Different objects were measured with different measures; some were in paces, others in cubits or in feet. Certain measures had no physical objectivity, and land was measured according to the number of days' work in Bourges, for example, an acre was equivalent to sixteen days.
Furthermore, measures varied from one parish to another. At certain markets two or three systems of. Royal authorities repeatedly tried, in vain, to unify the system of weights and measures. In fact, local metrological particularism was part and parcel of the privileges of the nobility who could always take advantage of it to increase taxes, generally paid in kind. Metrological unification was a significant claim in registers of grievances, but it was only with the upheaval of the revolution that this was to be realized.
The demands in the registers of grievances were for an end to the metrological arbitrary and for local unification. The academics responsible for implementing this reform and particularly Condorcet wanted to give it a universal character, a natural base.
Condorcet, as secretary of the Academy of Sciences, wrote in his report to the National Assembly in March The Academy has tried to exclude any arbitrary condition, anything which could hint of the influence of a particular French interest or a national bias. In short, it wished that if the principles and details of this operation were to be passed to posterity, it would be impossible to guess by which nation it had been ordained and executed8.
Under the Convention, reform, like the telegraph, seemed intended primarily to strengthen national unity. Condorcet, Romme, Laka- nal, but also Arbogast and Daunou the two commissaires responsible with Laka- nal for supervising Chappe's first experiments were the authors of such projects.
His hydraulic comparison was possibly inspired by a machine he had to evaluate for the Committee of Public Education but, whatever the case, this model of diffusion by relays is exactly that of the telegraph.
A universal language. All these reforms to space, time, systems of measures, had the same justification: rationality, simplicity, universality. The universal vocation of the Revolution. The project of a universal language developed by Condorcet was fairly close to that of Leibniz. It was amatter of discovering the intellectual operations at the base of all reasoning.
Parallel to this logician's thought, other revolutionary intellectuals wanted to construct an artificial universal language, an Esperanto before its time. Delournel, for example, presented to the Convention in a 'universal language project'. These themes were adopted by an intellectual movement called the ideologists Daunou was one of them , which was dominant at the time of the Directoire and the Consulat Some of them considered changing the language.
This project 'did not only seek to determine the common foundations of all languages; [it] was also animated by the dream of finding the lost universal language whose restoration would ensure perfect communication, the true base of. These universal language Utopias are the reflection of the concrete difficulties which the revolutionaries experienced in trying to get their political message across. In the face of such linguistic fragmentation, a means of communication had to be found to constitute a public sphere.
Such projects for a universal language soon proved to be impracticable. Reforms envisaged were rather relative to vocabulary and spelling. A principle for the multiplication of words was being sought. It was thus a question of rationalizing the construction of vocabulary. Furthermore, the reform of spelling, like that of weights and measures, was to allow for the definition of a rational system; to note in a univocal fashion the sounds of words, and to standardize the.
Like the reform of weights and measures, which Talleyrand had imagined in could be led jointly with England so as to be truly universal, and which became national and Jacobin, the universal language became the diffusion of French across the Republic as a whole.
This philosopher wanted to introduce a new method of reasoning founded on formulae similar to those used in algebra The telegraph thus only writes languages which are already formulated; but its language becomes almost universal, in that it indicates combinations of numbers instead of words, and that the manner of expressing these numbers is generally known and can be applied to the words which compose all dictionaries.
His aim is not to find a language which is easy to learn without a dictionary Leibniz's expression in his letter to M. Numerous innovators. All these Utopian conceptions of space, time and communication were produced not only by the intelligentsia and politicians but also by unknown persons who sent letters to the Convention or the Committee of Public Education.
Some of this literature is still accessible today in the national archives. From to , we can count one invention project per year for a long-distance communication system.
But my intention in this chapter is not to write a technical history of telegraphic inventions, but a history of the representations of the technology. These inventors-amateurs are of interest to me because of their discourse. The idea of. Favre discovered a system which permitted 'the transmission in a few seconds of a mind's image sic from one end of the Republic to another', but he was careful not to reveal his method8.
A 'citizen of Angely- Boutonne' sent two notes, one on the telegraph, the other on 'Directions on the French Calendar', preceded by 'Reflection on chronology in relation to the people's freedom'.
To illustrate his phonetic writing, he took the example of the republican calendar. All these scholarly or spontaneous representations of space, time, measurement systems, and communication, constitute the mentality in which Chappe was able to develop his innovation. Chappe was not content to convince just the military lobby of the Convention, and his project was taken over by Romme and Lakanal not only because it was reliable it was not unique in this , but because it was in keeping with this new perception of space.
Chappe's advantage over Amontons was that he proposed a project which corresponded to the mentality of his era. Let us try to look further at this idea of correspondence between a technology and mentalities. The semaphore telegraph did not correspond to any significant technological development. It was situated in a technical paradigm which had been stabilized for the preceding two centuries. One could thus consider at one level that we are dealing with a latent innovation which the movement of ideas resulting from the Revolution had made possible.
