ReflectiveEssay

Nick Marshall

CIS-270WX-01

Dr. Sook Ha

24 APR 2016

Humans are naturally social animals. The development of patterns of communication and the introduction of new communication technologies has allowed for the continued interconnection of global governments, cultures, and civilizations. Throughout the chronological development of these communication technologies in the Americas, the most distinctive feature has been a prevailing tendency to focus on increased communications speed and ease of use. Dating back to the use of smoke signals in native tribes and into the development of cellular phone technology in the late 20^th century, communication technology has shown a continual trend towards becoming more simplistic and efficient for the end users, driving the global community to become more interconnected as a result.

Early communication methods in the Americas was limited by the lack of efficient technology that was available to native tribes of the time. Some more common methods of communication that were available were smoke signals and signals sent with mirrors or reflective objects. Tribes typically use these communication methods in absence of an available foot messenger or in situations which required immediate notification where a messenger would not be viable. Examples of these situations might include the attacking of a village or any other dangerous event where assistance was needed. The underlying issue with this communication method was not its overall effectiveness. As a short-range signaling method that was strictly reserved for emergencies, it proved to get the job done. However, it could be considered slow and inefficient by any modern standards. Tribes could only communicate with limited range using this method. Additionally, it was possible that messages were not clear to anyone who was not familiar with the meaning of the signals. Since this technology fell out of usage, multiple improvements to communication technology was made to remedy the drawbacks mentioned above.

Up until the mid-1900’s, the best improvements that were made to long-distance communications came in the form of horseback transportation. Most prominently, the development of the mail service called “The Pony Express” exemplified a critical shift towards the aforementioned ideology of improving communication efficiency, speed, and distance. The Pony Express focused on decreasing the time it took to transport mail from the eastern side of the United States to its western coast. In effect, this linked both sides of the nation via communication in ways that were previously unprecedented. Communication that had previously taken weeks would now only take days, at the most.

From this point onward, communication technology improvements became rapid and increasingly better at linking the cultures of the Americas. The lifetime of the Pony Express was short-lived. It was quickly replaced by newer, more rapid communication technologies like the transcontinental telegraph, transcontinental railroad, and airplane. The more important of these developments was the telegraph. Whereas the Pony Express had drastically improved communication in the United States, the telegraph expanded on this improvement several fold. The telegraph used electrical wiring to transmit signals across a network that spanned several cities in the US. Since all messages sent were electrically encoded and sent along a wire, a message that may have taken several days to reach its destination prior to the telegraph now only took a few seconds. Once transoceanic telegraph lines became an established norm. this allowed for individuals and global governments to exchange information rapidly, consistently, and reliably. To date, the invention of the telegraph remains one of the most important advancements towards modern communications technology.

The importance of the telegraph becomes more evident when looking at the invention of telephony services in the United States. Telephony traces its roots back to the network infrastructure laid out by the telegraph. Building on the network and technology, inventors were able to adapt the system to transmit electrical signals which would transform back to sound waves at their destination. What this meant was that, for the first time ever, one could vocally communicate over any distance that had a telephone line between the end-users. This technology proved to be even faster than the telegraph because it allowed for one to simply speak their intended message rather than manually enter a codified language to be transmitted via electrical signals. Along with radio communication technology, this brought the Americas into the contemporary state of communication technology.

Since the creation of telephony, the technology has simply been expanded upon in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. What we’ve derived from these innovations are networking principles which have contributed to modern computing, improved telecommunications like cell phones and wireless networks, and Voice over IP services that are revolutionizing the Internet.

