VOICE ONE:
This is Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English programEXPLORATIONS. Today, we begin a series of three programs aboutmodern communications. Our first program tells about the history ofcommunications.
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
Information always has been extremely important. Throughouthistory, some information has had value beyond measure. The lack ofinformation often cost huge amounts of money and, sometimes, manylives.
One example of this took place near the American city of NewOrleans, Louisiana. Britain and the United States were fighting theWar of Eighteen-Twelve. American and British forces fought near NewOrleans on January eighth, eighteen-fifteen. The battle of NewOrleans is a famous battle. As in all large battles, hundreds oftroops were killed or wounded.
After the battle, the Americansand the British learned there had been no need to fight. Negotiatorsfor the United States and Britain had signed a peace treaty in thecity of Ghent, Belgium, two weeks earlier. Yet news of the treatyhad not reached the United States before the opposing troops met inNew Orleans. The battle had been a terrible waste. People diedbecause information about the peace treaty traveled so slowly.
VOICE TWO:
From the beginning of human history, information traveled only asfast as a ship could sail. Or a horse could run. Or a person couldwalk.
People experimented with other ways to send messages. Some peopletried using birds to carry messages. Then they discovered it was notalways a safe way to send or receive information.
A faster method finally arrived with the invention of thetelegraph. The first useful telegraphs were developed in Britain andthe United States in the eighteen-thirties.
The telegraph was the first instrument used to send informationusing wires and electricity. The telegraph sent messages between twoplaces which were connected by telegraph wires. The person at oneend would send the information.
The second person would receiveit. Each letter of the alphabet and each number had to be sentseparately by a device called a telegraph key. The second personwould write each letter on a piece of paper as it was received. Hereis what it sounds like. For our example we will only send you threeletters: V-O-A. We will send it two times. Listen closely.
(SOUND: Telegraph key)
VOICE ONE:
In the eighteen-fifties, an expert with a telegraph key couldsend about thirty-five to forty words in a minute. It took severalhours to send a lot of information. However, the telegraph permittedpeople who lived in cities to communicate much faster. Telegraphlines linked large city centers. The telegraph soon had a majorinfluence on daily life.
The telegraph provided information about everything. Governments,businesses and individuals used the telegraph to send information.At the same time, newspapers used the telegraph to get theinformation needed to tell readers what was happening in the world.Newspapers often were printed four or five times a day as newinformation about important stories was received over the telegraph.The telegraph was the quickest method of sending news from one placeto another.
VOICE TWO:
On August fifth, eighteen-fifty-eight, the first message wastransmitted by a wire cable under the Atlantic Ocean. The wirelinked the United States and Europe by telegraph. This meant that aterrible mistake like the battle of New Orleans would not happenagain.
Reports of the daily news events in Europe began to appear inAmerican newspapers. And the news of the United States appeared inEuropean newspapers. Information now took only a matter of hours toreach most large cities in the world.
This was true for the big cities linked by the telegraph. It wasdifferent, though, if you lived in a small farming town, kilometersaway from the large cities. The news you got might be a day or twolate. It took that long for you to receive your newspaper.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE ONE:
On November second, nineteen-twenty, radio station K-D-K-A inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, broadcast the first radio program. Thatbroadcast gave the results of a presidential election.
Within a few short years, news and information could be heardanywhere a radio broadcast could reach. Radios did not cost much. Somost people owned at least one radio.
Radio reporters began to speak to the public from cities whereimportant events were taking place.
Political leaders also discovered that radio was a valuablepolitical instrument. It permitted them to talk directly to thepublic. If you had a radio, you did not have to wait until yournewspaper arrived. You could often hear important events as theyhappened.
VOICE TWO:
Some people learned quickly that information meant power. Manycountries in the nineteen-thirties began controlling information.The government of Nazi Germany is a good example.
Before and during World War Two, the government of Nazi Germanycontrolled all information the German people received. Thegovernment controlled all radio broadcasts and newspapers. Thepeople of Germany only heard or read what the government wanted themto hear or read. It was illegal for them to listen to a foreignbroadcast.
VOICE ONE:
After World War Two, a new invention appeared — television. Inthe industrial countries, television quickly became common in mosthomes. Large companies were formed to produce television programs.These companies were called networks. Networks include manytelevision stations linked together that could broadcast the sameprogram at the same time.
Most of the programs were designed to entertain people. Therewere movies, music programs and game programs. However, televisionalso broadcast news and important information about world events. Itbroadcast some education programs too. The number of radio andtelevision stations around the world increased. It became harder fora dictator to control information.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
In the nineteen-fifties, two important events took place thatgreatly affected the communication of information. The first was atelevision broadcast that showed the East Coast and the West Coastof the United States at the same time. The two coasts were linked bya cable that carried the pictures. So people watching the programsaw the Pacific Ocean on the left side of the screen. On the rightside of the screen they saw the Atlantic Ocean.
It was not a film. People could see two reporters talk to eachother although they were separated by a continent. Modern technologymade this possible.
The other event happened on September twenty-fifth,nineteen-fifty-six. That was when the first telephone cable underthe Atlantic Ocean made it possible to make direct telephone callsfrom the United States to Europe.
Less than six years later, in July nineteen-sixty-two, the firstcommunications satellite was placed in orbit around the Earth. Thespeed of information again greatly increased.
VOICE ONE:
By the year nineteen-hundred, big city newspapers provided thepeople of the city with news that was only hours old. Now, bothradio and television, with the aid of satellite communications,could provide information immediately. People who lived in a smallvillage could listen to or watch world events as they happened.
A good example is when American astronaut Neil Armstrong becamethe first person to walk on the moon. Millions of people around theworld watched as he carefully stepped onto the moon on Julytwentieth, nineteen-sixty-nine. People in large cities, small townsand villages saw the event as it was happening. There was no delayin communicating this important information.
VOICE TWO:
Only a few years after Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, theUnited States Department of Defense began an experiment. Thatexperiment led to a system to pass huge amounts of informationaround the world in seconds. Experts called it the beginning of theInformation Age. The story of that experiment will be our reportnext week on EXPLORATIONS.
((THEME))
VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It wasproduced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week on the Voice ofAmerica for our second program about the Information Age.