1800-1869

From CSI Wiki Farm

• 1800
  

  

  Patent drawing of Koenig's steam-powered printing press
  • April 2, Beethoven gives his first public concert.
  • May 2nd, English chemist William Nicholson separates water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity in a process that is called electrolysis.

• 1801
  • The second industrial exhibition (cf 1798) is held in Paris at the Louvre for a total of six days. The exhibition is then repeated in 1802, 1806, 1819, 1823, 1827, 1834, 1839, 1844, and 1849.

• 1804
  • Scientist Francisco Salvá i Campillo creates an "electromechanical telegraph in Spain

• 1809
  • An 'electrochemical' telegraph created by the German physician, anatomist and inventor Samuel Thomas von Sömmering appears. The design employed multiple wires (up to 35) in order to visually represent almost all Latin letters and numerals. Thus, messages could be conveyed electrically up to a few kilometers, with each of the telegraph receiver's wires immersed in a separate glass tube of acid. An electrical current was sequentially applied by the sender through the various wires representing each digit of a message; at the recipient's end the currents electrolyzed the acid in the tubes in sequence, releasing streams of hydrogen bubbles next to each associated letter or numeral. The telegraph receiver's operator would visually observe the bubbles and could then record the transmitted message.

• 1811
  • Frederick Koenig invents the steam-powered printing press.

• 1815
  • Ascension Island, strategically located half way between South America and Africa, is claimed by British King George III, preventing the French from using it as a base for recapturing Napoleon, exiled on St Helena.

• 1816
  • Francis Ronalds in London develops an electric telegraph, using static high voltage electricity, and successfully sends messages over eight miles. The Admirality shows no interest.

• 1820
  • Hans Christian Ørsted, Denmark, observes a relationship between electricity and magnetism: The flow of electric current makes a magnetic compass needle move.
  • Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar (1785-1870), France, designs an "Arithmometer", the first mass-produced calculator. It performs multiplication like Leibniz' machine, and can do manually assisted division. Sold for almost 100 years. In 1878, a total of 1,500 units had been sold, nearly 30 per year.

• 1821
  • Michael Faraday reversed Ørsted's experiment and in so doing discovered induction.

• 1822
  • Charles Babbage (1792-1871), London, (re-)invents the difference engine. It is described in a paper that wins the gold medal from the Royal Astronomical Society, for which he demonstrates a minor prototype. He also starts to design a six digit calculator.
    

    

    A model of William Austin Burt's typographer
  • Sweden legalizes coffee. Coffee had been banned five times, starting in 1756.

• 1826
  • Benoit Fourneyron invents photography.

• 1827
  • A book by a wellknown teacher at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris presents an explanation for the electromagnetic relation discovered by Ørsted in 1820: Andre Marie Ampere, Mathematical Theory of Electrodynamic Phenomena, 1827

• 1829
  • The first American typewriter patent goes to William Austin Burt for his "typographer". For the early history of business machines, read James W. Cortada, Before the Computer. IBM, NCR, Burroughs, & Remington Rand & the Industry They Created 1865-1956, Princeton University Press, 1993, paperback 2000, ISBN 0-691-05045-7
  • Sir Charles Wheatstone invents the accordion.

• 1830
  • Joseph Henry invents the electromagnet by winding insulated wire around an iron core. He then uses the electromagnet to make an iron bar strike a bell, thereby inventing a simple signalling device.

• 1831
  • Michael Faraday demonstrates the principle of Induction. His research into electricity lead him into the field of electromagnetism. That current flowing through a wire produced magnetic lines of force around that wire.

• 1832
  • Göta Canal opens, making it possible to go by boat from Norrköping on Sweden's east coast to Gothenburg on the west coast. Ideas of digging a network of canals across Sweden (and Europe) go back to the middle ages, but in Sweden the great plans were only implemented in the early 19th century, soon before the technology was obsoleted by railroads.
  • Charles Babbage and Joseph Clement build a prototype for the difference engine, operating on six digit numbers and two digit differences. The complete machine, never implemented, is designed for 6th degree polynomials with twenty digit numbers or 3rd degree polynomials with thirty digit numbers.
  • Baron Pawal Schilling, in Berlin demonstrates an electric telegraph using electromagnets to attract iron needles, to Czar Nicholas. Schilling died before he could develop his telegraph further.