The primary pattern that should be recognized when analyzing these various forms of communication technologies is the tendency for communication to become more accessible, efficient, and reliable as it develops. To exemplify this concept, simply compare a modern communication technology like telephony with an archaic one like smoke signals. To send a message with a smoke signal, one would have to have knowledge of how to build a significantly sized pyre at elevation. Additionally, the sender and receiver would need a common understanding of the signals being sent. The sender is limited by his or her knowledge of how to create the smoke signals – not even including limiting factors such as weather and visibility which may limit the potential for getting the message to its intended recipient. Even in the most ideal situation for sending one, a smoke signal is not a reliable method of communication. Especially not over any significant distance. Conversely, when we look at a more modern technology like telephony, it is often reliable. Its usability and ability to achieve long-distance communication is not limited by topographical features or weather. It also has the convenience of letting the message sender to quickly and efficiently relay their intended message with vocalization. Telecommunications are clearly superior to smoke signals for relaying a message.

This illustrates a global shift towards relying on communications technology to facilitate a more interconnected world. By expanding the range of our communications, we as a species have seemingly managed to artificially reduce the distances between us. Whereas transcontinental communications in previous centuries were an unprecedented development, it is now a commonplace event. As communications move forward, faster speeds and more accessible technologies will continue to show this prevailing trend which makes the world seem much closer together.

Marshall_CIS270WX-01_Writing#3_Final

Nick Marshall

MAJ Sook Ha

CIS-270WX-01

March 25, 2016

The invention of the telephone was one of the most important communication developments of the late 19^th century. Innovative creators were able to expand on the success of the telegraph to create a new communication medium that would become a staple of global intercommunication that persisted into the modern digital era. The early history of the telephone exemplifies how the limitations of an existing technology resulted in the creation of an improved technology that, in turn, goes through several evolutionary stages to produce a vastly superior commodity.

The telephone can traces its origins back to the 1870s and two inventors – Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray. At the time, the telegraph was a widely popular wire-based electrical communication system. However, limitations existed in the system. With telegraphs, it was only possible to send and receive a single message at a time (Bellis). Bell had extensive background knowledge with the nature of sound (specifically music) that allowed him to posit the idea of sending multiple messages over a single wire at the same time (Bellis). Eventually, Bell and Gray were able to simultaneously invent these “harmonic telegraphs” that could transmit speech electronically. Historically, Bell was the first to secure the patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The two famously entered several legal battles which Graham won (Bellis).

Bell formally founded the first telephone company in 1878. The company was known as the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T). This marked an important point in the history of the telephone because from this point onward, telephones were able to be leased to subscribers for service (Bellis). The telephones were connected at first by having a wire run between each location. These phone lines were known as direct lines (“History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses”). As phone subscriber numbers increased, this model became unsustainable because it was not scalable. To alleviate these scalability issues, the concept of “exchanges” was created. A precursor to switchboards, these exchanges allowed for the centralization of the phone lines rather than having multiple lines going from phone-to-phone. Subscribing for a monthly fee allowed users to gain access to a much wider phone network than direct lines allowed for (“History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses”).

This concept of the “network” in telephone communications became important in the expansion of telephone services and innovations. Having centralized switching locations allowed for a more rapid expansion of subscriber bases. As these new users joined the network, a wider area of communication became available for the previous users due to the interconnectivity of the phone lines. The additional lines were also used to connect to additional switching locations, strengthening the network in the process (“History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses”).

The phone would go through several evolutionary stages throughout the 20^th century, each of which brought their own unique improvements to the usability and efficiency of the telephone and the telephone networks across the world. From the Bell telephone, the first important step forward came in the form of the rotary dial phone (Bellis). The importance of this innovation was the ease that it brought to entering the phone numbers of other users. Prior to the rotary dial phone, users had a single button on their phones which was pressed for a specific number of pulses to contact another user. The button was abandoned entirely by 1943 in favor of the rotary dial (Bellis). Additionally, rotary dial phones were the first to combine the mouthpiece and receiver portions of the phone into a single handset (“Telephone Timeline”). But the rotary dial was still more tedious than it needed to be. In 1941, touch-tone phones were introduced as an even more efficient way of entering phone numbers. Each key was able to transmit a certain frequency which would signal to the operator which number needed to be connected on the line. No more than six years later, in 1947, research began on cell phone technology.

