1 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:05,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 2 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 3 00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:18,159 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and 4 00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:21,000 Speaker 1: today is going to be one of our Invention episodes. 5 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:23,720 Speaker 1: We're going to be talking about the invention of the 6 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:27,240 Speaker 1: electrical telegraph. And I thought perhaps a good way to 7 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:31,320 Speaker 1: kick off this talk would be to discuss a classic 8 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:36,160 Speaker 1: thought experiment known as the two generals problem, Rob do 9 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:38,879 Speaker 1: you ever encountered this before? I don't think I've really 10 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:41,199 Speaker 1: seen it spelled out. So this one is a lot 11 00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:43,640 Speaker 1: of fun. So this is used in like computer science 12 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:46,080 Speaker 1: classes and stuff these days. Normally it has a kind 13 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:49,760 Speaker 1: of generic format, though to give a little extra flare, uh, 14 00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 1: it typically takes place in an archaic, low technology setting. 15 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:57,200 Speaker 1: So I'm going to give this generic problem a dark 16 00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:01,400 Speaker 1: crystal twist. Oh we're going to throw yeah, yeah, okay, okay. 17 00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:06,040 Speaker 1: So you've got two Guelfling armies and they are set 18 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:10,880 Speaker 1: to attack the Skexi stronghold in the Castle of the Crystal, 19 00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:15,080 Speaker 1: and the two armies are stationed on opposite sides of 20 00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:18,360 Speaker 1: the valley where the stronghold lies. The gain world that 21 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:21,240 Speaker 1: would be the ba Limb Valley. But so there's a 22 00:01:21,319 --> 00:01:23,560 Speaker 1: valley where the castle is, the two armies are on 23 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:28,720 Speaker 1: opposite sides, and the valley is shrouded in an eerie haze. Now, 24 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:32,399 Speaker 1: each gulf Ling army is commanded by a general, and 25 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:37,240 Speaker 1: the two generals know that with their combined strength, if 26 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:40,320 Speaker 1: they attack at the same time, they can defeat the 27 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:43,240 Speaker 1: skex eas and overcome the power of the Crystal. But 28 00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:47,440 Speaker 1: if either of them attacks without the other, they're doomed. 29 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:50,280 Speaker 1: They won't be strong enough, so they have to coordinate. 30 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:54,520 Speaker 1: The only method they have to communicate is to send 31 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:58,480 Speaker 1: a messenger through enemy territory to the other side. But 32 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 1: here's the problem. How can they ever be sure that 33 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:05,880 Speaker 1: they are agreed on a plan. So imagine the first 34 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:09,200 Speaker 1: general sends a message the messages we're going to attack 35 00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:12,880 Speaker 1: tomorrow at dawn. So maybe the general writes it down, 36 00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:15,000 Speaker 1: hands it off to the messenger and she flies off 37 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:18,400 Speaker 1: into the fog with the message. But then the first 38 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:21,320 Speaker 1: general has to wonder is she going to make it 39 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:24,440 Speaker 1: through or will she be shot down and captured by 40 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:29,680 Speaker 1: the Gartham. So without confirmation that the messenger succeeded, the 41 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:33,560 Speaker 1: first general might really hesitate to go through with the attack, 42 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:38,360 Speaker 1: because remember, neither army can succeed alone. So the first 43 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:40,640 Speaker 1: general is just not going to know if the message 44 00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:43,519 Speaker 1: reached the second general and won't know if they're they're 45 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:45,880 Speaker 1: actually on the same page or not. Yeah, it's not 46 00:02:45,919 --> 00:02:49,240 Speaker 1: just a trust exercise. It's a trust in your method 47 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:52,680 Speaker 1: of long distance communication. Right now, you might think there's 48 00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:54,760 Speaker 1: a solution to this. You might think, well, the second 49 00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 1: general could just send back a confirmation message. So so 50 