• 1833
  • The first practically useful telegraph line is installed in Göttingen, Germany, by professors Gauss and Weber.
  • Schilling designs a device where electricity moves a compass needle, a precursor of the needle telegraph.
  • Babbage starts to plan for the more general Analytical Engine.

• 1834
  • George Scheutz, Stockholm in Sweden, designs a wooden difference engine after having read a summary of Babbage's project.

• 1835
  • Joseph Henry develops the basic principles of the telegraph which are put into more practical form 11 years later by Samuel F. B. Morse - these include the electric relay and the use of the Earth as a ground.

• 1836
  • William Cooke, whose father had assisted Francis Ronalds, attends a lecture in Heidelberg at which Baron Schilling's needle telegraphs is demonstrated. Within three weeks, Cooke develops his own electric telegraph.

• 1837

• • The Swedish optic telegraph network is opened for messages from the public.
  • William Cooke demonstrates his electric telegraph between the railroad stations of Euston and Camden, a distance of 2.4 km, using cotton-isolated iron wires in iron pipes buried in the ground, which worked fine in dry weather.

• • Morse patents his version of the telegraph. The idea to use an electromagnet for transmitting signals comes upon him during a transatlantic trip when he sees a demonstration of one.
  • July 24, prof. Charles Wheatstone and William Fothergill Cook successfully transmit a message between two places, almost two kilometers apart, using a needle telegraph they have developed and patented.

• 1838
  • A railroad telegraph line is installed in England by Wheatstone and Cooke. To overcome the insulation problems (cf 1837), the six wires needed by this five needle telegraph were suspended on glass insulators in open air. The trial line went between Paddington and West Drayton with an extension to Slough, on the condition that railway messages were carried free of charge. This extension was paid for by Cooke and Wheatstone and to recover some of the expense they offered the public the opportunity to send messages at a shilling (5p) a time.
  • The first ship to cross the Atlantic under continuous steam power was the 714 tonne Sirius.

• 1839
  • The first commercial electrical telegraph was constructed in England by Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke. It used the deflection of needles to represent messages and started operating over twenty-one kilometers (thirteen miles) of the Great Western Railway on April 9th.
  • Dr W. B. O. Shaughnessy, a medical practitioner in Calcutta, starts experiments in electric telegraphy.
  • Daniel Gooch (born August 24, 1816, died 1889) designs the "North Star" engine, which was both compact and symmetrical.

• 1840
  • Congress was requested to provide funding for a semaphore system running from NYC to New Orleans. Samuel Morse, it is said, advised against funding of this system because of his work on developing the electric telegraph.

• 1841
  • Daniel Colladon, Switzerland, discovers that light can follow running water through a bend, the same phenomenon later used in optic fibers.
  • Completion of the Great Western Railway from London to Bristol. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was the principal engineer. Locomotive superintendent from 1837 to 1864 was Daniel Gooch.

• 1842
  • Henry presents a hypothesis of the oscillating nature of sparks.
  • Jacques Babinet reports light guiding in water jets and bent glass rods Paris
  • The chemical telegraph is invented by Alexander Bain (1810-1877). This is the first facsimile equipment for use in communications. It consists of a metallic contact resting on a moving paper slip saturated with an electrolytic solution. The wire and the tape forms part of an electric circuit and when current flows, discoloration of the tape occurs.
  • Notes from Charles Babbage's tour of continental Europe in 1840 are later published in Paris, then translated to English and augmented by Ada Lovelace and published: Ada Lovelace, Observations on Mr. Babbage's Analytical Engine, 1842 or 1843

• 1843 The chemical telegraph is patented.

• 1844
  • Samuel Morse demonstrates "Morse code" sending a world famous message "What hath God wrought" on May 24th -- but this is the old version, where a number is assigned to each possible word. Alfred Vail helps him later with a "variable-length letter code", from the Capitol in Washington D.C. to Mount Clare Depot, Baltimore.

