The Victorian Internet

Calle Knight, Sophia Jackson & Sarah Gonzalez

Week 6: Dreams of Love, Democracy and Liberation

The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage, 1998

Chapter 5: Wiring the World

The Trans-Atlantic Telegraph

• Largely considered a foolish undertaking

• Became a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort

• Atlantic Telegraph Company

– Three attempts at laying a cable

• August 5th – September 1st 1859

• June 24th – August 2nd 1865

• July 13th 1866

• Success led to massive hysteria and early technological utopianism

Question to discuss:

How does the excitement around the success of the Trans-Atlantic Telegraph appear similar or different from the technological utopianism experienced at the advent and popularization of the Internet? How would you suggest we break this cycle of McLuhan-esque thought that “the medium is the message,” and therefore, what we communicate falls second to the means by which we communicate?

“Just as today’s email systems are still plagued by occasional blackouts and failures, the telegraph networks of the 1850s were subject to congestion as the volume of traffic mushroomed, and key network links within major cities became overloaded.”

(Standage 92)

Chapter 6: Steam-Powered Messages

Sources: edubuzz.org / learnmorsecode.com

1. Write a sentence in English, pass to the left.

2. Translate the sentence into Morse Code, pass to the left.

3. Translate the sentence back to English and deliver it to the recipient.

Threats to Telegraphic Expansion

• Unaffordable

• Near-constant congestion

(Standage 94)

“…gave the impression that the telegraph system was merely a more glorified and far more expensive postal service.”

Sources: Capsu.org / Wikipedia

The Victorian Internet Takes Shape

“A patchwork of telegraphic networks, submarine cables, pneumatic tube systems, and messengers combines to deliver messages within hours over a vast area of

the globe.”

(Standage 101)

Question to discuss:

The late 1860s saw a growth in telegraph

technology industries such as submarine cable manufacturers and the expansion of transmission centers, as everyone was rushing to enter into the most profitable new market. How does this compare to the Dot Com Boom and subsequent Crash of the 1990s and 2000s?

“Despite the strange customs and the often curious lifestyle of many operators, telegraphy was regarded as an attractive profession, offering the hope of rapid social advancement and fueling expansion of the middle class.”

(Standage 143)

Chapter 8: Love over the Wires

The Search for Companionship Through Telegraph Technology

• Operators form the first online community

• As the community grew, the search for a companion or partner became pervasive

Question to Discuss:

In what ways is the online community of the Nineteenth Century similar to the online community of the Twenty-First Century? Like the telegraph operators who used the technology to date and play games, do people currently utilize their work time to connect with other workers through the web?

Question to Discuss

How does meritocracy apply to our capitalist society today?

Chapter 9: War & Peace in the Global Village

News Coverage Over the Victorian Internet

• The telegraph helped report news within hours of it’s occurrence

• First international news coverage conducted by Reuter

• “Cable nipped misunderstanding leading to war in the bud” (Standage 159)

– Crimean War

Question to Discuss

As a predecessor of the 24/7 news stations we experience in the Twenty-First Century, the introduction of instantaneous global news coverage was revolutionary in the Nineteenth Century. In what ways did it positively and negatively affect their society? Does the constant barrage of news we experience today do the same for our society?

Chapter 10Information Overload

Chapter 10: Information Overload

The Telegraph’s Impact on Nineteenth Century Business

• Increased knowledge of the competition accelerated the pace of business life.

• Telegraph as public utility in Europe

• “Telegraph lives upon commerce. It is the nervous system of the commercial system.” (Standage 170)

• Telegraphic addresses in Britain

• The Gold Room

Callahan’s Stock Ticker:

“The sound could drive a man suddenly to the verge of

insanity with joy or despair.” (Standage 176)

Question to Discuss

– The Stock Ticker got its name from the constant sound it makes when it reports the gold prices. Do you think that the way workers were affected by this ticking sound is the same way we are addicted to and affected by our devices and the sounds they make?

Chapter 11: Decline & Fall

June 10, 1871: “The telegraph and its inventor were praised for uniting the peoples of the world, promoting world peace, and revolutionizing commerce” (Standage, 186).Standage, Tom. "Chapter 11: Decline & Fall." The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Centuryʼs On-line Pioneers. New York: Walker and, 1998. 186. Print.

Morse telegraph and keySamuel Morse, 1847

Automatic Telegraphy

Wheatstone’s ABC telegraphCharles Wheatstone, 1858

Printing telegraphDavid Hughes, 1855

Wheatstone’s Automatic telegraphCharles Wheatstone, 1858

Duplex telegraphJoseph B. Stearns, 1872

Quaduplex telegraphThomas Edison, 1874

Baudot telegraphJean Maurice Emile Baudot, 1874

Harmonic Telegraphy

Harmonic telegraphAlexander Graham Bell, 1867

“All other telegraphic machines produce signals which require to be translated by experts, and such instruments are therefore extremely limited in their application. But the telephone actually speaks” (Standage, 197-198).Standage, Tom. "Chapter 11: Decline & Fall." The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Centuryʼs On-line Pioneers. New York: Walker and, 1998. 197-198. Print.

Harmonic telegraph sketchesAlexander Graham Bell, 1867

Telephonic and Electric Technologies

“By this time, many telegraphers were complaining that they had been reduced to mere machines, while others decried the declining quality of those entering their profession” (Standage,200).Standage, Tom. "Chapter 11: Decline and Fall." The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Centuryʼs On-line Pioneers. New York: Walker and, 200. Print.

MIT Digital Computer Laboratory,1950

Telegraph Office in Library of CongressWashington D.C. , 1904

Chapter 12: The Legacy of the Telegraph

“In 1886, ten years after its invention, there were over a quarter of a million telephones in use worldwide” (Standage,204).Standage, Tom. "Chapter 12: The Legacy of the Telegraph." The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Centuryʼs On-line Pioneers. New York: Walker and, 1998. 204. Print.

Harmonic telegraphAlexander Graham Bell, 1867

Chapter 12: The Legacy of the Telegraph

“In 1886, ten years after its invention, there were over a quarter of a million telephones in use worldwide” (Standage,204).Standage, Tom. "Chapter 12: The Legacy of the Telegraph." The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Centuryʼs On-line Pioneers. New York: Walker and, 1998. 204. Print.

Harmonic telegraphAlexander Graham Bell, 1867

How have the evolution of these electrical on-line technologies impacted modern social, technical and economic networks? Both in the workplace and and within society?

Electric Networks & Communication

“Ironically, it is the internet– despite being regarded as a quintessentially modern means of communication– that has the most in common with its telegraphic ancestor” (Standage,205).Standage, Tom. "Chapter 12: The Legacy of the Telegraph." The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Centuryʼs On-line Pioneers. New York: Walker and, 1998. 205. Print.

Global Traffic MapCallhost International, 2010

International Cables Map, George A. SchreinerInternational Telegraph Bureau, 1924

Challenge of Change

Challenge of Change, Seeing the Digital FutureAT&T Archives, 1961

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avHo0-qU8xo

Recall McLuhan’s reference to the central nervous system; in what ways does recurring skepticism of information overload and impulses for technological utopianism overlap throughout the development of new technologies?

Stay in the loop!

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