Table Of ContentA History of
Communication Technology
Philip A. Loubere
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Taylor & Francis
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Loubere, Philip A., author.
Title: A history of communication technology / Philip A. Loubere.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020043141 (print) | LCCN 2020043142 (ebook) | ISBN
9780367211493 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367211509 (paperback) | ISBN
9780429265723 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Communication and technology--History. |
Communication--Technological innovations--History. |
Telecommunication--History. | Digital communications--History. | Current
events--Psych
Classification: LCC P96.T42 L68 2021 (print) | LCC P96.T42 (ebook) | DDC
302.23--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020043141
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020043142
ISBN: 978-0-367-21149-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-21150-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-26572-3 (ebk)
Publisher’s Note
This book has been prepared from camera-ready copy provided by the author.
Typeset by the author in Libertinus Serif, PT Sans Narrow and Myriad Pro Condensed.
All graphics and illustrations are the work of the author unless otherwise noted.
Visit the companion website: ComTechHistory.site
Acknowledgments
This book is the result of a six-year endeavor facilitated by the
support of my colleagues, family, and the educational institution that
employs me.
Tackling such a broad topic has at times been challenging, and I am
grateful for the encouragement and advice of my colleagues
Drs. Katherine Foss and Sanjay Asthana, to the James E. Walker
Library, which in addition to providing extensive resources also
actively supports all faculty engaged in research, writing and
publishing, and to Middle Tennessee State University, my workplace
for the last twelve years as of this writing, which provides time and
support to its faculty in their research and publication efforts. I’d also
like to thank my wife Gladys for her tolerance of the many long days
and late evenings it took to complete this book.
I am fortunate to have been raised by two scholars and authors,
the late Drs. Joyce Loubere and Leo Loubere. Thanks to them, I
was exposed at a young age to the value of reading, writing, and of
educating oneself in a broad range of topics. Without that upbringing it
is unlikely that I would have ever attempted this project.
—Philip A. Loubere
Contents
Introduction 1
Overview 5
Prehistory to Early History 15
The first civilizations 20
Writing 27
Archaic writing systems 28
Modern writing systems 32
Media 39
Writing’s social impact 46
Paper 49
The spread of paper 50
Paper making 53
Pulp machines 58
The paper industry 60
Books 61
Paper’s impact on the world 63
Printing 65
Printing predecessors 66
Woodblock printing 68
Intaglio 74
First moveable type 76
Gutenberg’s press 79
Typography 92
Printing’s impact 94
The Industrial Revolution and the Modern Era 99
Key developments 100
Steam power 102
Electricity 103
Metallurgy 109
Plastics and synthetics 112
Science in the modern world 113
Industrialization and society 114
Industrial Printing 117
Paper machines 118
Printing presses 124
Typesetting 128
Modern printing 133
Lithography 134
Color printing 142
Societal change 149
Photography and Film 153
Photo history 154
Printing photos 162
Moving pictures 164
Color film 171
The impact of photos and film 182
Electronic Communication 187
Electronic components 188
Electronic devices 193
The age of electronic communication 221
The Digital Age 225
Computers 226
Digital data 247
The Internet 257
The digital transformation 263
Conclusion 267
Index 277
Bibliography and sources 287
Introduction
A
t some point in the early 21st None of these inventions came out
century, probably in 2017 or 2018 of the blue. Although the technology
CE, the human race reached a that makes the Internet possible might
milestone in communication technology: seem revolutionary, it is in fact built
More than half of everyone on the planet, upon layers of previous inventions, in a
about 3.8 billion people, were now using direct line that can be traced over several
the Internet. That was double the number centuries, and indirectly all the way back
from ten years earlier, and about nine to the beginning of civilization.
times greater than at the turn of the If you’re reading this on a digital device,
century, when only about one out of that’s only possible because of a succession
every 17 people on the planet was on the of inventions and discoveries in a range
Internet regularly. of fields, the most central one being the
This might seem slow for an almost discovery by two separate 19th century
50-year-old platform—the Internet scientists that electric currents emit a
was born in 1969—but in the span magnetic field in waves whose length can
of human history that counts as an be measured. Without that observation
almost overnight sensation. But it’s not radio wouldn’t have been invented, and
unprecedented. Television and radio without radio modern electronics wouldn’t
also achieved widespread use rapidly have come about. And that discovery only
after their invention, each within a few happened thanks to a string of researchers
decades. In fact, many groundbreaking going back to the 18th century who were
inventions in communication were the first to understand the nature of
quickly adopted: The telephone, the electricity, and how to generate it and use
telegraph, even Gutenberg’s 15th century it as an energy source.
press, which spread across Europe in a Your smartphone works because of
relatively few decades. radio waves and electricity, and relies
1
on a battery, the first one of which also influences which manifest themselves in
goes back to the 1700s. The camera in the media itself, in film and television and
your phone came about because of an the art and music that have now been made
early 19th century experiment using accessible to audiences across the globe.
light-sensitive chemicals to make the
first known photograph (after a day-long A study of the conditions under
exposure). Digital photos and video owe which new forms of communication
their existence to earlier technology using are invented shows a common thread
celluloid film and then magnetic tape. running throughout recorded history.
