How the world has changed over the years, we went from Pony Express, Morse code etc to instantaneous transmission using the technology that has been made available to us worldwide. We can now communicate via phone, VOIP (voice over internet protocol), mobile phones, email, fax and the list goes on.
And to think, as stated above it used to take days or even months to send a message from one person to another via pony express.
Samuel F B Morse created “Morse Code” by using the basic elements of the dot (dit) and the dash (dah) being the dot the minimal duration element, with the dash equal to three times the duration of the dot. Electrically, current flowed with both dots and dashes. The time between each element of the same character was one dot. The amount of time between each character was three dots; and the time between words was equal to seven dots! During these idle time intervals, the telegraph line was open (no current flow)
Unfortunately, Morse code suffered from a couple of drawbacks. For starters skilled telegraph operators were required, and the work of these operators was grueling (well what do you expect, can you imagine tapping on a single key all day). Also, because the code had varying numbers of elements between characters, it was very difficult to automate. But at least it still beat the pony express.
All in all it really just shows how once upon a time it took days, months or probably years if the message was sent from the other side of the world to reach its destination. So just imagine if the pony express had to still exist today…..
Data communications as we know it will forever keep changing as inventors will keep finding ways to improve the way we all communicate today. Who knows what they will come up with next.