• • Britain's first public telegraph line is opened along the railway line between London and Gosport. It provided the Admiralty with a direct link to the naval base at Portsmouth.
  • Railroad telegraphs are installed in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Germany.
  • Swedish chemist Gustaf Erik Pasch invents the first safety match. It could only be lit by striking it against a prepared surface, but it contained phosphorus which made it dangerous.

• 1845
  • General Oceanic telegraph Co. registered in NYC to link Europe and North America (was this just another stock swindle?).
  • Siemens and Halske lay the first submarine telegraph cable from Dover, England to Calais, France.
  • January 1, after having poisoned his mistress in Slough, John Tawell escapes by train to London, but is caught by police on arrival because an electric telegram arrived before him. The event generated much publicity for the telegraph.

• 1847
  • Gutta-percha (an inelastic latex) is discovered. It serves as a reliable insulator in water (reliable, but not great capacitance).
  • Alexander Graham Bell born in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 3rd.
  • Richard Hoe invents the rotary printing press.
  • Foundation of the Montreal Telegraph Company, the first telegraph company incorporated in Canada. It connected Trois-Rivieres to Toronto via Montreal.

• 1848
  • Swedish chemist Johan Edward Lundström invents the first phosphorus-free safety match (cf 1844), and starts the industry Jönköpings Tändsticksfabrik (cf 1917). The matches were distributed in a later much imitated blue and yellow box with the text "Tändas endast mot lådans plån" (can only be lit against the surface of the box). See the Match Museum in Jönköping.
  • A facsimile machine is patented by Bakewell. (cf 1851).

• 1849
  • The first submarine cable to be put into operation stretched between France and England, but for lack of proper covering in insulation failed after 8 days.

• 1850
  • Morse patents "clicking" telegraph.
  • D. D. Parmalee patents the first keyboard-driven calculator.
  • The world's first international submarine telegraph cable is installed between England and France, by the company later known as Cable & Wireless. The ship used is the Goliath.

• 1851
  • England-France commercial telegraph service begins. This one uses gutta-percha, and survives.
  • There are 51 telegraph companies in operation
  • The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations is held in the newly built Crystal Palace in London. It draws 13,937 exhibitors of which 6,556 are foreign. At the exhibition, Daniel Gooch (cf 1841) was awarded a gold medal for the development of a new class of locomotives containing eight wheels, named "Lord of the Isles". At this fair, Bakewell demonstrates his facsimile machine (cf 1848).

• 1852
  • Denmark starts to install telegraph lines.
  • Canada's first Telegraphs Act empowers telegraph companies to construct lines along public roads, required dispatches to be transmitted in the order received (the first legislative provision enforcing a requirement of non-discrimination of communications carriers), and permitted the government to requisition the use of facilities.
  • The first telegraph line in India is laid from Calcutta to Diamond Harbor.

• 1853
  • W. Thomson presents a theory about the oscillatory nature of sparks (cf 1842, 1858).
  • November 1st, a network of electric telegraphs open in Sweden. The initiative was taken by A. L. Fahnehjelm who got the support of K. F. Akrell. A government decision was taken in February 1853 and installation of the first line between Stockholm and Uppsala begun the same summer. Akrell was appointed officer of this new royal telegraph agency (Kungl. Telegrafverket), which is today's Telia.
  • In a show of Goethe's play Faust, the Paris Opera uses a light-conducting fountain, using the principle discovered by Colladon in 1841.
  • The "Great Industrial Exhibition" is held in Dublin, Ireland.
  • Paris Opera uses Colladon's water jet in the opera Faust
  • The "Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations" is held in New York.

• 1854
  • Thomas A. Watson born.
  • M. Charles Bourseul, a French telegraphist, conceived a plan for conveying sounds and even speech by electricity: "Suppose that a man speaks near a movable disc sufficiently flexible to lose none of the vibrations of the voice; that this disc alternately makes and breaks the currents from a battery: you may have at a distance another disc which will simultaneously execute the same vibrations. …It is certain that, in a more or less distant future, speech will be transmitted by electricity. I have made experiments in this direction; they are delicate and demand time and patience, but the approximations obtained promise a favourable result." Bourseul deserves the credit of being perhaps the first to devise an electric telephone and try to make it; but Johann Philipp Reis deserves the honor of first realising the idea as a device to transmit and receive sounds electrically (see 1859).
  • John Tyndall demonstrates light guiding in water jets, duplicating but not acknowledging Colladon
  • Development of the logical algebra that will underlie computer logic, published in this work: George Boole, An investigation of the laws of thought, on which are founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities.
  • Swedish governmental telegraph administration (Telegrafverket) starts cooperation with (private?) railroads.
  • Norway starts to install telegraph lines.

