THE WORLDWIDE HISTORY OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
ANTON A. HUURDEMAN
A JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC., PUBLICATION Cover: Inauguration of the New York–Chicago telephone line by A. Graham Bell on October 18, 1892. (Scanned with permission of the ITU from Catherine Bertho Lavenir, Great Discoveries: Telecommunications, International Telecommunication Union, Geneva, 1990, p. 39.)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Huurdeman, Anton A. The worldwide history of telecommunications / Anton A. Huurdeman. p. cm. ‘‘A Wiley-Interscience publication.’’ Includes index. ISBN 0-471-20505-2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Telecommunication—History. I. Title. TK5102.2 .H88 2003 384—dc21 2002027240
Printed in the United States of America
10987654321 CONTENTS
FOREWORD xv PREFACE xvii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xix
PART I INTRODUCTION AND PERIOD BEFORE 1800 1
1 Introduction 3 1.1 Definition of Telecommunications, 3 1.2 Telecommunications Tree, 7 1.3 Major Creators of Telecommunications, 11
2 Evolution of Telecommunications Up to 1800 14 2.1 Evolution of Telecommunications Prior to 1750, 14 2.2 Evolution of Telecommunications from 1750 to 1800, 16
3 Optical Telegraphy 18 3.1 Tachygraphe of Claude Chappe, 18 3.2 Optical Telegraph of Claude Chappe, 20 3.3 Beginning of Optical Telegraphy, 24
PART II PERIOD FROM 1800 TO 1850 27
4 Evolution of Telecommunications from 1800 to 1850 29
v vi CONTENTS
5 Optical Telegraph Systems Worldwide 34 5.1 Optical Telegraph Systems in France, 34 5.1.1 Chappe Systems, 34 5.1.2 Other Optical Telegraph Systems in France, 37 5.2 Optical Telegraphy Outside France, 45
6 Electrical Telegraphy 48 6.1 Evolution Leading to Electrical Telegraphy, 48 6.2 Electrical Telegraphy in the United States, 55 6.2.1 Morse Telegraph, 55 6.2.2 Washington–Baltimore Electrical Telegraph Line, 59 6.2.3 Pioneering Telegraph Companies, 61 6.2.4 House Direct Printing Telegraph Systems, 65 6.3 Electrical Telegraphy in Canada, 66 6.4 Electrical Telegraphy in Great Britain, 66 6.4.1 Electrical Telegraphs of Cooke and Wheatstone, 66 6.4.2 Electrochemical Telegraph of Bain, 72 6.5 Electrical Telegraphy in France, 72 6.6 Electrical Telegraphy in Germany, 74 6.6.1 Railway Telegraph Lines in Germany, 74 6.6.2 German Electrical Telegraph Equipment for Public Use, 76 6.7 Electrical Telegraphy in Austria, 83
PART III PERIOD FROM 1850 TO 1900 85
7 Evolution of Telecommunications from 1850 to 1900 87
8 Electrical Telegraph Systems Worldwide 91 8.1 Telegraph Transmission Technology, 91 8.1.1 Open-Wire Lines, 91 8.1.2 Underground Cable, 94 8.1.3 Submarine Cable, 95 8.2 Electrical Telegraph Lines in the United States, 98 8.2.1 Western Union, 98 8.2.2 The Pony Express, 98 8.2.3 First Transcontinental Telegraph Line, 99 8.2.4 Collins Overland Telegraph Line and the Purchase of Alaska, 100 8.2.5 The Hughes Direct Letter Printing Telegraph, 103 8.3 Electrical Telegraph Lines in Canada, 104 8.4 Electrical Telegraph Lines in Great Britain, 106 8.5 Summary of National Electrical Telegraph Achievements, 107 8.6 Major Terrestrial Telegraph Lines, 119 8.6.1 Australian Overland Telegraph Line, 119 8.6.2 Indo-European Telegraph Line, 124 CONTENTS vii
