The Victorian Internet (Hardcover)

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Amazon.co.uk Review
Imagine an almost instantaneous communication system that would allow people and governments all over the world to send and receive messages about politics, war, illness and family events. The US Government has tried and failed to control it and its revolutionary nature is trumpeted loudly by its backers. The Internet? Nope, the humble telegraph fit this bill way back in the 1800s. The parallels between the now-ubiquitous Internet and the telegraph are amazing, offering insight into the ways new technologies can change the very fabric of society within a single generation. In The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage examines the history of the telegraph, beginning with a horrifically funny story of a mile-long line of monks holding a wire and getting simultaneous shocks in the interest of investigating electricity and ending with the advent of the telephone. All the early "online" pioneers are here: Samuel Morse, Thomas Edison and a seemingly endless parade of code-makers, entrepreneurs and spies who helped ensure the success of this communications revolution. Fans of Longitude will enjoy another story of the human side of dramatic technological developments, complete with personal rivalry, vicious competition and agonising failures. --Therese Littleton, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
Web sites and e-mails, surfing and down-loading: everyone's doing it. It's the latest thing, that's why. Or is it? This timely little book reminds us that, in a sense, we have been here before. The mid-Victorian period witnessed a communications revolution of no less, and in some ways rather more, significance than the spread of the Internet, in the form of the telegraph. For the first time people could communicate across nations and around the world in seconds and minutes rather than days and weeks. It transformed the flow of information, the conduct of business and the exercise of government; it created the first 'global village'. Standage tells the resonant story of the remarkable individuals who created this technology in Britain and America and of the many surprising uses to which it was put. (Kirkus UK)

The telegraph, which now seems a curious relic, was once cutting-edge technology, every bit as hot, Standage reminds us, as today's Internet. Rapid delivery of messages to distant places was a wild dream for most of history; only on the eve of the French Revolution did a workable system come into existence. That first mechanical telegraph used visual signals relayed along a series of towers; but already scientists had experimented with signaling with electricity, which was thought to travel instantaneously. By the 1830s, Samuel Morse in the US and William Cooke in England had independently developed workable electric telegraphs. Curiously, neither had much initial luck finding backers. Morse's first demonstration of his device to Congress drew no support; even after a second demonstration won him funding, many congressmen believed they had seen a conjuring trick. Despite some dramatic successes - aswhen British police wired ahead of felons escaping by train and had them arrested in a distant city - it was some time before the telegraph was more than a high-tech toy. But by the mid-1840s, both British and American telegraphy companies were showing profits, and by the end of that decade, growth was explosive. And by then, the elaborate culture of the telegraph system was taking shape. Telegraph operators and messenger boys became familiar parts of the social landscape. There was a growth industry in telegraph-based jokes, anecdotes, seams, and even superstitions. The charge per word transmitted made messages terse; the expense made most people use them only to report deaths in the family or other grave news. Technical improvements - notably in the laying of submarine cables - eventually led to a worldwide network. Standage, most recently (and suitably) editor of the London Daily Telegraph's technology section, competently relates all this, and the eventual erosion of the telegraph's power by the telephone - which was at first seen merely as an improvement in the telegraph. A fascinating overview of a once world-shaking invention and its impact on society. Recommended to fans of scientific history. (Kirkus Reviews)