• 1855
  • Electric telegraph connects Sweden with Denmark and Norway. The cable between Sweden and Denmark is installed January 1st.
  • Telegraph service becomes available to public in India.
  • "Exposition Universelle" held in Paris.

• 1856
  • Western Union formed by six men from Rochester, N.Y. They start an acquisition spree.

• 1857
  • Swedish telegraph equipment manufacturer Öller & Co established.
  • Sir Charles Wheatstone (cf 1829, 1838) introduced the first application of perforated paper tapes as a medium for the preparation, storage, and transmission of data. Sir Charles' paper tape used two rows of holes to represent Morse's dots and dashes. Outgoing messages could be prepared off-line on paper tape and transmitted later.

• 1858
  • The first transatlantic telegraph messages via wire are transmitted on August 18th.
  • The cable used deteriorated quickly, and failed after 26 days due to the voltage being too high.
  • Cyrus Field (a 35-year-old retired merchant) & John Pender formed a British company, "The Atlantic Telegraph Co."
  • Feddersen conducts a successful experiment that supports (proves?) Henry's hypothesis (1842) and W. Thomson's theory (1853) about the oscillatory nature of sparks.
  • August 18, the first Transatlantic cable is installed, but stops working after 20 days, having carried only 800 telegrams. John Pender (born 1815) was director of the Atlantic Telegraph Company since 1856. See the website http://atlantic-cable.com/ and the beautiful picture album http://atlantic-cable.com/Album/
  • January, launch of the "Great Eastern", a 4,000 passenger steam ship with iron hull and paddle wheels built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The ship had a gross tonnage of 18,915 tons, was 210 m long, 25,3 m wide, could make 13,5 knots using 2 oscillating steam engines, one of 3400 hp for side wheels and one of 4900 hp for propellor. The ship was ahead of its time and too big for most ports, made its maiden journey only in 1860, and drove its company to bankruptcy three years later, when the ship was sold to the Anglo-American Telegraph Company. (cf 1865, 1866)

• 1859
  • Swedish governmental telegraph agency (Kungl. Telegrafverket) signs agreement with Swedish governmental railroads agency (Statens Järnvägar) to use the same poles along railroads.
  • Johann Philipp Reis imagined electricity could be propagated through space, as light can, without the aid of a material conductor, and he performed some experiments on the subject. The results were described in a paper, "On the Radiation of Electricity", which, he mailed to Professor Poggendorff for insertion in the then well-known periodical, Annalen der Physik. The manuscript was rejected, to the great disappointment of the sensitive young teacher.

• 1860
  • Electric telegraph connects Sweden with Finland and Russia along the path Stockholm - Haparanda - Tornio - Turku.
  • Johann Philipp Reis constructed the first prototype of a telephone, which could cover a distance of 100 meters.

• 1861
  • There are now 2250 telegraph offices in operation nationwide.
  • May 5th - the birth date of Peter Cooper Hewitt, inventor of the mercury vapor lamp used in photo studios
  • Beginning of coast to coast telegraph communication in the United States.

• 1862
  • The "International Exhibition of 1862" is held in London.
  • The Indo-European Telegraph Department is formed to join India to the telegraph network.

• 1863
  • Stockholm Stock Exchange established.

• 1864
  • Governmentally owned railroads in Sweden span Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö.
  • Maxwell presents a theory of electromagnetic radiation (cf Hertz 1887).
  • March 17, the cable manufacturing company Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company (Telcon) is formed with John Pender (cf 1858) as the chairman (or was that Daniel Gooch?) and with a capital of one million pounds through the amalgamation of the Gutta-Percha Company and the cable makers Glass Elliot of Greenwich. Its formation was brought about by the need to supply 700,000 pounds worth of submarine telegraph cable to span the Atlantic (cf 1866).