8.6.3 Great Northern Telegraph Line, 128 8.6.4 Central American Telegraph Line, 128 8.7 Submarine Telegraph Cables, 129 8.7.1 European Submarine Cables, 129 8.7.2 Transatlantic Telegraph Cables, 130 8.7.3 Submarine Telegraph Cables Connecting Europe Worldwide, 135 8.7.4 Inter-American Submarine Telegraph Cables, 138 8.8 Worldwide Electrical Telegraph Network, 139 8.9 Morse, the Father of Electrical Telegraphy, 141 8.10 Morse Codes, 143 8.11 Morse Telegraphers, 145
9 Image Telegraphy 147 9.1 Facsimile Device of Bain, 147 9.2 Image Telegraph of Bakewell, 148 9.3 Pantelegraph of Caselli, 149 9.4 Autographic Telegraph of Bernhard Meyer, 151 9.5 Telautograph of Elisha Gray, 151
10 Telephony 153 10.1 Evolution Leading to Telephony, 153 10.2 The Telephone of Alexander Graham Bell, 156 10.2.1 Alexander Graham Bell, the Father of Telephony, 156 10.2.2 Early Days of Bell in Great Britain, 159 10.2.3 Bell’s Telephone Experiments in the United States, 159 10.2.4 Bell’s Telephone: ‘‘It DOES Speak’’, 163 10.2.5 Bell Telephone Company, 165 10.2.6 Bell’s Honeymoon Trip to Europe, 167 10.2.7 Telephone Developments in Sweden, 174 10.2.8 Biggest Patent Battle on Telecommunications, 176 10.2.9 Battle of David Against Goliath, 178 10.2.10 Pioneers Leave the Telephone Business, 179 10.3 Companies with Common Bell Roots, 180 10.4 Worldwide Introduction of Telephony, 181 10.5 International Telephony, 181 10.6 The Art of Telephone Sets, 185
11 Telephone Switching 188 11.1 Manual Switching, 188 11.2 Evolution Leading to Automatic Switching, 192 11.3 Strowger System, 194 11.3.1 Strowger’s First Operating Exchange, 194 11.3.2 Strowger’s Up-and-Around Switch, 195 viii CONTENTS
12 Radio Transmission 199 12.1 Evolution Leading to Radio Transmission, 199 12.2 Experiments of Heinrich Hertz, 201 12.3 Radio Transmission from Theory to Practice, 204 12.4 The Radio Invented by Marconi, 207 12.5 Radios of Marconi’s Competitors, 212
13 International Cooperation 217
PART IV PERIOD FROM 1900 TO 1950 223
14 Evolution of Telecommunications from 1900 to 1950 225
15 Worldwide Telephone Penetration 229 15.1 Worldwide Telephone Statistics, 229 15.2 Telephone Penetration in the United States, 231 15.3 Telephone Penetration Outside the United States, 234
16 Electromechanical Telephone Switching 237 16.1 Worldwide Introduction of the Strowger System, 237 16.1.1 Strowger System in the United States, 237 16.1.2 Strowger System in Canada, 238 16.1.3 Strowger System in Japan, 240 16.1.4 Strowger System in Germany, 241 16.1.5 Strowger System in Great Britain, 244 16.1.6 Strowger System in Austria, 246 16.1.7 Strowger System in Sweden, 246 16.2 Automatic or Semiautomatic Switching?, 247 16.3 Electromechanical Indirect-Control Systems, 250 16.3.1 Automanual and All-Relay Systems, 251 16.3.2 Lorimer System, 252 16.3.3 Panel System, 255 16.3.4 Rotary System, 258 16.3.5 Uniselector System in France, 260 16.3.6 LME 500-Point System, 261 16.3.7 Hasler Hs 31 System, 262 16.3.8 Automatic Switching Systems in the USSR, 264 16.4 Crossbar Switching, 264 16.5 Private Switching, 266
17 High-Frequency Radio Transmission 269 17.1 Evolution of Radio Technology, 269 17.1.1 Spark Radio Transmitters, 269 17.1.2 Squenched Spark Radio Transmitter, 271 17.1.3 Poulsen Convertor Arc Radio Transmitter, 274 CONTENTS ix
17.1.4 Frequency Alternator Radio Transmitter, 277 17.1.5 Electronic Radio Equipment, 279 17.1.6 Shortwave Transmission, 280 17.2 Maritime Radio, 281 17.3 Mobile Radio, 285 17.4 Intercontinental Radiotelephony, 287 17.5 RCA and C&W Created to Beat Marconi, 289 17.5.1 Radio Corporation of America, 289 17.5.2 Cable & Wireless, 290