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:02,480 Speaker 1: imagine the first messenger does get through, second general writes 51 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:07,000 Speaker 1: the message that says tomorrow at dawn confirmed, and they 52 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:10,639 Speaker 1: hand that off to their own messenger. The second messenger 53 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:14,360 Speaker 1: flies off into the fog. But then, unfortunately the second 54 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:17,600 Speaker 1: general would, like the first time, have no way of 55 00:03:17,639 --> 00:03:20,720 Speaker 1: knowing if their message made it through. And so the 56 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:24,000 Speaker 1: second general may begin to wonder if the first general, 57 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:27,520 Speaker 1: who may or may not have received a confirmation, will 58 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:30,200 Speaker 1: actually go ahead with the attack or may hold back 59 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 1: for fear of leading that doomed maneuver alone. And then 60 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:36,240 Speaker 1: you can just keep permuting this. You can say, okay, well, 61 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:38,720 Speaker 1: the first general could send a message confirming that they 62 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:43,200 Speaker 1: got the second general's confirmation, but Unfortunately, the same uncertainty 63 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:46,120 Speaker 1: is before would still apply, and back and forth and 64 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:48,360 Speaker 1: back and forth, with the point being that there is 65 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:53,440 Speaker 1: actually no way to guarantee agreement on both sides of 66 00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:56,920 Speaker 1: a communication line when there were doubts about the message 67 00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:01,440 Speaker 1: reaching its target unhindered or unaltered, and some forms of 68 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:03,720 Speaker 1: this problem. And I think I've actually been like formally 69 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:08,040 Speaker 1: mathematically proven. Now. It's funny how, on one hand, the 70 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:12,080 Speaker 1: two general's problem is used to illustrate issues about the 71 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:17,960 Speaker 1: inherent uncertainties of telecommunication in computer science and networking technology. 72 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,719 Speaker 1: But I also think about how, in a practical sense, 73 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:22,279 Speaker 1: if you like, we're to take this out of the 74 00:04:22,279 --> 00:04:25,800 Speaker 1: thought experiment realm and apply real modern technology to it. 75 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:30,320 Speaker 1: Modern telecommunications have pretty much made this problem obsolete in 76 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:34,839 Speaker 1: the way it's literally envisioned. Because while electronic messages can 77 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:37,560 Speaker 1: still be intercepted, they can be subject to man in 78 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:41,200 Speaker 1: the middle attacks and so forth. Something like a traditional 79 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:45,040 Speaker 1: voice to voice phone call is just pretty solid, right 80 00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:47,320 Speaker 1: if you get on the phone with the other general 81 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:52,160 Speaker 1: there is simultaneous real time two way communication, which would 82 00:04:52,160 --> 00:04:56,600 Speaker 1: allow for enough you know, conversational fidelity to massively reduce 83 00:04:56,640 --> 00:04:59,159 Speaker 1: the uncertainty of both generals. If they can talk and 84 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:01,760 Speaker 1: it's simultane and he is talking, they're probably going to 85 00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:04,880 Speaker 1: feel confident enough to go ahead, right right, I am 86 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:08,240 Speaker 1: communicating with the person nay to communicate with. We can 87 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:10,440 Speaker 1: we can hash out the details that it comes up, 88 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:12,640 Speaker 1: like well, which don which of the various sons of 89 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:15,280 Speaker 1: thraw are we referring to? But they can go ahead, 90 00:05:15,279 --> 00:05:17,479 Speaker 1: and you know, any kind of potential miscommunications can be 91 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:21,320 Speaker 1: ironed out in real time rather quickly without having to 92 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:24,560 Speaker 1: to send messages back and forth. Right, And it makes 93 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:29,080 Speaker 1: me think about how we generally take like simultaneous instantaneous 94 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:33,320 Speaker 1: telecommunications totally for granted these days, but for the vast 95 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:37,600 Speaker 1: majority of human history, communication with anybody out of your 96 00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:41,600 Speaker 1: line of sight was not easy. It took intense time 97 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:44,880 Speaker 1: and