Wireless and Mobile Device Security, 2nd Edition

The Dawn of Data Communication

Data communication and networking have a long history going back to 1837, when Samuel Morse developed the first practical telegraph system. In 1844, Morse sent his first long-distance message, “What hath God wrought!” encoded in Morse code, from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore, Maryland. By 1850, more than 12,000 miles of telegraph lines traversed the country, run by more than 20 different commercial operators. Telegraphy, as it was known, used start and stop signals of dots and dashes transmitted over copper wires. It was a one-way message protocol that evolved to support two, and then four, channels. Telegraphy monopolized electronic communication until 1877, when the first telephone networks started to appear. ...