Telephone and Telegraph History
hyperlinks taken from http://www.hallikainen.org/BroadcastHistory/
A website that is no longer online.

Telephone and Telegraph History

• Any Lawful Device - A brief history of Carterphone and Hushaphone
• AT&T Long Lines - The Microwave Radio and Coaxial Cable Networks of the Bell System
• The Latest Word in Communications - "Microwave" - New York - Boston System, Long Lines Dept., Plant Division One. Describes the installation of the New York to Boston 4GHz microwave system by AT&T Long Lines. The link was covered with 8 hops. Posted at microwaves 101, "your number-one source for microwave information since the previous unenlightened century." For fun, also see the Microwave Mortuary.
• A Brief History of the Asterisk Project, The Linux based PBX/VoIP switch based on personal computers
• Bell System Memorial
• Cedar Knol Telephone & Telegraph Company - A Reconstruction of a Typical Pennsylvania Railroad Wire Chief's Office along with other examples of telephone technology.
• Central Office - Photos and brief histories of US telco central offices.
• Museum of Communications in Seattle Washington. Extensive collection of customer premises equipment, central office equipment, and outside plant. More photos available here.
• Private Line Telephone History including POTS, wireless, Bell Labs, exchange name history, party lines, Strowger switches, early radio, radar, triode vacuum tube history, etc.
• Phone Trips - Extensive recordings of the sounds heard during the progress of call completion through various types of switches. Most recordings made in the 1960s and 1970s.
• Sam's Telecomm History Links - Very extensive page of links to sites devoted to telecom history.
• Mike Sandman's telephone history page. Features old telephone advertising and other nice info.
• Strowger Switch - The first automatic telephone switch. Strowger switch patent 447,918
• Strowger Appreciation Site - Site dedicated to the sights and sounds of step exchanges. See especially the bottom of the home page for audio recordings of various step offices.
• Telegraph Office - A Tribute to Morse Telegraphy and Resource for Wire and Wireless Telegraph Key Collectors and Historians
• Telephone Answering Machines - A brief history.
• Telecom Digest long running telecom newsgroup that has a fair amount of history.
• Telephone Collectors International - the international organization of collectors of old telephone equipment.
• Telephone Tribute You'll find all sorts of telephone related web pages here on the history of the telephone, technical information, research resources, human interest stories, clubs, pictures, sound files, links, etc.
• Telephone World - History, sounds, pictures, pay phones, network, switching systems, etc.
• Timeline of Storage and Memory, starting with Magnetic Tape in 1928.
• Western Union Alumni - LOTS of stuff on Western Union, the nation's telegraph company since 1851.

• Western Union Technical Review - Published 1947 through 1969. The technology of telegraphy, including multiplexing, switching, transmission, etc.

  • New American Code for Information Interchange - April 1964. Introduces the newly adopted ASCII code
• Tom Farley's Telephone History pages.
• YArchive - Norman Yarvin's extensive usenet news archive of telephone information.

| Telegraph | | Telephone | | Radio | | Television | | Internet | | Programming |

During the history of communications around the world, the manner in which people communicate has changed dramatically. Originally, the only way to communicate with someone else is via face-to-face communications. Over time the methods of communication changed to include letters and other form of written communication. However, communicating by writing was time-consuming and did not allow immediate responses of the communication.

Fortunately, man has developed other ways to communicate that allowed immediate responses from the parties. These methods that were implemented includes telegraph, telephone, radio, television and more recently Internet communications. In the past several centuries these telecommunications vehicles have allowed faster and more efficient ways for people to communicate with each other. These methods of communication, from the telegraph to today's high tech smart phone,  have changed the way people communicate. To learn more about these methods, please feel free to browse the following resources:

Telegraph

• History of the Telegraph - informative website covering the development of the Samuel Morse invention back in 1832, and subsequent improvements.
• Telegraph Resources - online telegraph museums and resources pertaining to the invention, along with helpful information.
• Telegraph History - useful information on the history of the telegraph, time lines and other online information.
• The Telegraph Manual - online website providing a historical look at the invention and developments of the telegraph and Morse code.
• Samuel Morse Biography - biographical look at the inventor of the telegraph.
• History of the Telegraph and Telegraphy - helpful resource showing the origin, improvements and how the telegraph led to future telecommunication improvements.

Telephone

• History of the Telephone - helpful resource on the history and developments in the telephone industry.
• Telephone Industry History - brief look at the history of the telephone industry and the regulations that govern them.
• Telephone History - informative resource covering the invention of the telephone and subsequent changes in technology.
• The History of the Telephone - useful site discussing the invention and development of the telephone.
• Alexander Graham Bell and His Telephone - resource looking at the life of the inventor of the telephone.
• Telephone History and Information - information and background on the invention of the telephone.

Radio

• Radio History (PDF) - helpful article providing information on some of the pioneers of radio.
• History of Radio Broadcasting - informative resource on radio broadcasting dating back to the 1920's.
• Invention of Radio - historical look at the invention and development of the radio.
• Marconi and the Invention of Radio - useful information on the role of Marconi in the history of radio.
• Invention of Radio - historical archive information on the invention of the radio.
• Origins and Inventions of the Radio - information on how the radio was invented.

Television

• History of Television - information on the origins and history of the television.
• Invention of the Television - useful article discussing the invention and subsequent growth of television.
• Timeline of Television History - chronological listing of major developments in the history of television.
• Historical Periods in Television - informative website providing information on various historical periods in the development of television.
• Television History - helpful resource on the origins and development of television around the world.
• Inventors of the Television - information on the inventors who had a hand in the origin of the television.

Internet

• History of the Internet - information on key developments in the birth of the Internet.
• Internet History - key moments are defined in this helpful resource covering the history of the Internet dating back to the 1950's.
• An Internet History - brief history of the Internet is provided in this website.
• History of the Internet - worldwide view of the origins and further developments of the Internet.
• Internet History - online exhibit showing the various key moments in the history of the Internet.
• A History of the Internet - informative resource on the birth and changes in the Internet over time.

Programming

• Technology Guide: Computer Programming History

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