labor to transmit messages to people who were not 98 00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:48,440 Speaker 1: in your direct vicinity. This was a major limitation on 99 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:53,280 Speaker 1: previous civilizations. It was a major limitation on the scope 100 00:05:53,279 --> 00:05:55,840 Speaker 1: of projects that could be coordinated. It was a major 101 00:05:55,920 --> 00:06:00,400 Speaker 1: limitation on just personal relationships over distance. I mean it, 102 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:04,520 Speaker 1: the world is so different now that we have basically 103 00:06:04,560 --> 00:06:09,440 Speaker 1: instantaneous simultaneous telecommunication. It's it's a different world than it 104 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:12,440 Speaker 1: was before. Yeah, yeah, this is this is a fascinating 105 00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:14,400 Speaker 1: topic and it's actually pretty interesting to think about it 106 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:17,640 Speaker 1: within the confines of the Dark Crystal Thraw situation, because 107 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:21,279 Speaker 1: on one hand, I think it I think you're absolutely 108 00:06:21,279 --> 00:06:24,919 Speaker 1: correct with the Gelflings. I don't think it is established 109 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:26,680 Speaker 1: in the Cannon that they have any means of long 110 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:30,600 Speaker 1: distance communication aside from sending messengers such as their their 111 00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:34,240 Speaker 1: their wing and females um. Some of them can communicate 112 00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:36,800 Speaker 1: with animals, so they could do that. Otherwise their dream 113 00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:42,280 Speaker 1: fasting abilities have to be done like basically within close contact. 114 00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:46,200 Speaker 1: And then there's also this ability to etch dreams and rocks, 115 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:48,400 Speaker 1: but I don't know if that it was ever established 116 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:51,200 Speaker 1: as being anything that could be done quickly. That seems 117 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:55,600 Speaker 1: like more of a communicate with future generation sort of thing. Meanwhile, 118 00:06:55,720 --> 00:06:59,240 Speaker 1: the Skexies during the Gartha Wars, at least they have 119 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:03,000 Speaker 1: the crystal bats, which are you know, these these crystal 120 00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:07,200 Speaker 1: uh creature amalgams that can fly through the air and 121 00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:11,160 Speaker 1: they're used for spying. But uh, they're not expressly used 122 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:13,200 Speaker 1: for long distance communication, but it seems like maybe they 123 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:16,480 Speaker 1: could be. And in the Age of Resistance, it is 124 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:20,080 Speaker 1: implied that they're able to summon skech Maul the hunter 125 00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:23,160 Speaker 1: from Afar, So they seem to have some means at 126 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:26,280 Speaker 1: their disposal, and that gives them a tremendous advantage over 127 00:07:26,360 --> 00:07:28,800 Speaker 1: the gelf links of this scenario. Well don't they like 128 00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:32,160 Speaker 1: blow a big horn to summon the skexest voiced by 129 00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:34,600 Speaker 1: Ralph Inison. Oh yeah, yeah, is it a horn that 130 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:37,040 Speaker 1: they use? Okay, I think so, I could be wrong. 131 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:39,680 Speaker 1: Well that's funny because it connects to one of the 132 00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:41,720 Speaker 1: next things that we're going to talk about, which is 133 00:07:42,200 --> 00:07:45,040 Speaker 1: what came before. Whenever we talk about an invention, we'd 134 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:47,920 Speaker 1: like to say, were there ways people sort of tried 135 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: to solve or partially solve this problem before the invention 136 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:55,000 Speaker 1: in question with other means. So before we get to 137 00:07:55,040 --> 00:07:58,320 Speaker 1: the invention of the electric telegraph in the first half 138 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:01,520 Speaker 1: of the nineteenth century, there was a long history of 139 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:06,560 Speaker 1: alternative solutions for long distance communication. So before the eighteen 140 00:08:06,640 --> 00:08:09,480 Speaker 1: thirties or so, if you needed to get a message 141 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:13,200 Speaker 1: to somebody far away as fast as possible, what were 142 00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:16,560 Speaker 1: your options? Uh? And I guess the first category of 143 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:19,920 Speaker 1: things we should talk about is UH, fast movers. One 144 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:22,520 Speaker 1: of you know, this option is pretty straightforward. Send a 145 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:26,440 Speaker 1: message by the fastest moving person or thing that you 146 