--- F R E N D Z of martian --- -- Martin Cosgrave Appdev Ltd - http://appdev.co.uk 0117 902 3143 ----- Original Message ----- From: Eric Myers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, May 19, 2000 11:11 PM Subject: GeeK: The Victorian Internet > While on vacation I found an interesting book that people on this list > might enjoy. (Sorry for the "book report" format, it's the best I could do.) > > > "The Victorian Internet" > by Tom Standage (Berkley Books, 1998) > [paperback edition of Oct 1999 is $12] > > This is the history of the Telegraph, which bears some surprising and > some not so surprising similarities to the Internet. The book starts > with the technical development of telegraphy, first optical(!) and then > electrical, and then describes the social effects of the new > invention, up until it was replaced by the telephone. > > Although Standage emphasizes that there are great similarities > between the telegraph and the Internet, he doesn't actually go into > them much until the very end of the book. Even so, anybody familiar > with the Internet will see the similarities without having them > pointed out. > > Telegraphy changed in a fundamental way how information was (and is) > exchanged. Many businesses found that they had to use it or they > would fall behind their competitors. Media companies first ignored > it, then feared it, then embraced it. Those working in this new > industry had to overcome both technical difficulties and attract > funding from either governments or venture capitalists. Many > start-ups failed. A small elite developed around the technology, with > their own customs and jargon and a distaste for uneducated outsiders. > Romances blossomed and even weddings took place over the wires. New > ways were found both to solve and to commit crimes using this new > invention. Codes and ciphers were used both to improve throughput and > to prevent eavesdropping. The telegraph was seen by many as a tool of > peace that would unite the different peoples of the world. It changed > the way war was conducted and the way the military dealt with > information in peacetime. It also paved the way for a succeeding > technology (the telephone). > > After reading this book I find it an interesting exercise to take > any claim about the effects of the "Internet" and swap in the word > "Telegraph". The result is invariably either "yup, that happened" or > "yup, they thought that back then too". It's also amusing to try this > out, in reverse, on the preceeding paragraph. > > > The most interesting parallel I found was in the monopoly held by > the Western Union company, then run by president William (another Bill?!) > Orton. According to Chapter 10: > > By 1880, Western Union handled 80 percent of the country's > messaging traffic, and was making a huge profit.... > Western Union insisted that its monopoly was in everyone's > interests, even if it was unpopular, because it would encourage > standardization. > > Microsoft has tried to use the same argument to justify their > monopoly. Some things truly never change. > > There is little analysis or opinion in this book, save for the > final chapter which makes some comparisons to the Internet. Other > than that and the title, the book is really a brief history of the > development and impact of the electric telegraph, with several pages > of bibliography. At just over 200 short pages (for the new paperback > version) "The Victorian Internet" is a quick and interesting read. > > > Eric Myers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > High Energy Theoretical Physics http://www.umich.edu/~myers > Department of Physics Tel: 734-763-4325 > University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Fax: 734-763-2213 > -- Sent to you via the frendz list at marsbard.com The archive is at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
