Genius Communication Inventions: From Morse Code to the Internet
German schoolteacher Johann Reis invented a telephone in 1861 To see what the horse is up to turn to page 18
CONTENTS In Touch Language Writing It Down Printing Sending Out Signals Radio Telephone Code TV and Video Computers The Internet Wacky Inventions Daft Predictions Index Umm Flash geddout the way 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32
IN TOUCH The history of communication takes us from the invention of alphabets and writing the printing press and the use of electricity in telegraph and telephone right through to our modern digital age with its computers satellites and smartphones iPhone 2007 Paper 105 CE 6 Our earliest ancestors made stunning drawings on cave walls so maybe they spoke just as beautifully as they sat around the fi re at night We’ll never know though because we have no record of their languages alphabets had not yet been written Even into modern times some cultures didn’t bother with writing The Maori of New Zealand for instance only began writing down words in the 1820s after Europeans visited them But their traditional tattoos and carvings are a kind of language in themselves Communicating in the present day is easier and faster than ever and it takes many forms In any single day we might use telephone email text Facebook Twitter Skype Instagram and more We sometimes text other family
members even if they’re in the same room In a peculiar way we’ve come full circle back to cave days speaking directly electronically to our friends even those in other countries rather than writing them a letter Here we look at how those big changes happened Some were slow such as the gradual century-by-century changes to ancient picture alphabets Others have been quick The Internet for instance is less than fi fty years old and Facebook is still a teenager First fax machine 1840 Find out who invented paper and pens printing email and Instagram And have fun with some hilarious predictions made by stick-in-the-muds who couldn’t see any future for radio television cinema computer Vacuum tube in radio 1904 Video cassette recorder 1950s 7
