A story as old as mankind, the human ability to communicate and share knowledge has formed the basis on which we learn and progress.
Beginning with the transmission of simple messages by voice or hand signals, communication began to develop in complexity to allow us to cover greater distances.
For a speedier transmission of information over long distances early civilisations in China and America began using smoke signals, while communities in Africa, New Guinea and tropical America beat drums.
Although innovative in their own way, these messages tended to very stereotyped and context-dependent and more complex messages still required face to face delivery by word of mouth.
A major step was the invention of type faces which allowed messages to be carved into blocks of wood and inked on to papyrus, parchment and eventually paper.
By the time Johannes Gutenberg from the German Rhineland invented movable typefaces and the first European printing presses in 1455, the Chinese had amassed libraries containing thousands of books.
But Gutenberg’s legacy was indelibly linked to the renaissance and the thirst for books and knowledge that brought Europe out of the Middle Ages.
While printing allowed larger amounts of information to be communicated across continents, delivery was only as quick as the fastest means of transport.
The need for speed drove the development of ‘visual telegraphy’ such as the semaphore. Conveying communicae over longer distances, semophore employed hand held flags, pivoting blades, paddles or a matrix of shutters mounted on towers.
In 1792 French engineer, Claude Chappe built the first semaphore system between Lille and Paris.
The system which consisted of pulleys, rotating beams of wood and towers spaced between six and nineteen miles, became a victim of its own intricacy and expense and with the invention of electrical telegraphy was completely abandoned.
Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail developed the first telegraph terminal which integrated a logging device for recording messages to paper tape with the code developed by Morse.
Demonstrated successfully over three miles on January 6 1838 and later over 40 miles between Washington DC and Baltimore in1844, the patented invention proved lucrative and by 1851 telegraph lines in the United States spanned over 20,000 miles.
The first successful transatlantic telegraph cable was completed on July 27 1866, and for the first time allowed telegraph communications to relay electronic messages between America and the UK.
Morse’s code has been a truly had a successful lifespan that has not yet been surpassed by any other electronic encoding scheme.
Now it was possible to send text the next stop was to transmit the human voice.
The conventional telephone was invented by Alexander Bell in 1876. Before Antonio Meucci had invented a device that allowed the electrical transmission of voice but it depended upon the electrophonic effect and was of little practical value because it required users to place the receiver in their mouth to “hear” what was being said.
The first commercial telephone services were set-up in 1878 and 1879 on both sides of the Atlantic in the cities of New Haven and London.
The technology grew quickly from this point, with inter-city lines being built and exchanges in every major city of the United States by the mid-1880's.
Despite this, transatlantic communication remained impossible for customers until January 7, 1927 when a connection was established using radio.
Using electromagnetic waves for transmitting opened uncountable opportunities, spreading information wireless over long distances even intercontinental.
The invention of the TV followed in around 1925 short afterwards the first computers appeared.
The possibilities of communication reached new dimension with the release of the internet for the public around 1994.
Nowadays, with the supply of modern satellites, Internet, cell phones, it’s possible to reach people nearly all over the world even into space within seconds.
Morse code...
Recently a few widely publicized speed contests have been held between expert Morse code operators and expert cellphone SMS text messaging users. Morse code has consistently won the contests, leading to speculation that cellphone manufacturers may eventually build a Morse code interface into cellphones.
The interface would automatically translate the Morse code input into text so that it could be sent to any SMS capable cellphone so therefore the receiver of the message need not know Morse code to read it. Other speculated applications include taking an existing assistive application of Morse code and using the vibrating alert feature on the cellphone to translate SMS messages to Morse code for silent, hands free "reading" of the incoming messages.
Several cellphones already have informative audible Morse code ring tones and alert messages, for example: many Nokia cellphones have an option to beep SMS in Morse code when it receives an SMS text message. These kinds of innovations could lead to a Morse code revival. There are third party applications already available for some cellphones that allow Morse code input for sending SMS.
Morse code has a 21st century role as an assistive technology, helping people with a variety of disabilities to communicate. Morse can be sent by someone with severe motion disability, as long as they have some minimal motor control. In some cases this means alternately blowing into and sucking on a plastic tube ("puff and sip" interface).
People with severe motion disabilities in addition to sensory disabilities (e.g. people who are deaf and/or blind, and have severe motion disabilities) can receive Morse through a skin buzzer. Products are available that allow a computer operating system to be controlled by Morse code, allowing the user access to the Internet and electronic mail.