Cell phone technology began with research into mobile car phones that were marginally popular at the time (Bellis).  The technology continued to be developed into the 1980’s until Motorola introduced the first commercially available mobile phone in the form of the Motorola DynaTAC (Bellis). The first cell phones were large and clunky with limited call time and high prices. The DynaTAC, for example, only had thirty minutes of call time with a four-thousand dollar price point. With these limitations, cell phones were not a commodity that the general public could afford for their day-to-day lives. The phone company Nokia made some of the first significant advancements towards improving the availability of cell phone technology. Nokia released their classic 5110 model “candybar” cell phone which had a reduced size, longer battery life, LCD screen, and customizable face plates (“Telephone Timeline”). Following up on this innovation, the world saw the release of the first commercially successful flip phones into the consumer market.

For cell phone networks, these innovations meant that switchboards became replaced by cell towers with many of the same principles still in place. Calls placed by users would be routed through networks of cell towers to reach their destination. Because cell phones can connect to any tower that’s closest to them, users were able to move anywhere that had a nearby tower and place a call or send a text message. This was achieved largely through the integration of radio wave technology with telecommunications. The creation of the microprocessor also allowed for cell phones to be made smaller, more efficient, and more complex. Without the microprocessor, it’s unlikely that we would have technological achievements like smartphones. Advancements in cell phone technology has ushered in a new era of global connectivity and intercommunication. Commonplace items in the first world, such as the iPhone, Android, and Windows smartphones would not be readily available without the advancements in cell phone and microprocessor technology.

Significant improvements have been made in telecommunications from the original inventions implemented by Bell and Gray in the late 1800’s. From the humble beginnings of the inventions first presented in their labs, a global network allowing for communication interconnectivity has been spawned. Telephony networks have been integral to expanding global businesses, governments, and social relations. Additionally, they laid the groundwork for computing networks around the mid-20^th century. The importance of telephony to the technological advancements of the 20^th and 21^st centuries cannot be overstated. They remain equally important and will likely continue to be important for years to come.

Works Cited

Bellis, Mary. “The History of Cordless & Other Modern Phones.” About.com Inventors. About.com, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/telephone_3.htm>.

“History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses.” History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <https://www.shoretel.com/history-telephone-and-communication-businesses>.

Nick Marshall

MAJ Sook Ha

CIS-270WX-01

March 25, 2016

The invention of the telephone was one of the most important communication developments of the late 19^th century. Innovative creators were able to expand on the success of the telegraph to create a new communication medium that would become a staple of global intercommunication that persisted into the modern digital era. The early history of the telephone exemplifies how the limitations of an existing technology resulted in the creation of an improved technology that, in turn, goes through several evolutionary stages to produce a vastly superior commodity.

The telephone can traces its origins back to the 1870s and two inventors – Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray. At the time, the telegraph was a widely popular wire-based electrical communication system. However, limitations existed in the system. With telegraphs, it was only possible to send and receive a single message at a time (Bellis). Bell had extensive background knowledge with the nature of sound (specifically music) that allowed him to posit the idea of sending multiple messages over a single wire at the same time (Bellis). Eventually, Bell and Gray were able to simultaneously invent these “harmonic telegraphs” that could transmit speech electronically. Historically, Bell was the first to secure the patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The two famously entered several legal battles which Graham won (Bellis).

Bell formally founded the first telephone company in 1878. The company was known as the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T). This marked an important point in the history of the telephone because from this point onward, telephones were able to be leased to subscribers for service (Bellis). The telephones were connected at first by having a wire run between each location. These phone lines were known as direct lines (“History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses”). As phone subscriber numbers increased, this model became unsustainable because it was not scalable. To alleviate these scalability issues, the concept of “exchanges” was created. A precursor to switchboards, these exchanges allowed for the centralization of the phone lines rather than having multiple lines going from phone-to-phone. Subscribing for a monthly fee allowed users to gain access to a much wider phone network than direct lines allowed for (“History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses”).

