Previous Table of Contents Next


Appendix A
A Chronological Perspective of Communications Systems

prehistoric Someone beats on a hollow tree trunk.
1450 Gutenberg printing press invented.
Late 18th Claude Chappe (France) organizes optical telegraph system.
1839 Wheatstone (England) develops first electrical operating telegraph line.
1844 Samuel Morse sends first U.S. public telegraph message.
1845 Samuel Morse (United States) develops practical information encoding method (Morse code) especially useful for telegraphic transmission.
1858 First trans-Atlantic telegraph transmission by cable.
1860 Pony Express rides the plains from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California.
1875 Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.
1876 Telephone patent issued to Bell.
1877 First telephone in private home.
1881 First long-distance line, from Boston to Providence, Rhode Island.
1888 Heinrich Hertz demonstrates radio wave generation.
1891 Almon B. Strowger patents step-by-step mechanical switch.
1891 First undersea telephone cable, English Channel (France to England).
1896 Marconi receives first radio patent.
1901 First trans-Atlantic transmission and reception of radio waves
1907 Lee De Forest invents three-element electron (vacuum) tube.
1915 First United States transcontinental telephone transmission, by land line.
1918 Bell System begins installing Strowger switches.
1920s Radio amateurs demonstrate the usefulness of high frequency radio transmission for long-distance communications.
1928 Admiral Byrd takes an Art Collins (of Collins Radio fame) HF radio to Antarctica and successfully communicates with the United States.
1929 Coaxial cable invented.
1944 First fully automatic calculator invented (MARK I - Harvard University).
1946 First totally electronic digital computer invented (ENIAC - University of Pennsylvania)
1947 William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain discover the point contact transistor (Bell Laboratories).
1949 First electronic computer with an internal stored program (EDSAC - Cambridge, England).
1951 Direct, long-distance dialing in U.S. initiated.
1951 First commercially delivered electronic digital computer delivered (UNIVAC - delivered to U.S. Bureau of the Census)
1956 First trans-Atlantic telephone cable system is operational.
1959 Patent for integrated circuit filed by J.S. Kilby
1960 First electronic switch is tested.
1963 First telephone conversation by geosynchronous orbit satellite transmission.
1963 Touch-tone service is introduced.
1965 First collect call service.
1969 First light wave transmission.
1970 Laser diode invented.
1970 Packet switching introduced.
1971 Intel introduces the first 4-bit microprocessor (Intel 4004).
1972 Intel introduces the first 8-bit microprocessor (Intel 8008)
1973 Intel introduces the 8080 chip.
1975 MITS introduces the Altair personal computer kit in January issue of Popular Electronics. Considered to be the first personal computer.
1975 IBM introduces its first personal computer (Model 5100).
1976 Apple Computer introduces the Apple I.
1976 First digital electronic switch installed.
1977 Apple Computer introduces the Apple II.
1977 First fiber optic system installed.
1981 On Wednesday, August 12, 1981, IBM debuted the IBM Personal Computer.
1984 Divestiture of AT&T into AT&T (long distance, aka Ma Bell) and seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs or Baby Bells)
1988 Frame Relay proposed by the ITU-T (Recommendation I.122).
1988 First trans-Atlantic optical fiber cable.
1988 ATM introduced.
1990 2,000 km fiber optic link demonstration without using repeaters.
1991 ADSL introduced.


Previous Table of Contents Next