced, it was a machine that used electrical signals to send messages over long distances, It lore and it's working let me shed some light over it for you folks.
1. In 1832 Samuel Morse, a professor at New York University, began developing his version of the telegraph.
2. In 1835 He succeeded in creating the Morse Code He developed a system of sounds (dots and dashes) that corresponded to letters of the alphabet, which became a key part of his telegraph invention.
3. In 1838, 62 people claimed that they made a telegraph but none of them were as successful as Morse's telegraph, In addition, Morse not only made the telegraph but he also made the language that the machine used also known as the Morse code, so you can say Morse single-handedly just defeated everyone (in terms of creating a better telegraph).
Working of Telegraph in a Nutshell
Morse Code was a system that converted letters into a series of electrical signals represented by dots (short signals) and dashes (long signals).
1. Transmission of Signals
These dots and dashes were sent as electrical pulses through the telegraph wire.
2. Reception and Interpretation
The receiver would interpret these signals and convert them back into letters or words, allowing messages to be sent efficiently over long distances.
3. Message
The Nasir Bhai-jaan at the receiving end would either decode the message by hand or use a machine to display the message.
How Did it Impact the World?
The introduction of the telegraph in the 1850s changed how communication worked. The messages that took days or months to travel from source to destination. Now were able to reach their destination in a matter of minutes.
Before the telegraph, politics and business were limited by geography, The news was mostly outdated by the time it reached regions that were far away.
The telegraph changed all this. Whether it was a message or some news, they were delivered almost everywhere easily. Communication seemed just like the flow of water.
This revolutionized business, politics, and global communication, just like how the internet changed everything when it launched, the Telegraph changed how communication worked when it was launched.
The telegraph was a big leap for humanity. It was not just a machine, it laid the foundation for future communication technologies, such as the telephone and the Internet.
Telephone: The Next Leap (1870 - 1940s)
So you might be wondering if the problem of communicating over long distances was solved then why was there a need for telephones right? Well our good old Telegraph did have a lot of downsides which included :
1. Messages had to be manually encoded and decoded.
2. It was slow for long conversations.
3. Only trained operators could use it.
Invention and Development of the Telephone
The idea of the telephone itself existed long before the telegraph but it was still in progress and the first ever person to bring this idea into reality was Antonio Meucci created a basic version of the telephone in 1849.
Graham Bell wasn't the first guy who created the telephone, it was Antonio Meucci - his invention was not fully developed or widely recognized at the time. He was not able to secure a patent for his work due to financial constraints.
In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell was credited with inventing the telephone and receiving the first U.S. patent for it after years of research.
By the early 1900s, telephones became widely used. The telephone system continued to grow, and by 1915, the first transcontinental telephone line was in operation ehh what is the transcontinental telephone line?
The transcontinental telephone line was a telephone line that connected the eastern and western parts of the United States, allowing people to make telephone calls across the entire country for the first time.
By the mid-20th century (1940 - 1960), the telephone became a common household item, and just after some time mobile phones began to rise and started replacing landlines for many users. This was a big shift in how communication worked, Now everyone and their grandma was using digital and cellular phones.
Working of Telephone in a Nutshell
In a nutshell, the telephone works by converting your voice into electrical signals, which are then sent through wires or radio waves in the case of mobile phones to a receiver.
Here is the process in a bit of detail:
1. Sender's end
When you speak into the telephone's microphone, your voice creates sound waves, which are converted into electrical signals.
2. Transmission process
These electrical signals travel through wires (in landlines) or v radio waves (in mobile phones) to the receiver.
3. Receiver's end
On the other end, the electrical signals are converted back into sound by the receiver’s speaker, allowing the person to hear your voice.
How did it impact the world?
Within 50 years of its invention, the telephone became essential in the U.S. It brought a lot of positive changes, such as improving communication, advancing democracy, and much more. However, As it is rightly said
Wherever there is light, there is dark.
Alongside the good things that came into being because of the telephone, bad things such as increased crime, loss of privacy, and similar problems came into being as well.
Early telephone systems had privacy issues, with eavesdropping on public phones, and switchboard operators sometimes putting their noses into other people's business. As technology became more advanced, the bad guys also became more advanced, and problems such as wiretapping arose, similar to modern MITM (Man-in-the-Middle) attacks.
Despite these issues, the telephone was a big step for humans, especially for an average person, like a while back Bashir had to send birds to relay a message and now he is just sitting in his chair and talking with another person who is maybe on the other side of the world.
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