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Recent Ramblings
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19th century Add new tag Alec Reeves Alexander Graham Bell Almon B. Strowger analogue Andre Geim Andrew Wheen Antonio Meucci ARPANET bandwidth Baudot telegraph blog Bob Metcalfe broadband bulletin board cable cable TV Cap'n Crunch cellular Charles Kao Charles Morrison Charles Wheatstone chat room Claude Shannon communications computer Cooke & Wheatstone copper cyber terrorism cyber warfare Cyrus Field David Hughes digital Domain Name System Donald Davies DOT-DASH TO DOT.COM Dr Hawley Crippen earth return electric telegraph Elisha Gray email Ethel Neave Ethernet events fax fibre optic Francis Ronalds George Hockham Graphene GSM Guglielmo Marconi harmonic telegraph health risks Heinrich Hertz history infrastructure instant messaging Internet ionising radiation James Clerk Maxwell Joe Engressia John Tawell Kostya Novoselov Madame Tussauds malware Marconi microwave mobile Morse Code network neutrino news next generation networks packet switching Paul Baran Philipp Reis Philip Reis phone phone phreaking photophone phreak podcasting radio radio telegraph ramblings blog Reginald Fessenden Robert Kahn Samuel Morse search engine security Seth Shulman signalling social networking speed of light synopsis TCP/IP telecoms telegraph telephone telephone exchange Telephone Gambit television Thomas Edison Tim Berners-Lee transmission undersea cable University of Manchester Usenet utility Vint Cerf virtual worlds Wheatstone WiFi wiki William Fothergill Cooke WiMAX World Wide Web wwwLinks
Tag Archives: communications
The Victorians were Rocked to their Socks
Methods of communicating over long distances advanced surprisingly little from the days of the Roman Empire to the start of the nineteenth century. Although beacons and semaphores were occasionally used, the speed at which information could be transmitted was typically … Continue reading
Posted in Telecom Ramblings
Tagged 19th century, communications, DOT-DASH TO DOT.COM, electric telegraph, history, telegraph
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Concerns about Copper
The high price of copper on world markets has led to a spate of cable thefts, and this has provided telephone companies with a strong incentive to find cost-effective ways of replacing copper telephone wire with optical fibre. However, this is … Continue reading
Posted in Telecom Ramblings
Tagged 19th century, cable, communications, copper, telecoms, telegraph, telephone
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The Strange Story of Phone Phreaking
During the 1960’s, the use of analogue signalling tones between telephone exchanges gave rise to a new phenomenon called “Phone Phreaking”. The word “phreak” is apparently a combination of “phone”, “free” and “freak”, so it’s rather a good name. Phone … Continue reading
Posted in Telecom Ramblings
Tagged Cap'n Crunch, communications, Joe Engressia, network, phone, phreak, signalling, telecoms, telephone, telephone exchange
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Are Radio Waves Bad for Your Health?
The health risks associated with radioactivity have been recognized for many years. Alpha, beta and gamma emissions from radioactive sources can ionize atoms or molecules that they encounter by detaching electrons from them. People exposed to high levels of ionizing … Continue reading
Posted in Telecom Ramblings
Tagged cellular, communications, health risks, ionising radiation, microwave, mobile, network, radio, telecoms, WiFi
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Let’s Hear It for the Bad Boys of Physics!
Surprising as it may seem, there are still some major barriers that are holding back the march of telecommunications. One of these barriers is Einstein’s universal speed limit – the speed of light – which applies to electrical currents in … Continue reading
Posted in Telecom Ramblings
Tagged communications, fibre optic, microwave, network, neutrino, radio, speed of light, telecoms, transmission
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Portrait Gallery
As soon as a decision is made to include pictures in a book, difficult choices have to be made about which pictures to include and which to leave out. In some cases, the decision was taken out of my hands. … Continue reading
Tagged Andrew Wheen, ARPANET, bandwidth, Charles Kao, Charles Wheatstone, Claude Shannon, communications, computer, Cyrus Field, Donald Davies, DOT-DASH TO DOT.COM, Elisha Gray, fibre optic, Francis Ronalds, George Hockham, harmonic telegraph, history, Internet, John Tawell, microwave, network, packet switching, Paul Baran, Reginald Fessenden, telecoms, telegraph, telephone, Tim Berners-Lee, transmission, undersea cable, Wheatstone, William Fothergill Cooke, World Wide Web
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Synopsis
Here’s a brief summary of each chapter. Chapter 1: The Birth of an Industry This chapter chronicles the early years of the electric telegraph. It starts with the chaotic scenes in the US congress when – after many setbacks – Samuel … Continue reading
Tagged 19th century, Alec Reeves, Alexander Graham Bell, Almon B. Strowger, analogue, Andrew Wheen, Antonio Meucci, ARPANET, blog, Bob Metcalfe, broadband, bulletin board, cable TV, Charles Morrison, Charles Wheatstone, chat room, Claude Shannon, communications, computer, digital, Domain Name System, Donald Davies, DOT-DASH TO DOT.COM, Elisha Gray, email, Ethernet, fibre optic, Francis Ronalds, GSM, Guglielmo Marconi, harmonic telegraph, Heinrich Hertz, history, instant messaging, Internet, James Clerk Maxwell, malware, mobile, Morse Code, network, next generation networks, Paul Baran, Philip Reis, phone phreaking, podcasting, radio, Robert Kahn, Samuel Morse, search engine, social networking, synopsis, TCP/IP, telecoms, telegraph, telephone, telephone exchange, television, Thomas Edison, transmission, Usenet, Vint Cerf, virtual worlds, WiFi, wiki, William Fothergill Cooke, WiMAX, World Wide Web
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Interview
What are your favourite sports and hobbies? My work involves spending far too much time sitting in meetings or working on a computer, so I like leisure pursuits that involve fresh air and exercise. I’m keen on backpacking … Continue reading
Tagged Andrew Wheen, communications, computer, DOT-DASH TO DOT.COM, history, Internet, network, telecoms, telegraph, telephone, World Wide Web
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Biography
I can’t really believe that many people will be interested in this, but I’m told that an author’s website needs a biography – so here goes. I can’t tell you about all the books I’ve written, because I’ve only written … Continue reading
Tagged Andrew Wheen, communications, computer, DOT-DASH TO DOT.COM, history, Internet, network, telecoms, telegraph, telephone, telephone exchange, World Wide Web
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Welcome!
Hello. Welcome to my website. I’m Andrew Wheen, and I’ve recently published a book on the history of telecoms. If you use a mobile phone or surf the Internet, then this book should be of interest to you. If telecoms … Continue reading
Tagged 19th century, Andrew Wheen, communications, DOT-DASH TO DOT.COM, fax, history, Internet, network, telecoms, telegraph, telephone, World Wide Web
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