EOTO Reflection

During our Each One Teach One presentations, I learned a lot about media technologies. Many people had great presentations that taught me a lot about the history of the media that we use every day. The two I found most interesting were the invention of paper and the telegraph. Both are things we use each day. Although the telegraph has now changed forms, we could not live without our cell phones, and it all started from the telegraph. 

I was fascinated by the creation of paper. It is one media technology that we overlook each day but something we couldn't live without. It was invented by Le-Yang and Cai Lun of the Han Dynasty. Before the invention of paper, it was very difficult to store and share information. The engraving of stone tablets was a way of writing things down, which was a very difficult method.

The technology I was most interested in learning about was the telegraph. I am taking the American Media History class this semester, where we have learned the history of a lot of technologies, which has taught me some background information, so I was looking forward to going more in depth on this specific technology. 

The telegraph was created by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone. These men connected five magnetic needles that were controlled by electric currents to point to specific letters and numbers on a panel. 

In addition to Cooke and Wheatstone, Samuel Morse, Leonard Gale, and Alfred Vail were involved as well. Samuel Morse is known for Morse code, which was often used on the telegraph, so you only had to listen to taps instead of waiting for it to point to letters and numbers. Morse code was a much more efficient way to communicate using the telegraph. Morse code assigned a series of dots and dashes to every letter of the English alphabet that can be understood through electrical signals. 

For the telegraph, Morse gained political support in 1838. After he gained support, in 1843, the first wired telegraph was created, which ran a line from Washington D.C. to Baltimore, and the first message was sent. Many years later, advancements were made, and in 1861 he first transcontinental telegraph was created. Shortly after in 1866, the Atlantic Ocean had its first permanent telegraph cable placed in it. Finally, in 1874, Quadruplex system, which was one wire that translates four messages simultaneously. 

Overall, these two technologies fascinated me since I had known such little background information on them. They are things we use each day without thinking. Both technologies have been modified and developed since creation, but if it weren't for the first inventors, we would not have access to these technologies today.