Essay: From semaphore to internet

The first modern network goes as far back as 1792 when Frenchman Claude Chappe invented semaphore system. This semaphore system also dubbed as the telegraph, was known to have had moving arms to indicate letters of the alphabet or coded words, this, in turn, led to the first ever national network being installed 1792 in France, after sending the first signal. Following such a development was the Electric Revolution, which by the way was an idea gotten from the study that dates back to ancient times, of the natural phenomena such as lightning. Tales told of Miletus investigating static electricity generated by rubbing pieces of amber around 600 BCE, two millennium after that an English scientist known as William Gilbert was also said to have published a write up on the first modern study of magnetism and electricity. It then took another two centuries before another research and experiment on telegraphs took place. The first research was on electrolysis and static electricity and the second research was carried out in 1832, where Schilling invented the electromagnetic system. By 1839, the development of electrical telegraph enabled people to send complex messages from one country to another, this of course was the first time in history such a thing had happened. In that same year, the first-ever commercial service was opened in London by a Scientist known as Charles Wheatstone together with a businessman known as William Fothergill Cooke. A various scientist from other parts of the world was also working on numerous ways to enable an easy conveyance of information to different locations via wire. An example of such scientist was American man known as Samuel Morse, who in 1844 opened a telegraph service in the United States. In 1851, the electric telegraph system had already begun to spread in so many places, but there was a problem hindering the full connection of the world, and that was the problem of the Sea. These became a problem that was tested by the scientists above, but once they found a way of passing the telegraph cables underneath the seas, a link was built between Britain and France, which were among the countries where such a historical journey began. By the time this information transformation framework was now moving easily smoothly from European countries to North America, it was no longer a problem of being able to pass communications on time, rather it was a matter of national jurisdictional agreement between 2 or more nations. Of course, agreements started to be made between countries and in 1865 over 20 European states signed a treaty to governing telegraph services that gave birth to the rise and growth of Information and computer technology in the world. An organization known as the ITU was created in 1865 and had there the first conference meeting in that same year. The aims and objectives of this organization are to tackle greater problems as a result of wanting to connect the world through communication. It took only a decade after the creation of ITU for the next breakthrough in communications to take place, and that breakthrough was the issuance of a right to ownership of the telephone in 1876. It was very important and life-changing because people could not only send telegraphs to one another, but they could also speak directly to each other from a very long distance. In 1885, the ITU started to draw up international regulations governing telephones, this was carried out at an International Telegraph Conference held in Berlin, Germany. Over a 100 million calls were made between member countries in the ITU organization. In 1888, another breakthrough came about, as a result of the relentless efforts of various Scientist to see that communications went to the next level and, in this case, was the invention of a Radio Transmitter. More efforts were put in by scientists such as Heinrich Hertz and James Clerk Maxwell that resulted in the creation of a Radio system. Within this same period, two other scientists known as Marconi and Popov developed a transmitter that empowered the first ever radio communications.
On 23 of December 1900, the first ever wireless telephone message was transmitted between a Canadian inventor Reginald Aubrey Fessenden and Thiessen, who was his assistant, through a radio. Lead to the birth of a radio broadcasting era.
During the 20th-century radio, equipment had begun to circulate rapidly all over the world. A lot of radio stations constructed along coasts and adapted for traveling ships. But there was a problem of using the same radio frequency that constantly caused interference with communication. This problem was corrected in a meeting held in 1906, at the first International Radiotelegraph Conference in Berlin, by the signing of an agreement between nations on what frequencies were to use and also ways in which this radio stations built in various coast were to operated. Then came another breakthrough with the invention of television that they displayed in London 1925. This innovation took the world by storm, followed by a passing of electronic system in the 1930s that gave birth to television era. As a result, of the growth in technological advancement in the 20th century, there was a need for a unified approach towards the passing out of information through telecommunication technologies. This lead to the dealing of telegraph and telephone services being made part of ITU responsibility officially in 1925. An International Radio Consultative Committee was also created in 1927, to enable an organised study in all fields concerning telecommunications. In 1932, a historical invent took place in Madrid, Spain that changed the face of ITU to the world forever. It led to the emergence of the International Radiotelegraph Conference with the International Telegraph Conference after serious discussions in a meeting. Due to the second world war, a lot of lives and properties were lost. Including the destruction of most radio towers built back then. In other to rebuild lost properties because of the war, an organisation known as the United Nations was established in 1945, and then two years later an ITU conference was held in the United States of America and the ITU association was voted to become part of the United Nations establishment. In 1947, it was decided at the international telecommunications conference, that roles and positions should be assigned individually, to have a better understanding of what parts and duties are to play by every member of the organisation. As telecommunication kept on growing, mankind decided to explore and see what was outside of our planet in space. For the first time in history, a small satellite called Sputnik was launched in space in 1957. After a year, another satellite known as Project Score was also launched in space followed by two other satellites called ECHO 1 and Telstar in 1960 and 1962 respectively. Subsequently, the Fax machine was created in a more formal and modern way because such idea had been conceived long before the Don of the telephone. The next big thing was the creation of Internet, in 1971 the ITU telecom world began, and since then has hosted a lot of conference in various parts of the world, there was lots of progress in the 80s that saw the landmark of digital technologies. The creation of computers, telephones and so many telecommunication technologies made information processing, gathering and transfer very fast and durable. In 1990 the cypher or code (www) that symbolizes World Wide Web, was also introduced and accessible to everybody in the world, the world was now turning into a global village as a result of the simplicity to which information transferred from all forms of technologies. Finally, the device that revolutionized every aspect of telecommunications in this modern era was a Mobile phone. For the first time in 2000, an ITU conference was held and decided to make mobile phones compatible with the internet, there allowing people to access as much information they could be ever as for with just a click of a button. From then till date there been lots of progress and inventions that has made the world to refers this era as a computer era, things has only gotten better and better but all this, in general, doesn’t come without its challenges.