Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
THEN
On Jan. 6, 1838 Samuel Morse gives a successful public demonstration of his electrical telegraph in Morristown, N. J. In the demonstration he uses a code he developed for the system of dots and dashes to represent letters and numbers, to be known as Morse code. He then proceeds to lobby Congress for funding to construct a telegraph line between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. In 1843 Morse finally convinces Congress to fund the project and in May 1844 Morse sends the first official message by telegraph: “What hath God wrought!” Over the next few years private companies set up lines across the Northeast, with a permanent telegraph line across the Atlantic completed in 1866. In 1851 the company that would later change its name to Western Union is established, and in 1861 completed the first line across the United States. The telegraph lays the groundwork for the communications revolution that followed, with successful testing of the telephone in 1876 following close behind. Western Union delivers its last telegram in January 2006.
NOW
Today the modern telecommunications industry, inaugurated by the telegraph, forges ahead as companies work to replace older copper wires with higher capacity (and less signal loss), faster, and safer fiber optic cables. On Tuesday the KT Corporation, a major South Korean telecommunications provider, announced plans to build an underwater fiber optic cable. The project, called the Asia Pacific Gateway, will connect Asian countries with 13 overseas mobile providers including Japan’s NTT Communications and Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom. The over 6,200 mile-long cable will connect Korea, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. The cable will be the fastest sub-aquatic cable yet, able to transfer data at 38.4 terabits per second, or 7,200 movies per second. Construction is scheduled to begin early 2013.