18 Phototelegraphy 294 18.1 Kopiertelegraph of Gustav Grzanna, 294 18.2 Telautograph of Arthur Korn, 294 18.3 Telegraphoscope of Edouard Belin, 295 18.4 Siemens–Karolus–Telefunken Picture Transmission System, 296 18.5 Facsimile Machines of AT&T and Western Union, 297 18.6 Photograph Transmission Equipment in Japan, 298
19 Teleprinters 300 19.1 Teleprinter Development in the United States, 300 19.2 Teleprinter Development in Great Britain, 303 19.3 Teleprinter Development in Germany, 306 19.4 Teleprinter Development in Japan, 307
20 Copper-Line Transmission 308 20.1 Telegraphy Transmission on Copper Lines, 308 20.2 Telephony Transmission on Copper Lines, 314 20.3 Phantom Circuits, 316 20.4 Pupin Coils, 317 20.5 Krarup Cable, 321 20.6 Telephone Amplifiers, 322 20.7 Analog Multiplexing, 324 20.8 Digital Multiplexing, 327 20.9 Coaxial Cable, 331
21 Radio-Relay Transmission 337 21.1 Evolution Leading to Radio-Relay Transmission, 337 21.2 World’s First Radio-Relay Link, 342 21.3 Initial Radio-Relay Systems, 343
22 Cryptography 350 22.1 Manual Coding, 351 22.2 Automatic Coding, 352
23 International Cooperation 357 x CONTENTS
PART V PERIOD FROM 1950 TO 2000 361
24 Evolution of Telecommunications from 1950 to 2000 363 24.1 The Semiconductor Era, 364 24.2 Digitalization, 366 24.3 New Telecommunications Networks, 367
25 Radio-Relay Networks 369 25.1 Technological Development of Radio-Relay Systems, 369 25.1.1 All-Solid-State Radio-Relay Systems, 370 25.1.2 Digital Radio-Relay Systems, 371 25.1.3 Radio-Relay Systems for the Synchronous Digital Hierarchy, 374 25.1.4 Transhorizon Radio-Relay Systems, 375 25.2 Radio-Relay Systems Worldwide, 376 25.2.1 Radio-Relay Systems in North America, 376 25.2.2 Radio-Relay Systems in Latin America, 376 25.2.3 Radio-Relay Systems in Europe, 379 25.2.4 Radio-Relay Systems in Asia, 381 25.2.5 Radio-Relay Systems in Australia, 382 25.2.6 Radio-Relay Systems in Africa, 383 25.3 Wireless Access Systems, 386 25.4 Radio-Relay Towers and Aesthetics, 391
26 Coaxial Cable Transmission 397 26.1 Terrestrial Coaxial Cable, 397 26.2 Submarine Coaxial Cable, 399 26.2.1 Transatlantic Coaxial Telephone Cables, 399 26.2.2 Worldwide Submarine Coaxial Telephone Cables, 404
27 Satellite Transmission 407 27.1 Evolution Leading to Satellite Transmission, 407 27.1.1 Rocketry Pioneers, 408 27.1.2 Passive Satellites, 410 27.1.3 Postwar Rocket Development in the United States, 410 27.1.4 Postwar Rocket Development in the USSR, 411 27.1.5 Sputnik, the First Satellite, 412 27.1.6 First Communication Satellites, 413 27.2 First Synchronous Communication Satellites, 419 27.3 Satellite Launching, 421 27.4 Satellite Transmission Systems, 426 27.4.1 Global Satellite Systems, 427 27.4.2 Regional Satellite Systems, 428 27.4.3 Domestic Satellite Systems, 431 27.4.4 Mobile Satellite Systems, 433 CONTENTS xi
27.4.5 Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite, 435 27.4.6 Multimedia Satellite Systems, 439
28 Optical Fiber Transmission 445 28.1 Evolution Leading to Optical Fiber Transmission, 445 28.2 Terrestrial Optical Fiber Cable Systems, 456 28.3 Submarine Optical Fiber Cable Systems, 459 28.3.1 Transatlantic Optical Fiber Cables, 460 28.3.2 SEA–ME–WE Cable System, 461 28.3.3 Caribbean ARCOS Network, 463 28.3.4 Global Submarine Optical Fiber Cable Systems, 463 28.3.5 African Cable Network Africa ONE, 466 28.3.6 Various Submarine Cable Systems, 467 28.3.7 Repeaterless Submarine Cable Systems, 467 28.4 Fiber-in-the-Loop Systems, 471 28.4.1 Worldwide Testing of FITL Solutions, 472 28.4.2 Delay of FITL Deployment, 475