This concept of the “network” in telephone communications became important in the expansion of telephone services and innovations. Having centralized switching locations allowed for a more rapid expansion of subscriber bases. As these new users joined the network, a wider area of communication became available for the previous users due to the interconnectivity of the phone lines. The additional lines were also used to connect to additional switching locations, strengthening the network in the process (“History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses”).

The phone would go through several evolutionary stages throughout the 20^th century, each of which brought their own unique improvements to the usability and efficiency of the telephone and the telephone networks across the world. From the Bell telephone, the first important step forward came in the form of the rotary dial phone (Bellis). The importance of this innovation was the ease that it brought to entering the phone numbers of other users. Prior to the rotary dial phone, users had a single button on their phones which was pressed for a specific number of pulses to contact another user. The button was abandoned entirely by 1943 in favor of the rotary dial (Bellis). Additionally, rotary dial phones were the first to combine the mouthpiece and receiver portions of the phone into a single handset (“Telephone Timeline”). But the rotary dial was still more tedious than it needed to be. In 1941, touch-tone phones were introduced as an even more efficient way of entering phone numbers. Each key was able to transmit a certain frequency which would signal to the operator which number needed to be connected on the line. No more than six years later, in 1947, research began on cell phone technology.

Cell phone technology began with research into mobile car phones that were marginally popular at the time (Bellis).  The technology continued to be developed into the 1980’s until Motorola introduced the first commercially available mobile phone in the form of the Motorola DynaTAC (Bellis). The first cell phones were large and clunky with limited call time and high prices. The DynaTAC, for example, only had thirty minutes of call time with a four-thousand dollar price point. With these limitations, cell phones were not a commodity that the general public could afford for their day-to-day lives. The phone company Nokia made some of the first significant advancements towards improving the availability of cell phone technology. Nokia released their classic 5110 model “candybar” cell phone which had a reduced size, longer battery life, LCD screen, and customizable face plates (“Telephone Timeline”). Following up on this innovation, the world saw the release of the first commercially successful flip phones into the consumer market.

For cell phone networks, these innovations meant that switchboards became replaced by cell towers with many of the same principles still in place. Calls placed by users would be routed through networks of cell towers to reach their destination. Because cell phones can connect to any tower that’s closest to them, users were able to move anywhere that had a nearby tower and place a call or send a text message. This was achieved largely through the integration of radio wave technology with telecommunications. The creation of the microprocessor also allowed for cell phones to be made smaller, more efficient, and more complex. Without the microprocessor, it’s unlikely that we would have technological achievements like smartphones. Advancements in cell phone technology has ushered in a new era of global connectivity and intercommunication. Commonplace items in the first world, such as the iPhone, Android, and Windows smartphones would not be readily available without the advancements in cell phone and microprocessor technology.

Significant improvements have been made in telecommunications from the original inventions implemented by Bell and Gray in the late 1800’s.

Works Cited

Bellis, Mary. “The History of Cordless & Other Modern Phones.” About.com Inventors. About.com, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/telephone_3.htm>.

“History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses.” History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <https://www.shoretel.com/history-telephone-and-communication-businesses>.

Marshall_CIS270WX-01_Writing#3_Draft

Marshall_CIS270WX-01_Writing#2_Final

Nick Marshall

MAJ Sook Ha

CIS-270WX-01

March 14, 2016

The invention of the airplane marked an important point in the history of mankind and the communication of information technology. While simple messages could be transferred quickly at that point in history through the usage of telegraphs and telephones, invented some years before, air mail allowed for the rapid dissemination of physical media like letters and packages. This also opened up newer, faster communication options to sections of the world which may have been informationally isolated due to their lack of telegraph or telephone connectivity.

The interest in sending information via airmail was sparked immediately upon the first successful flights performed in 1903. The first experimental airmail flights came in the year 1911. Most notably, the United States Post Office Department had its first major test flights in New York during the week of September 23, 1911 through September 30, 1911 (Keogh). Earl L. Ovington was appointed as an “air mail carrier” and covered a route that flew between two points in the state of New York. Ovington dropped packages at the latter of the two points and a postmaster would collect them. During the week Ovington flew his route, tens of thousands of postcards along with several thousands of letters and circulars were delivered (Keogh). The results of the experiment proved to be more than satisfactory to the Post Office Department and, after several similar experiments were carried out in the same year, it was decided that the airplane would be a more than viable improvement on mail transportation and information dissemination.

