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Tag Archives: telephone
Noises in the Earth
The early telegraph pioneers encountered major problems with cables, so there was a strong incentive for them to minimise the amount of cabling required. Fortunately, the use of an “earth return” meant that one wire (rather than two) was sufficient … Continue reading
Posted in Telecom Ramblings
Tagged 19th century, Alexander Graham Bell, earth return, Samuel Morse, telegraph, telephone
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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 First Mobile Phone?
In 1879, Professor David Hughes noticed that a clicking noise occurred in his home-made telephone whenever he used his induction balance. Hughes eventually found that the induction balance had a loose contact, and that the clicking went away when the contact … Continue reading
Posted in Telecom Ramblings
Tagged 19th century, Alexander Graham Bell, David Hughes, mobile, radio, 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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Who REALLY Invented the Telephone?
As any quiz enthusiast will tell you, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. He was awarded a patent for the telephone in 1876, and he and his fledgling telephone company successfully defended that patent against more than 600 legal challenges … Continue reading
The First Wireless Telephone
On 3rd June 1880, Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the first wireless telephone message using his newly-invented “Photophone”. The Photophone contained a flexible mirror that vibrated in response to the speaker’s voice. When sunlight was projected on to the mirror, the … Continue reading
Posted in Telecom Ramblings
Tagged 19th century, Alexander Graham Bell, history, photophone, telephone
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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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