29 Electronic Switching 480 29.1 Continuation of Deployment of the Prewar Switching Systems, 480 29.1.1 Crossbar Switching, 480 29.1.2 Siemens Rotary Switch, 480 29.1.3 End of the Strowger Switch, 482 29.2 Implementation of Automatic Telephone Switching, 483 29.2.1 National Automatic Switching, 483 29.2.2 International Automatic Switching, 484 29.3 Electronic Switching Systems, 485 29.3.1 Evolution toward Electronic Switching, 485 29.3.2 Preliminary Electronic Switching Systems, 489 29.3.3 Commercial Electronic Switching Systems, 494 29.4 Digital Switching Systems, 495 29.5 Data Switching, 500 29.6 Integrated Services Digital Network, 505 29.7 Broadband Switching, 506 29.8 Private Switching, 507
30 Telex 510 30.1 Continuation of Teleprinter Deployment, 510 30.2 Telex Service, 510 30.3 Teletex, 512 30.4 Termination of Telex Services, 512
31 Telefax 515 31.1 Technological Development of Telefax, 515 31.2 Worldwide Telefax Penetration, 517 xii CONTENTS
32 Cellular Radio 519 32.1 Evolution of Cellular Radio, 519 32.2 Analog Cellular Radio, 521 32.2.1 Analog Cellular Radio in Japan, 522 32.2.2 Analog Cellular Radio in Scandinavia, 523 32.2.3 Analog Cellular Radio in North America, 523 32.2.4 Analog Cellular Radio in West Europe, 524 32.3 Digital Cellular Radio, 524 32.3.1 Global System for Mobile Communication, 528 32.3.2 D-AMPS System, 532 32.3.3 Personal Digital Cellular System, 534 32.4 Personal Communications Network, 535 32.4.1 CT1–CT3 Systems, 536 32.4.2 Japanese Personal Handyphone System, 537 32.4.3 Digital European Cordless Telecommunications, 537 32.4.4 Personal Access Communications System, 539 32.5 International Mobile Telecommunication System, 540
33 Telephony and Deregulation 546 33.1 Telecommunications Deregulation and Liberalization, 546 33.2 Telephony and Deregulation in the Americas, 551 33.2.1 Telephony and Deregulation in the United States, 551 33.2.2 Telephony and Deregulation in Canada, 555 33.2.3 Telephony and Deregulation in Mexico, 556 33.2.4 Telephony and Deregulation in Central America, 557 33.2.5 Telephony and Deregulation in the Caribbean, 558 33.2.6 Telephony and Deregulation in Brazil, 558 33.2.7 Telephony and Deregulation in Chile, 559 33.2.8 Telephony and Deregulation in Argentina, 561 33.2.9 Telephony and Deregulation in Peru, 561 33.2.10 Telephony and Deregulation in Venezuela, 561 33.2.11 Telephony and Deregulation in Colombia, 561 33.2.12 Telephony and Deregulation in Ecuador, 562 33.2.13 Telephony and Deregulation in Bolivia, 563 33.2.14 Telephony and Deregulation in Uruguay, 563 33.2.15 Telephony and Deregulation in Paraguay, 563 33.3 Telephony and Deregulation in Africa, 563 33.3.1 Telephony and Deregulation in North Africa, 565 33.3.2 Telephony and Deregulation in South Africa, 566 33.3.3 Telephony and Deregulation in Sub-Saharan Africa, 566 33.4 Telephony and Deregulation in Asia, 567 33.4.1 Telephony and Deregulation in India, 568 33.4.2 Telephony and Deregulation in China, 569 33.4.3 Telephony and Deregulation in Japan, 571 33.4.4 Telephony and Deregulation in Other Asian Countries, 573 33.5 Telephony and Deregulation in Europe, 574 CONTENTS xiii