In his account to the Legislative Assembly, he stated: The most difficult obstacle to conquer will be the spirit of prevention, with which creators of projects are normally received. I would never have been able to get beyond the fear of being associated with them, had I not been supported by the persuasion that every French citizen owes to his country, now more than ever, the tribute which he believes will be useful to it.
It is up to the legislators to stop the clamours of ignorance or the agitation of curiosity; it is for the National Convention to encourage the arts and sciences. On the other. State communication. Diffusion of innovation. Diffusion of the telegraph was largely related to that of the republican calendar and the metric system. These three novelties seem to have resulted from the Revolution. Their zones of diffusion were to evolve with the movements of the French armies, and the telegraph was to be extended towards northern Italy Turin- Milan-Venice then Trieste and Flanders Antwerp-Amsterdam and Brussels.
Diffusion of Chappe's telegraph was essentially linked to the extension of the Republic. It was only implanted in those territories annexed by France and in certain sister republics. Kula noted that in other European countries, conquered later by Napoleon, it was not republics but kingdoms which were created, and no attempt was made to introduce the metric system.
The republican calendar was abandoned in , after twelve years. In retrospect, it may seem quite reasonable that the most purely ideological reform did not survive the Revolution, but we should not forget that, as W. Kula demonstrated so well, there was considerable resistance to the metric system.
If the registers of grievances requested the unification of weights and measures, it was more a question of harmonization on a local level than ere-. The reason for the calendar's failure was clearly explained by Baczko. Whilst there existed considerable diversity of weights and measures, the Christian world had unified its measurement of time on the Gregorian calendar.
The need for universality was thus far less obvious. Similarly the English who had unified their system of measures were hardly interested in the metric system. It was finally to be adopted in Italy, in Germany, and in Russia along with the Gregorian calendar at the time of the revolution.
This makes one think of the May slogan 'Let us indulge in wishful thinking'1. That intensity of desire, that force of social imagination, was one of the conditions for the birth of the telegraph.
It was common to Chappe and the other inventors of the telegraph. If Chappe triumphed over the others because of the reliability of his system, he did not hesitate to use ideological arguments to fight his most serious competitors. The Chappe brothers worked not only on the technical side to their invention, but also on the social and political. During his retirement, Abraham Chappe, in , drew to the notice of the Minister of the Interior the necessity to lay the legal foundations of the telegraphic monopoly.
Use of the telegraph. There was of course a discrepancy between the social imagination of the telegraph and its effective uses. Rabaut- Pommier declared in 'One day, when peace permits the perfecting of useful inventions, the telegraph applied to trade, physics, politics, even agriculture, will multiply means of communication and make them more useful by their speed. The author of this fortunate invention has already used it to warn of storms9. In , Chappe suggested to the Directoire using the telegraph for transmitting exchange rates and announcing the arrival of ships in ports.
In , under the Consulat, he renewed his proposition by extending it to the diffusion of national lottery results and the transmission of an official information bulletin approved by the First Consul.
Only the lottery project was accepted. Several historians see in this the refusal by the State to open its communication networks to the private sector. It was not the only reason; these projects necessitated the extension of the network. Reasons for the failure of attempts to extend use of the telegraph are rather to be found in the lack of demand. The industrial revolution was still in its infancy in France, and the demand for rapid transmission of industrial and commercial information limited.
During the Revolution and the Empire, uses of the telegraph were essentially military, under the Restauration they were rather for the police. Abraham Chappe described in a letter of the role of the telegraph after the Empire: telegraphic lines 'carry to the centre of government, at the speed of thought, all political feeling This communication verifies all administrative reports, it gives more unity of action When the government has to be ready to defend itself against the attack of parties, when each minute must be effeciently used The construction of lines was most often related to a specific request linked to events.
The first Paris-Lille line was built under the Convention for communicating with the army in the North. The Directoire requested the installation of the Strasbourg line to be able to communicate with its plenipotentiaries during the Rastadt congress.
Napoleon, to improve his communication with Italy, wanted to build the Lyons-Milan line in fifteen days. After the Russian campaign he also requested the urgent construction of a Strasbourg- Mayence line. Under the Restauration a Paris-Bayonne line was similarly built in preparation for the Spanish expedition of Such principles for building the network did not allow for an effective response to the development of the militaro-police demand. The Lyons-Toulon line was to be built only in Other European networks.
The British Admiralty built telegraphic lines between London and four coastal ports in and In , these lines were closed.
Similarly, in the Netherlands a telegraph was built in during the Belgian war of independence, and was closed as soon as the war ended. The installation of a permanent transmission device for the needs of the State was only developed later - but not in France. Britain installed a network of semaphores in the 's for the Admiralty's needs. It is interesting to note that, having closed the lines which served during the Napoleonic wars and having declared in to Ronalds, an inventor of the electric telegraph, 'that telegraphs of whatever nature they may be, are completely useless9', the Admiralty had a new semaphore system built to cover the same areas Deal, Portsmouth and Plymouth with slightly different alignments.