Under these pretenses, the Post Office Department made several requests to Congress in 1912 for funds to start a formal service. After initially denying several requests, Congress approved funds for the foundation of an airplane service in 1916 (Keogh). The World Wars on the horizon at this time would prove to be a valuable asset in affirming the usefulness of airplanes for the mail service. Planes were used as fighting assets during both wars. If they could achieve fill this role, there was little doubt left in many people’s minds that they could be tasked with safely delivering mail and cargo shipments. Congress allotted even more money toward the service in 1918 when they granted $100,000 to be used in the establishment of the first experimental air mail route (Cleveland, 1). The Post Office Department established this route on May 15, 1918, marking it as an important date in the history of aviation and mail delivery services. The route was established between New York and Washington, DC (Cleveland, 1). The frequency of service ended up being a single round trip per day over the 218 mile span of the route (Keogh).

Perhaps most impressively, the pilots who flew the route had no navigation aids, instruments, or radios. The pilots made all of their trips via dead reckoning techniques. Forced landings were frequent but fatalities on the route were not (Cleveland, 1). In fact, the route was so successful that the Post Office Department immediately began creating a route that would bring the airmail service from New York to San Francisco, marking the first transcontinental airmail deliveries. By June 1^st of the same year, the route was already in the works (Cleveland, 1).

The transcontinental route was accomplished by transporting mail from New York to Cleveland and then from Cleveland to Chicago. This leg of the route was completed in 1919 (Cleveland, 1). The next year another leg of the route was opened from Chicago to Omaha, with several feeder routes. The final segment, linking both ends of the continent via airmail, was completed in May of 1920. This finalized the route which allowed mail to be even more rapidly transported from New York to San Francisco (Cleveland, 2).

After some routes began to be shut down with the purpose of economizing expenditures, the Post Office Department further demonstrated the many possibilities of airmail by making a through flight from San Francisco to New York. This monumental flight took a total of approximately 33 hours to complete, with 25 of those hours being spent in actual flight (Keogh).

After demonstrating the capabilities of airmail, routes were able to be expanded upon. The United States postal service would be able to receive more money to implement their services across the contiguous and, eventually, non-contiguous states in the US. The service of airmail saw significant expansion as it became more publicly adopted and more infrastructure became available to support airmail to varied locations. Airmail largely came of age around 1927. At this time, most significant challenges had been overcome by the innovative work of the United States Post Office Department. At the beginning of its implementation, weather was one of the largest challenges facing airmail pilots. By the late 1920’s, it had been overcome, allowing for less delays and more rapid postal delivery. Fog remained the one issue that caused serious delays in postal deliveries but work was done to alleviate this issue as well (Keogh). By this point in time, fatalities had also been markedly diminished. The safety records of United States Post Office Department pilots were nearly impeccable, with very few fatalities or injuries while on the job. Millions of miles were flown between known injuries on the job (Keogh).

The efforts of the Post Office Department, aided by the United States Congress helped bring the US postal service into modernity. Airmail has proved to be the most rapid form of physical mail transportation thus far, as evidenced by its persistence into the present day. Being eclipsed only by the advent of the internet and email, airmail is still one of our most important information delivery systems in the United States and around the world. It vastly improved cultures through its ability to connect and facilitate efficient communication.

Works Cited

Cleveland, Reginald M. “Airmail.” Sci Am Scientific American 150.6 (1934): 290-91. USPS. Web. <https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/airmail.pdf>.

Keogh, Edward A. “Airmail Pioneers: A Brief History.” Airmail Pioneers: A Brief History. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2016. <http://www.airmailpioneers.org/content/Sagahistory.htm>.