33.5.1 Telephony and Deregulation in the European Union, 575 33.5.2 Telephony and Deregulation in Eastern Europe, 575 33.6 Telephony and Deregulation in Oceania, 577
34 Multimedia 580 34.1 Evolution Leading to Multimedia, 580 34.2 Computers and Communications, 581 34.3 Global Information Infrastructure, 581 34.4 Internet, 583 34.5 Global Village, 589 34.6 Multimedia Services, 590
35 International Cooperation 597
APPENDICES
A Chronology of the Major Events in the Two Centuries of Telecommunications 601
B Worldwide Statistics of Population, Internet Users, Cellular Phones, and Main Telephones 607
C Glossary 613
INDEX 621 FOREWORD
Communication—the exchange of information—is essential both for the social life of mankind and the organization of nature. Since human communication is restricted to a relatively small spatial environment, due to physiological and physical con- ditions, human endeavor has always been directed at the enhancement of natural communication possibilities: achieving telecommunications. The history of the devel- opment of telecommunications is therefore not only of technical interest but also of general cultural importance. The beginning of modern telecommunications in the nineteenth century is marked by the discovery of electromagnetism, which initiated new e¤ective methods for long- distance information transmission. Further progress soon resulted from the applica- tion of electromagnetic wave propagation in telecommunications systems. In this period the development was stimulated additionally by economic, political, and mil- itary requirements. In the twentieth century the introduction of electronics and semiconductor physics led to more rapid and dramatic technical progress, followed by widespread dissemination of telecommunications. Today, telecommunications governs nearly all economic, social, and scientific domains of life with ever-increasing intensity. This book presents the fascinating story of the technical development of tele- communications. It shows the impressive scientific and technical e¤orts and the achievements of many ingenious inventors, discoverers, physicists, and engineers during the long journey from telegraphy and telephony—via radio, fiber, and satel- lite transmission—to mobile radio, Internet, and multimedia services. This representation o¤ers a concise overview of the field based on the large pro- fessional experience and competence of the author. A special feature of the book is the detailed documentation of the worldwide development of telecommunications, covering various countries, thus filling a gap in the relevant technical literature. The author treats the vast and complex matter in a well-structured and compre- hensive form that avoids tedious theoretical detail. The text is enriched by many xv xvi FOREWORD instructive graphics and photos, together with a lot of historical and technical data and observations. The wide range of original material utilized by the author is cited extensively at the end of each chapter. Historically and technically interested readers—not only those with a scientific background but also persons in the fields of economics, politics, and sociology—will find the book to be an invaluable guide to the basic ideas and most current aspects of global communications and its sources. The author’s opus deserves broad attention.