If you’re reading this in a print Each new communication method was
book, that’s only possible because of created to address the shortcomings of
the invention of paper 2,000 years ago, what existed at the time: Paper was more
followed by the first printing methods convenient and transportable than clay
soon after that, then moveable type tablets or bamboo slips, and easier to
presses 500 years ago, and finally the make and more durable than papyrus.
automation of both paper making and Printing presses made far more copies of
printing in the 19th century during the documents than copying them by hand.
Industrial Revolution, without which this The telegraph and telephone were much
book would be not just college textbook faster than the mail. Radio didn’t need
expensive but unaffordable to most. wires and could reach a broad audience,
as could television. And the Internet was
Without this legacy, our modern digital more personal, convenient, and offered
world wouldn’t exist, and all the ways easier access to much more content than
that our culture and society have been broadcast media could provide.
transformed by digital media wouldn’t In many cases new inventions were
have taken place. Before the moveable built on top of the technology developed
type press, literacy rates across the world by its predecessors, which becomes more
were practically non-existent, but within apparent in the Industrial and Modern
a few centuries rose substantially, which eras, as inventors improved on existing
led to changes in attitudes in politics and technology. First they found ways to
culture. Before electronic communication, automate processes previously done by
news could take days or weeks to reach hand, and then found ways to improve
the public, leaving people at a remove their efficiency. They discovered and
from events outside of their immediate put to use new forms of energy, first
community, but radio and television steam and then electricity, and then
helped connect people on national and discovered that they could use electricity
global levels, which was further enhanced itself as a means of communication. In
with the Internet. These communication order to control electricity they invented
platforms have caused cross-cultural devices such as vacuum tubes, and then
2 INTRODUCTION
improved on those with transistors, and So these topics will also be covered when
then miniaturized those into integrated necessary and when they are relevant.
circuits, reducing the size of electronic The aim of this book is to avoid overly
devices from warehouse- to pocket-size. technical descriptions in an attempt to
By following the five-millenia-long briefly and succinctly explain increasingly
timeline of all these developments, from complicated technology by using layman
Mesopotamian clay tablets to 21st century terms and through the use of graphics.
smartphones, we can see a common thread It is a very broad overview of over 5,000
running throughout recorded history years of human existence, and by necessity
as people’s ability to communicate and focuses on only those inventions that had
record information evolved into ever more significant impacts on the way people live
efficient and far-reaching capabilities. and the cultures that surround them.
There are many interesting stories
This book provides an overview of the intertwined in this topic, of the triumphs
emergence of the significant inventions and failures of inventors in competition
that brought about new means of with each other, of Phoenicians who sailed
communication, particularly those capable the length of the Mediterranean and into
of reaching a broad audience. It will the Atlantic, in the process spreading the
explain and diagram in each case how the foundation of modern Western writing, of
technology works, who invented it, and the ingenious methods of printing devised
what effect it had on society and culture. in both Asia and Europe and the industries
In this way it will hopefully show a clear they gave birth to, of the competition
timeline across the whole of recorded between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla
history and explain how each new to establish the modern power grid which
invention arose out of the methods and transformed the world, of the remarkable
technology of its predecessors. prescience of those who first discovered
Although the theme is communication electromagnetism and radio waves, and
technology, some related and peripheral those who turned that discovery into
technologies must be covered as well, a communication medium capable of
particularly when covering recent reaching millions.
advances. For example, in order to And that is the real theme of this topic,
understand everything from the telegraph the two unique abilities that humans have:
to computers, some background in the To communicate complex and abstract
physics of electromagnetism must be ideas, and to build remarkably intricate
explained, and for digital media, how machines. In this regard, the story told here
computers work. Fields such as chemistry is a deeply human one, about the ways
and metallurgy are relevant to topics as we’ve found to tell our stories to each other
far back as Gutenberg’s press, and plastics and to be connected to each other across the
becomes important in the 20th century. entire globe, for better or worse.
3
