History of Communication

Since the beginning of time, people have always been looking for means of communication, but a way to communicate in a fast and easy way. In earlier times, Egyptians carved on rocks, leaving records for the next civilization. The Incans of South America knotted several colored pieces of string in a specific pattern and had a messenger run to the next village to deliver it. Many wrote messages on paper to be delivered by a messenger and some simply sent a messenger to deliver the message orally. Of course, there were many problems with these means of communication. If one just sent a messenger, it was easy for the messenger to lose communication in the traveling process, or one could misplace a written message. And of course these messages relied heavily on the swiftness of the messenger, especially in long distances. Clearly, the need for fast and easy communication was getting higher what with different civilizations being more and more spread out. The answer to this demand first came with the invention of the telegraph, then the telephone, and eventually the cellular phone. And although the invention of the telephone was a great one, there were, of course, downsides.

Samuel B. Morse (for whom Morse code is named) patented the telegraph around 1837. A series of dots and dashes sounded on a special transmitter and sent over electrical wires to the person receiving the message. This was a way to communicate almost instantaneously through American cities. In 1843, Congress funded Morse $30,000 to do an experimental telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore, a 40-mile distance. Six years later, the national convention of the Whig party held its national convention in Baltimore and nominated Henry Clay. Alfred Vail, Morse’s partner...

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...elephone, people mostly communicated long distances through some type of letter or other document. And although the telegraph made this process a great deal easier and faster, it was ultimately the telephone that pushed the communication process through the roof and eventually to the cell phone. The telephone and its many different technologies morphed into something completely different than the first invention of the telegraph. Today, these technologies have become essential to everyday life of Americans. Without these inventions, life today would not be as we now know it. We rely so much on instantaneous news and information, the cell phone, e-mail, the Internet, GPS technology, and so much more. These communications are central to most civilizations today, and it would be near impossible to get through life as we do without these services, mostly the telephone.