• 1865
  • First undersea telegraph cable between Sweden and Germany.
  • The "Great Eastern" (cf 1858) starts to lay the transatlantic cable, but after 1,000 miles the cable breaks off and an act of sabotage is suspected. The second attempt in July of 1866 is successful.
  • the first working trials for a commercially viable facsimile machine is set up in France by Caselli, an Italian. Shortly after this Meyer facsimile machines are also tried out in the French telegraph systems.
  • May 17th, representatives from 20 countries sign the first international telegraph convention, leading to the formation of the International Telecommunications Union, ITU.
  • The Anglo-American Telegraph Company is founded to lay the new Atlantic cable (cf 1858). John Pender was one of the founders.

• 1866
  • An exhibition is held in Stockholm, displaying art, crafts, and industry, but only from the Scandinavian countries.
  • The Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company (Telcon) buys the Hawk, the first cableship with direct connections with the Cable & Wireless group of companies.
  • July 13-27, a new Transatlantic undersea telegraph cable connects Europe and America (cf 1858), and the two continents have been connected since. The ship used was the "Great Eastern" (part-owned by Daniel Gooch, cf 1841) (cf 1858), under captain James Anderson. The cable was manufactured by John Pender's cable-making company Telcon. It transmitted telegraph messages at 7 words per minute.

• 1867
  • Sholes, Glidden, and Soule invent the typewriter.
  • "Exposition Universelle" is held in Paris.

• 1868
  • First commercially successful transatlantic telegraph cable completed between UK and Canada, with land extension to USA.
  • (Lack of repeaters & cable capacitance in insulation restricted the cable to 2 words/minute -- signaling speed was inversely proportional to square of length, per Lord Kelvin's prediction.
  • A "siphon receiving" mechanism raised that rate to 20 WPM in 1870. Even 2 WPM beat the next fastest method; 10 days by steamship.)
  • Werner Siemens patents a keyboard perforator for Morse code.
  • Since this year, Europe has been connected with India by telegraph lines. (Is this true? cf 1870 One source even says 1865)
  • The Indo-European Telegraph Company is formed in Germany.
  • Foundation of Dominion Telegraph in Canada, offering connections between Quebec and Detroit.
  • The Anglo-Mediterranean Telegraph Company (cf 1872) installs a telegraph cable between Malta and Alexandria, Egypt.
  • A duplex system for telegraphy is designed by Stearns.
  • A telegraph cable is laid from Florida to Cuba.

• 1869
  • The partnership of Shawk and Barton is formed to take over an electric shop which Western Union Telegraph Company has abandoned. This partnership ultimately becomes Western Electric Company. George Shawk eventually sells his interest in the firm to Elisa Gray. The firm becomes Gray and Barton and remains that way for two years. Gray devoted himself totally to electric research and was working on a harmonic telegraph at the same time as Bell. The idea of transmitting sounds occurred to him and he filed a caveat ( a confidential report of an invention which is not fully perfected) in the U.S. Patent Office. His caveat indicates that he was on the same track as Bell but had not worked out his transmitter as fully. On the same day, a few hours earlier, Bell filed a patent application for his telephone. Gray when on to invent the telautograph which transmits facsimile handwriting and drawings. Gray died in 1901.
  • Det Store Nordiske Telegraf-Selskap (Great Nordic Telegraph Company) founded in Copenhagen. Installs undersea telegraph cables between Great Britain and the Nordic countries and Russia.
  • Asia's first submarine telegraph cable is installed between Singapore and Hong Kong by the company later known as Cable & Wireless. (cf 1871)
  • The company Gray and Barton is founded by Elisha Gray (born August 2, 1835 in Barnesville, Ohio, died January 21, 1901 in Newtonville, Massachusetts) and a partner. (cf 1872, 1882)
  • Start of telegraph service between Tokyo and Yokohama.
  • The British Indian Submarine Telegraph Company is founded by John Pender (cf 1858) to lay an all undersea cable to India.
  • The Falmouth Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph Company is formed by John Pender. (cf 1870)
  • The West India and Panama Telegraph Company is formed to lay a submarine telegraph cable between Cuba and Jamaica.
  • December, the China Submarine Telegraph Company is formed by John Pender.