Prof.Dr. phil. nat.Dr.-Ing.E.h.Dietrich Wolf
Institute of Applied Physics Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universita¨t Frankfurt am Main, Germany March 2002 PREFACE
This book has been written to present a comprehensive overview of the worldwide development of telecommunications in a single volume. Ample information on the evolution of various domains of telecommunications in specific countries is preserved in numerous specialized books, magazines, and other publications in libraries of universities and museums, but a single book in the English language covering the entire field of worldwide telecommunications does not exist. To fill this gap, I have collected, evaluated, interpreted, and cross-checked almost a hundred books and even more journals over the last 15 years. Based on my experience and knowledge of telecommunications, I have condensed their contents into a chronological story of the worldwide development of telecommunications. In the interest of truly worldwide coverage, I give information on telecommunications events that took place in over 100 countries and include statistics for over 200 countries. Writing the worldwide history of telecommunications necessarily means using information already pub- lished by many experts in their fields. George P. Oslin spent 35 years researching telecommunications documents and interviewing the pioneers or their descendants before, at the age of 92, submitting the manuscript for his fascinating book The Story of Telecommunications. Oslin’s book, which he relates to his nation’s history, was a great inspiration and a valuable resource for me to write this book related to world- wide history. Instead of interviewing pioneers, I have endeavored to find the best published sources available for each subject covered in my book, and thus I could reduce the manuscript preparation time to about five years. Numerous statements in the book are the result of combined information found in two or more sources and occasionally, cross-checked with a third or even a fourth source. Making reference to all those sources within the text would have a negative e¤ect on readability, so I have cited the references at the end of each chapter. I have mentioned the source directly in the text only in the few cases where a larger portion was based on a single source. I cover telecommunications starting with optical telegraphy at the end of the xvii xviii PREFACE eighteenth century; followed in the nineteenth century by electrical telegraphy of coded signals, images, and written text transmitted via open wires and terrestrial and submarine cables; followed by telephony and telephone switching and by radio transmission. Then follows the entire range of new technologies developed in the twentieth century: intercontinental radio, mobile radio, radio-relay, cryptography, satellites, coaxial and optical fiber, terrestrial and submarine cable networks, telex, telefax, electronic switching, cellular radio, and the convergence into multimedia of most of those technologies via a global information infrastructure. To enable adequate coverage of this wide range of technologies within the scope of a single volume, I have excluded the domains of radio and television broadcasting, naviga- tion, telemetry, and computers. This book covers the history from the end of the eighteenth century up to the end of the twentieth century. Some events that hap- pened between January 2001 and December 2002 which were relevant to the status described in the text are covered in footnotes. I took special care to present the evolution and development of telecommunica- tions as a human achievement attained thanks to the perseverance of many ingenious pioneers who had the vision and capability to turn the discoveries and inventions of contemporary scientists into new and useful applications. Wherever appropriate and available, I include personal information about the major pioneers and protagonists. Applications of the new telecommunication devices have been introduced by sev- eral newly founded companies, manufacturers, and service providers, which grew, merged, and still exist or have disappeared. Those companies made telecommunica- tions happen and, again, wherever appropriate and available, I include briefly the relevant industrial history. For those readers who are not familiar with telecommunications technologies and want to obtain a better understanding of the subject matter, I have included Tech- nology Boxes, which give a concise description of the underlying technologies in more technical language. Numerous footnotes give additional related details. I have written this book without sponsorship or obligation to any company. Moreover, I have endeavored to present the history in an objective way with bal- anced coverage of significant events in several countries without overemphasizing the achievements of particular companies or specific countries. Telecommunications is a nonpolluting employment-generating industry which plays an ever-increasing role in our human relations. It is an indispensable tool for economic growth and better distribution of wealth. My hope is that this book will contribute to the preservation and greater awareness of the worldwide heritage of telecommunications and to responsible future applications.