Some historians like Jeffrey Kieve were surprised by the lack of insight of the Admiralty who did not seize upon the possibilities offered at that time by the electric telegraph. We think that on the. It was only in the s that the other European states built telegraphic links.
In , Russia established a line between St. Petersburg and Warsaw. These networks were however short-lived. The English network was to be replaced by the electric telegraph in , whilst on the continent the transformation was to take place later, in the. These were all government telegraphs managed by the military England, Prussia or by State civil engineers Spain, Sweden. They were instruments intended to strengthen national unity, to consolidate the power of the State.
For Prussia, the telegraph which crossed the independent states of central Germany constituted in the strict sense a link between the two parts of the country the Rhineland and Eastern Prussia. In his 84 years, Thomas Edison acquired a record number of 1, patents singly or jointly and was the driving force behind such innovations as the phonograph, the incandescent light bulb and one of the earliest motion picture cameras.
Alexander Graham Bell, best known for his invention of the telephone, revolutionized communication as we know it. His interest in sound technology was deep-rooted and personal, as both his wife and mother were deaf. The internet got its start in the United States more than 50 years ago as a government weapon in the Cold War.
For years, scientists and In , Connecticut-born gun manufacturer Samuel Colt received a U. Colt founded a company to manufacture his revolving-cylinder pistol; however, sales were slow and the Black codes were restrictive laws designed to limit the freedom of African Americans and ensure their availability as a cheap labor force after slavery was abolished during the Civil War. Though the Union victory had given some 4 million enslaved people their freedom, the The Code of Hammurabi was one of the earliest and most complete written legal codes and was proclaimed by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, who reigned from to B.
Hammurabi expanded the city-state of Babylon along the Euphrates River to unite all of southern Serbian-American engineer and physicist Nikola Tesla made dozens of breakthroughs in the production, transmission and application of electric power. He invented the first alternating current AC motor and developed AC generation and transmission technology. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Early Forms of Long-Distance Communication Before the development of the electric telegraph in the 19th century revolutionized how information was transmitted across long distances, ancient civilizations such as those in China, Egypt and Greece used drumbeats or smoke signals to exchange information between far-flung points.
The Electric Telegraph In the early 19th century, two developments in the field of electricity opened the door to the production of the electric telegraph. Recommended for you. How the Troubles Began in Northern Ireland. Black Codes. Senator Morse Calls for Vietnam Withdrawal. Guglielmo Marconi Italian inventor and engineer Guglielmo Marconi developed, demonstrated and marketed the first successful long-distance wireless telegraph and in broadcast the first transatlantic radio signal.
Thomas Edison In his 84 years, Thomas Edison acquired a record number of 1, patents singly or jointly and was the driving force behind such innovations as the phonograph, the incandescent light bulb and one of the earliest motion picture cameras. Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell, best known for his invention of the telephone, revolutionized communication as we know it.
Some used static electricity while others worked off of electromagnetic principles to send messages to another connected telegraph a great distance away. But none of these were able to get any traction on the market as they were too expensive to run. The Cooke and Wheatstone system however, developed by William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone, was the first commercial electrical telegraph. This system required six wires and included several needles which would point to different letters of the alphabet.
After a series of demonstrations, none of which were able to win over any funding, the system finally caught hold of enough investors in the late s to become a widely accepted means of communication and was first used primarily in the railroad industry.
Another telegraph system that gained popularity around the same time as the Cooke and Wheatstone device was the Morse system. Patented in the U. When most people imagine a telegraph, this is the system they picture. Radio waves, also known as Hertzian waves, were first discovered in the late 19th century and were later used for commercial purposes by Guglielmo Marconi in No discussion of long distance communication is complete without paying heed to the telephone.
Widely considered to be the primary means of conveying a message across great distances for over a century, the telephone combined the lossless communication of conversation with the instantaneousness of the telegraph. Patented in by Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone gained popularity in the early s. Calls across the country and the world were connected by physical switchboards manned by human operators who would literally connect one line to another.
As technology advanced, particularly with the invention of the transistor, electronic switching systems were created to connect two parties, making this method of communication even more efficient than before.
And although it lacked the widespread audience of radio, it allowed a more personal means of long distance communication. Though the phones of today, which offer a variety of other features and communication methods, are so different than the 20th century telephone, the core principle of one-on-one communication remains. And while radio may have been king of the entertainment industry in the early to mid 20th century, TV has most certainly replaced it as the most common household entertainment device.
Since then, the television has seen a myriad of changes and improvements. From the implementation of color transmission to massive improvements in screen resolution, the televisions of today are far different than their predecessors, unlike radio which has staying relatively the same.
0コメント