Lemon_CIS270WX-01_Writing#3_final

For many technological advancements and movements, the United Kingdom, and those countries historically involved in the area, has been one step behind America in terms of societal steps forward. In particular, Britain followed America in step in terms of the wired telephone, or any telephone for that matter.

While the initial telephone was created and patented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell, it wasn’t until September of 1877 that Sir William Thompson of Britain presented Bell’s invention to The British Association for the Advancement of Science at Glasgow. Later that year, a pair of Bell’s perfected type of telephone was presented in Plymouth to the British Association. In 1878, it was presented to the British monarch Queen Victoria, when the first long-distance called were made in the United Kingdom. Following this presentation and putting theory into action, the first major telephone lines were constructed very close to London, the information center of the country. This first call was made between London and Norwich. The Post Office then installed its first telephones in Manchester.

The telephone gained popularity initially and primarily in Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Birmingham, and Bristol. Thomas Edison’s inventions were implement in the country through The Edison Telephone Company of London Ltd. When asked why Britain was not keeping up with America in terms of communication technology, Sir William Preece, a member of the Post Office Engineering staff replied that there was a need for that kind of technology in America which there was not in Britain.

The first telephone directory in Britain was published on January 15^th of 1880, providing a direction information technology link to the communication world in Britain, and furthering technology of the passage of information for the time period. Many organizations and establishments were set in place over the next few decades, such as the Central Telephone Exchange at Oxford Court in 1883, the United Telephone Company in 1884, The South of England Telephone Company, and many others like this. In 1897, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company was created, which was granted the patent by which “electrical actions or manifestations are transmitted through the air, earth, or water by means of electric oscillations of high frequency.” So for Britain, this was one of the largest, legal steps to improving the information technology that it knew up to that point. In 1899, a Telegraph At was passed that required and enabled London to build telephone systems locally, which assisted in the passage of information to direct areas quickly and efficiently.

In terms of connecting to other nations, the first shortwave or high-frequency radio telephone connection between Britain and the United States opened in June of 1828 through the Rugby Radio Station. Through the next few years several advancements in Britain were made, such as the picture telegraph service, voice-frequency telegraph, the International Telecommunications Union, etc. The invention of the transistor in America made its way to Britain in 1948 from the Bell Telephone Laboratories, and in 1955 the first cordless switchboard was opened at Thanet Exchange.

In 1980, the official name British Telecom was given to the telecommunications business of the Post Office in Britain, giving the sector an official establishment to operate separately from other major organizations.  In 1983, Purpose-built Telcare involved the consumer in the process of telecommunications in order to receive human feedback and make telecommunications as efficient and easy to operate as possible. This assisted the advancement of information technology in the sense that more individuals would be willing to use it, therefore willing to aid in the passage of vital information as a society. The biggest step to connecting with America, however, occurred in 1984 when British Telecom’s first overseas office was open in New York.

The advancements from that time on closely mirrored those of America. The connections established at that point socially provided an immortal and continual avenue to progress along the same timelines. Thus, telecommunications became its own self-fulfilling prophecy.

Works Cited

“UK TELEPHONE HISTORY.” UK TELEPHONE HISTORY. N.p., n.d. Web.

Lemon_CIS270WX-01_Writing#3_draft

Lemon_CIS270WX-01_Writing 2_Final.doc

The Subway System

Sarah Lemon

The Subway System, particularly in the United States, has contributed to the movement of information and the overall speed of transit in America to an immeasurable extent. It is a vital tool, particularly for larger cities in the country such as New York, and has developed with times as well as changed them. Particularly due to the nature of its information contribution, it is ambiguously beneficial.

The subway system’s main American innovator was Alfred Ely Beach, alive from 1826 to 1896. He contributed to the project by designing the Beach Pneumatic Transit which made the most evidently pre-constructed pathways for the New York City subway. The system was developed in the 1860s due to a chaotic discombobulating of traffic in the city. A more efficient mode of transportation was absolutely necessary. The largest problem area of traffic was along Broadway, and Beach primarily suggested an underground railway to fix the problem and help with the over concentration of vehicles. He developed his idea from the underground Metropolitan Railway in London, but changed the design so that the trains would now be powered by pneumatics rather than steam engines. In other words, he designed an air-driven system. He aimed to design and build a construction for small pneumatic tubes in 1869 but it turned into a passenger railway design. What was originally planned as an information and cargo transit became focused on human beings. Which, in a certain sense, is still an information transit. After fighting for his designs for years, all the correct legislation was shot down several times before everything was finally set in place to make the new transportation system a reality in the late 1870s and 1880s.

Technically, the first underground train network opened in 1863 in Boston, and the first subway system in the United States was built in Boston, however it was passed over for attention because soon afterward the New York City subway became the largest system in America. The night that the New York subway opened to the public, upwards of about 100,000 people paid five cents to ride. Today, around 4.5 million passengers take the subway in New York everyday, and it runs 24 hours a day, everyday.

The subway system didn’t pick up its speed in terms of popularity until about 1932, after which many above-ground railway systems were torn down. However throughout the entire invention process, the subway system helped force Information technology and scientific technology advancements along simply by providing competition. The system was initially developed during the War of Currents between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse; ultimately, direct current was deemed to be the most efficient form of electricity for urban railroads.

The system also directly united the city in the early 1900s due to the Triborough Plan, a collection of subway lines that allowed the city to be connected through railways equally and efficiently. Eventually many more lines were added to the system, but this was the initially written and implemented plan to link different parts of the city easily. This made the passage of information from different areas to the city quick, efficient, easy, and primarily inexpensive. The system has been expanding since 1910, at least. Because of the expansion, the system as well as the city was unified through combined efforts to make this form of travel easy, accessible, and cheap. Citizens still experience the benefits of those goals today.

In regards to the New York subway system, the 20^th century was completely full of changes and movement; construction, crime, buy-outs, etc. Many organizations and companies fought for, bought, sold, and rebought different aspects of the system. Investments, changes, and direction all shifted countless times. This helped to aid and nurture a growing capitalist society and economy.

Coming from the center of the industrial revolution, the New York Subway system have provided such a vital avenue for human movement that information technology was aided by the system in an immeasurable way simply due to the fact that human beings are at the heart of information technology. Because it makes people’s lives easier, it makes the movement, improvement, and growth of information technology possible. Subway systems provide a vast amount of less pollution than alternatives, are psychologically healthy because they are quieter than alternatives aboveground, provide quick transportation (which is extremely hard to come by in busy cities such as New York City), and cause less pollution (Wargo and Alderman).

It is an indisputable fact that subways are fast and cheaper than alternatives, therefore the progress being made by those who utilize the system on a daily basis is immeasurable when considering the time and energy saved and redirected to somewhere more useful than a commute. Data cannot be attached to how much advancement the system has aided and made possible, it is incalculable. Each individual contribution to society from each individual person that rides has used the system since the 20^th century simply cannot be measured. Transporting people is inherently transporting information, and therefore vastly contributing to Information Technology.

Works Cited

“Alfred Ely Beach.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web.

“History of The New York City Subway.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web.

Köktemir, Faik. “The Advantages of Subway Systems.” Academia.edu. N.p., n.d. Web.

“New York City Subway Opens.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web.

Shafto, Dan. “Underground Railroads.” Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web.

HR: works cited

X_Sarah Elizabeth Lemon