Anton A. Huurdeman
Todtnauberg, Germany April 2002 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have written this book in the English language, although my mother tongue is Dutch and I have been living in Germany since 1958. I am very grateful, therefore, to an English friend, Peter Jones, for proofreading, removing Dutch and German influences, and very conscientiously safeguarding the Queen’s English. I am also grateful to my previous department director, Dipl.-Ing. Gerd Lupke, for proof- reading to safeguard the historical truth and for supplying interesting photographs from his private archive. My thanks also go to Prof. Dr. Dietrich Wolf for his valu- able suggestions on manuscript improvements and, especially, for writing the fore- word. It was my objective to provide wide international coverage with historical photos, adequately balanced among various companies and museums. Unfortunately, the international response was not su‰cient to meet that objective. Personal contacts proved to be important in obtaining the right information and historical photos. I am very obliged, therefore, to those persons who supplied me generously with numerous photos that are reproduced in the book. I thank especially Dr. Helmut Gold, Dieter Herwig, and Ju¨rgen Ku¨ster of the Museum fu¨r Kommunikation Frankfurt, Ger- many; Dr. Lanfredo Castellitte of the Musei Civici Como, Italy; Gertrud Braune, Karin Rokita, Dr. Marie Schlund, and Dr. Lothar Scho¨n, of Siemens AG, Munich, Germany; and Gerhard Schra¨nkler of Alcatel SEL, Stuttgart, Germany. I thank Dr. Julie Lancashire of Artech House Books, London, for permission to reuse drawings and parts of the text that I prepared originally for the book Radio- Relay Systems, published by Artech House Books in 1995, and for the book Guide to Telecommunications Transmission Systems, published in 1997. Text from those two books has been reused for all Technology Boxes except Boxes 11.1 and 16.2 to 16.5, which are based on information given in great detail in the two volumes of 100 Years of Telephone Switching, by R. J. Chapuis and A. E. Joel Jr., published by North- Holland Publishing Company, New York, in 1982 and 1990. Finally, I thank Mrs. Marie-Jose´ Urena of the ITU, Geneva, for granting per- xix xx ACKNOWLEDGMENTS mission to use information from the ITU Indicators Updates, and to scan photos from the ITU publications From Semaphore to Satellite, Great Discoveries: Tele- communications, and ITU News. ITU made this permission subject to an acknowl- edging statement indicating that:
1. The texts/figures extracted from ITU material have been reproduced with the prior authorization of the Union as copyright holder. 2. The sole responsibility for selecting extracts for reproduction lies with the ben- eficiary of this authorization alone and can in no way be attributed to the ITU. 3. The complete volume(s) of the ITU material, from which the texts/figures reproduced are extracted, can be obtained from: International Telecommunication Union Sales and Marketing Division Place des Nations–CH-1211 Geneva 20 (Switzerland) Telephone: þ41 22 730 61 41 (English) þ41 22 730 61 42 (French) þ41 22 730 61 43 (Spanish) Telex: 421 000 uit ch / Fax: þ41 22 730 51 94 E-mail: [email protected] / http://www.itu.int/publications
Upon request of the ITU and Artech House Books, I have given in the caption of each figure covered by a publication permission the complete and exact source. Figures without such a credit line in the caption are either from photos taken from my own archive or from drawings that I made especially for this book. PART I
INTRODUCTION AND PERIOD BEFORE 1800 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 DEFINITION OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Telecommunication is a technology that eliminates distance between continents, between countries, between persons. To contact another person by telephone, only the distance between one’s actual location and the next telephone needs to be cov- ered. This distance can be mere centimeters in the industrialized world and kilo- meters in the developing world. For centuries, messages were transported by mes- sengers, or couriers, who either walked or were transported by horse, coach, or boat, and when fire, smoke, or sound signals were sent they simply confirmed prearranged messages. With telecommunications a message does not need a messenger. Tele- communications eliminated a master-to-servant relationship: replacing the service of a messenger by mechanical telegraph in 1794, by copper wires in 1837, by electro- magnetic waves in 1896, and by optical fiber in 1973. Telecommunications enor- mously reduces the time required to transport messages, accelerates business trans- actions, and improves human relationships. The word communications, derived from the Latin word communicatio, the social process of information exchange, covers the human need for direct contact and mutual understanding. The word telecommunication, adding tele (¼ distance), was created by Edouard Estaunie´ (1862–1942)1 in 1904 in his book Traite´ pratique de te´le´communication electrique (te´le´graphie–te´le´phonie) (Figure 1.1), in which he de- fined telecommunication as ‘‘information exchange by means of electrical signals.’’ Estaunie´ thus limited telecommunications explicitly to ‘‘electrical signals.’’ In the
1Director of the Ecoˆle Supe´rieure des Postes et Te´le´graphes de France, author of various books in which he criticized the prevailing social conditions, and member of the Acade´mie Franc¸aise. The Worldwide History of Telecommunications, By Anton A. Huurdeman ISBN 0-471-20505-2 Copyright 6 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
3 4 INTRODUCTION
Figure 1.1 Facsimile of the title page of the book in which the word telecommunication was created. (Scanned from Catherine Bertho, Histoire des te´le´communications en France, 1984, p. 13.)
