Synopses & Reviews
This book provides a fascinating account of the origins and development of the technology that has transformed telecommunication and broadcasting and created the Internet. It depicts this remarkable human achievement by identifying the key innovators whose ideas created today's world of communications, from the Victorian scientists and mathematicians to the present day engineers. Written in a highly readable style, this book shows the impact of each innovation upon today's world of communications technology, and looks to the future for the innovations to come. The author writes from a unique position as he was a principal player in the development of 20th Century telecommunications engineering.
Synopsis
This book describes the stage-by-stage creation and development, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, of the remarkable global communications technologies that have profoundly transformed the way that people live and work.
Written in a highly readable style, this book provides a fascinating account of the key innovators from Faraday, Maxwell and Hertz to the inventors of the transistor, microchip, optical fibre systems and the World Wide Web. The book explores the background and motivation of these pioneers and the social and economic environment in which they worked. The significance of each innovative step is shown in terms of the impact - in scale and relevance - on today's communications world. John Bray also looks to the future for innovations yet to come.
This book will be interest to all those interested in the human thread running through the history of technological advances in telecommunications and broadcasting.
Synopsis
A fascinating account of the origins and development, of the technology that has transformed telecommunications and broadcasting and created the Internet.
Table of Contents
Foreword Preface Acknowledgements 1: Introduction 2: Creators of the Mathematical and Scientific Foundations 3: The First Telegraph and Cable Engineers 4: The First Telephone Engineers 5: The Inventors of the Thermionic Valve 6: The Telegraph, Telephone Frequency-Division Multiplex Transmission Engineers 7: Pioneers of Radio Communication 8: Pioneers of Sound Radio Broadcasting 9: Pioneers of Television Broadcasting 10: The Engineers of the Early Multi-channel Telephony Coaxial Cable Systems 11: The First Microwave Radio-Relay Engineers 12: The Inventors of the Transistor and the Microchip 13: The Creators of Information Theory, Pulse-code Modulation and Digital Techniques 14: The Pioneers of Electro-mechanical and Computer-controlled Electronic Exchange 15: The First Satellite Communication Engineers 16: Pioneers of Long-distance Waveguide Systems: An Unfulfilled Vision 17: Optical Fibre Communication Systems: The First Trans-Atlantic System 18: Inventors of the Visual Telecommunication Systems 19: Information Technology and Services 20: The History and Growth of the Internet 21: The Development of the Mobile Radio Service 22: Telecommunications and the Future Name Index Subject Index