A Quick History of Digital Communication Before the Internet

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2022-01-17 18:00:05

At 12:30 am on April 4th, 1841 President William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia just a month after taking office. The Richmond Enquirer published the news of his death two days later on April 6th. The North-Carolina standard newspaper published it on April 14th. His death wasn’t known of in Los Angeles until July 23rd, 110 days after it had occurred..

The Internet is a platform for universal communication. You can plug a device into any Internet connection, and provided it speaks TCP/IP, you can communicate with any other point on earth. But before the Internet, even before ARPANET, people and devices needed to talk. I thought I would take a look at some of the technologies which enabled people to communicate in a pre-Internet world.

The Pony Express was a system of horses, riders and relief stations which stretched from the western end of the telegraph system in Nebraska to Sacremento California. The system allowed information to be sent across the country in just ten days.