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11 Reviews 5 star:  (9) 4 star:  (2) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.8 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   7 of 7 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Past and future, 23 Nov 2005 By  Kurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (London, SW1) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    This review is from: The Victorian Internet (Paperback) The title of this book, 'The Victorian Internet,' refers to the 'communications explosion' that took place with the advent and expansion of telegraph wire communications. Prior to this, communication was notoriously slow, particularly as even postal communications were subject to many difficulties and could take months for delivery (and we complain today of the 'allow five days' statements on our credit cards billings!). The parallels between the Victorian Internet and the present computerised internet are remarkable. Information about current events became relatively instantaneous (relative, that is, to the usual weeks or months that it once took to receive such information). There were skeptics who were convinced that this new mode of communication was a passing phase that would never take on (and, in a strict sense, they were right, not of course realising that the demise of the telegraph system was not due to the reinvigoration of written correspondence but due to that new invention, the telephone). There were hackers, people who tried to disrupt communications, those who tried to get on-line free illegally, and, near the end of the high age of telegraphing, a noticeable slow-down in information due to information overload (how long is this page going to take to download?? isn't such a new feeling after all). The most interesting chapter to me is that entitled 'Love over the Wires' which begins with an account of an on-line wedding, with the bride in Boston and the groom in New York. This event was reported in a small book, Anecdotes of the Telegraph, published in London in 1848, which stated that this was 'a story which throws into the shade all the feats that have been performed by our British telegraph.' This story is really one of love and adventure, as the bride's father had sent the young groom away for being unworthy to marry his daughter, but on a stop-over on his way to England, he managed to get a magistrate and telegraph operator to arrange the wedding. The marriage was deemed to be legally binding. A very interesting and remarkable story that perhaps would have been forgotten by history had history not set out to repeat itself with our modern internet. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   4 of 4 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars An absolutely brilliant true history - of Telegraphy, 16 Oct 2002 By  Michael H (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews This review is from: The Victorian Internet (Paperback) Victorian Internet is a wonderful book - I absolutely recommend it to anyone with the remotest interest in how science has shaped out world. It describes the emergence of a technology which is hailed at its outset as "shrinking the world" and able to "connect distant parts of the world instantly" - sound familiar ? But this is the fascinating tale of Telegraphy - which - incredibly - pre-dates electricity itself, having begun in Napoleon's time as a mechanical way of signalling from hilltop tower to hilltop tower - for wartime messaging. Electricity of course made it "fly", and the tale is told rivetingly, with intruiguiing comparisons between the telegraph of a century ago and the internet of today. All the same human issues are there - down-the-wire romances between operators - hackers - and amazing technological misunderstanding (like the mother who took a plate of fresh food to a telegraph office, in the hope of sending it down the wire to her son, who was fighting at the front in the Crimea). Amazing - and a perfect Christmas present for every Net-Head, too. Well done Tom Standage. Mike Holt Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing account of a vanished world, 17 Jan 2002 By  ricard@ants.upc.es (Barcelona, Spain) - See all my reviews This review is from: The Victorian Internet (Paperback) This is a fascinating book. I couldn't stop reading it until I finished it. I tells the story of a key event that shaped our today's wired world: the emergence of the first real communication network, the rise of new social and economic relations and the enormous expectations that it generated. It is fascinating to see how many similarities are shared with the current growth and evolution of Internet. Really worth reading. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 11 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent story of an almost forgotten invention that changed the world The telegraph has been all but forgotten in the modern era of communications, but in its day, it was a revolution. Read more Published 3 months ago by Fred 5.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining historical perspective We often tend to view our own time not only as the peak of the development, but by far surpassing achievements of the past. Read more Published on 7 May 2002 4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, amusing, lacks financial dimension I enjoyed this diverting book, which covers the technical development and social impact of telegraphic communication. Read more Published on 28 Aug 2001 by Mr. Jonathan Headland 5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for every Internet/DTV professional A great book for all those who believe that you cannot predict the future (including theirs) without knowing the past. Published on 28 Nov 1999 by d.vayenas@city.ac.uk 4.0 out of 5 stars Puts modern communication into perspective A fascinating book that explodes the theory that we are in a period of communication innovation. If you thought 'netiquette', 'flaming' and 'newbies' were a new concept then you... Read more Published on 8 Jun 1999 5.0 out of 5 stars The telegraph: a Victorian 'information revolution'. Technology journalist Tom Standage argues, convincingly, that the Victorians would be unsurprised by our Internet, as the electric century telegraph system already had many of... Read more Published on 30 Mar 1999 5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic read from start to finish This book is a brilliant look at telegraphy and its forebears. It delves into the lives of the people involved, their triumphs and failures (the laying of undersea cables sticks... Read more Published on 15 Mar 1999 5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating and eadily read book. Tom Standage has succeeded at what could have been a very tricky task. He has written a book about a Victorian invention that is now obsolete and made it very readable and... Read more Published on 15 Mar 1999 Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 11 customer reviews...

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