preface to his book, he modestly apologized for the invention of the new word, stat- ing: ‘‘I have been forced to add a new word to a glossary that is already too long in the opinion of many electricians. I hope they will forgive me. Words are born in new sciences like plants in spring. We must resign ourselves to this, and the harm is not so great after all, because the summer that follows will take care of killing o¤ the poor shoots.’’ Fortunately, the word telecommunication did not belong to the ‘‘poor shoots’’ and has already survived a hundred summers. Telecommunications became more complex, and new definitions were created, as summarized in Tech- nology Box 1.1. In order to telecommunicate, local, regional, national, and international telecom- munication networks are required. Figure 1.2 shows the basic configuration of the classical telecommunication networks. In local telecommunication networks, also called access networks, individual telecommunication users (the telecommunication originators as well as the telecommunication recipients) are all connected with one or more local switches (also called local exchanges or central o‰ces). Telecommunica- tion users such as the subscribers of public networks are connected by their local exchange—primarily by means of a single cable pair but previously also by open wire, at distant or isolated locations by radio, and currently, increasingly, by broad- band optical fiber or wireless systems. In regional and national telecommunication DEFINITION OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS 5
TECHNOLOGY BOX 1.1
Definitions of Telecommunications The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) o‰cially recognized the term telecommunications in 1932 and defined it as: ‘‘any telegraph or telephone com- munication of signs, signals, writings, images and sound of any nature, by wire, radio, or other system or processes of electric or visual (semaphore) signaling.’’ Currently, the ITU defines telecommunications as ‘‘any transmission, emission, or reception of signs, signals, writings, images, and sounds; or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, visual, or other electromagnetic systems.’’ In this definition the ITU postulates transmission as a basic function of tele- communications. The word transmission, from the Latin trans mettere for transfer or transport in the figurative sense, however, quite confusingly, is used for many purposes. It was used in the industrial revolution to represent a transmission sys- tem for the transmission by mechanical means of power from a central steam engine to the various production machines in a factory. In electrical power tech- nology, high-tension transmission line and ht-transmission grid are well-known names for high-voltage overhead electricity distribution lines. In the book Transmission Systems for Communications published by members of the technical sta¤ of Bell Labs in 1954, which used to be the bible of transmis- sion, the primary function of a transmission system is described as being ‘‘to pro- vide circuits having the capability of accepting information-bearing electrical sig- nals at a point and delivering related signals bearing the same information to a distant point.’’ In my book Guide to Telecommunications Transmission Systems, published in 1997, transmission within the context of telecommunications is defined concisely as the ‘‘technology of information transport.’’ In the context of telecommunications, a transmission system transports infor- mation between the source of a signal and a recipient. Transmission thus stands for the tele part of the word telecommunications and as such is the basis of all telecommunication systems. Transmission equipment serves to combine, send, amplify, receive, and separate electrical signals in such a way that long-distance communication is made possible. In terms of technology, telecommunications transmission systems are divided into line transmission and radio transmission systems: