Let's take a 'fly-by-view' of the Internet timeline, beginning in the early 1800's. During our travel through time, we will observe the key events that led to the development of the internet as we know it today... In 1837, Samuel Morse invented the original telegraph transmitter and receiver. This invention was the foundation that led to the information age. In 1858, the Atlantic Cable was established to carry instantaneous communications across the ocean for the first time. Although the laying of this first cable was seen as a landmark event, it only remained in service a few days! On the next attempt, cables that were laid in 1866 were a complete success. This event, in its time, would compare to the "moon landing" of a century later. The cable of 1866 remained in service for the next 100 years. Cable buoys were used to mark the location of cables. The largest of the buoys used on the Atlantic telegraph cable of 1865-1866, could carry a cable weight of 20 tons. 1876. The concept of communicating voice over large distances, was the beginning of the journey to the internet of today. Many of the same principles that defined the phone system, invented by Alexander Graham Bell in this year, were later adapted to create the first data networks. In 1945 an electrical engineer by the name of Bush, who was an influential science advisor to President Roosevelt and the federal government, became the originator of the concept of hypertext. He had been working on this project during the 2nd world war. In 1945, he proposed MEMEX, a concept machine that could store vast amounts of information. Users had the ability to create information trails, links of related text and illustrations, that could be stored and used for further reference. |