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:28,480 Speaker 1: can get your hands on that you think will actually 147 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:31,560 Speaker 1: get it to the to its point of destination. So 148 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:35,720 Speaker 1: these could be fast moving runners or writers. I was 149 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:38,520 Speaker 1: looking at a couple of examples of organized systems of 150 00:08:38,559 --> 00:08:41,719 Speaker 1: fast moving messengers in history. One is cited in the 151 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:44,720 Speaker 1: work of the Greek historian Herodotus. There appear to be 152 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:49,400 Speaker 1: different versions of the paragraph in question from the history 153 00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:52,360 Speaker 1: of Herodotus, But uh, this text I'm about to quote 154 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:55,480 Speaker 1: was the one translated into English by Macaulay in eight 155 00:08:56,920 --> 00:09:00,280 Speaker 1: So this is talking about the context of uh war 156 00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:04,839 Speaker 1: with Persia, and it mentions the Persian king Xerxes. So 157 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:08,480 Speaker 1: Herodotus writes, quote, while Xerxes was doing thus, he sent 158 00:09:08,559 --> 00:09:12,040 Speaker 1: a messenger to the Persians to announce the calamity which 159 00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:15,040 Speaker 1: had come upon them. Now there is nothing mortal which 160 00:09:15,040 --> 00:09:18,880 Speaker 1: accomplishes a journey with more speed than these messengers. So 161 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:22,360 Speaker 1: skillfully has this been invented by the Persians? For they 162 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:25,000 Speaker 1: say that according to the number of days of which 163 00:09:25,040 --> 00:09:28,839 Speaker 1: the entire journey consists, so many horses and men are 164 00:09:28,880 --> 00:09:32,280 Speaker 1: set at intervals. Each man and a horse appointed for 165 00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:36,480 Speaker 1: a day's journey. These neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, 166 00:09:36,559 --> 00:09:40,320 Speaker 1: nor darkness of night prevents from accomplishing each one the 167 00:09:40,400 --> 00:09:44,040 Speaker 1: task proposed to him with the very utmost speed. The 168 00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:46,880 Speaker 1: first then rides and delivers the message with which he 169 00:09:46,920 --> 00:09:49,720 Speaker 1: has charged the second, and the second to the third, 170 00:09:50,080 --> 00:09:52,720 Speaker 1: and after that it goes through them, handed from one 171 00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:55,880 Speaker 1: to the other, as in the torch race among the Hellenes, 172 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:59,280 Speaker 1: which they perform for he faced us. This kind of 173 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:03,800 Speaker 1: running of their horses the Persians call an angaryon, So 174 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:07,720 Speaker 1: this is interesting. This angeryon that Herodotus describes is a 175 00:10:08,400 --> 00:10:14,000 Speaker 1: is a massive messaging system throughout the Persian Empire which 176 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:18,200 Speaker 1: involves riders that each travel for one day's journey and then, 177 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:20,720 Speaker 1: like a relay race, hand the message off to a 178 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:23,880 Speaker 1: fresh writer who's rested and ready to go the next day. 179 00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:26,640 Speaker 1: A couple of other things struck me about this quote. 180 00:10:26,640 --> 00:10:29,240 Speaker 1: One is that it has that line which I think 181 00:10:29,559 --> 00:10:32,400 Speaker 1: it was later adapted into the motto of the US 182 00:10:32,480 --> 00:10:35,560 Speaker 1: Postal Service, the you know, neither rain, nor heat, nor 183 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:39,280 Speaker 1: darkness of night prevents us from accomplishing our rounds, which 184 00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:42,000 Speaker 1: I think speaks to the longevity of this particular solution 185 00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:47,360 Speaker 1: like this. This is a solution that emerges out of 186 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:50,680 Speaker 1: out of human innovation UH in multiple cultures, and it 187 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:52,600 Speaker 1: sticks with us for a very long time because it's 188 00:10:52,640 --> 00:10:55,360 Speaker 1: just a very sensible, straightforward way to do it without 189 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:59,719 Speaker 1: additional technological innovations to enable other possibilities. Right. But I 190 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,640 Speaker 1: think there's another part of this that needs to be appreciated, 191 00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:07,160 Speaker 1: which is that messaging systems like this, which this is 192 00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:08,840 Speaker 1: not unique to the Persians. I want to talk about 193 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:12,439 Speaker 1: another example in a second. They don't just rely on 194 00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:15,480 Speaker 1: fast movers themselves. They don't just rely on say the 195 00:11:15,559 --> 00:11:20,000 Speaker 1: riders or the runners being swift. They also usually rely 196 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:25,320 Speaker 1: on infrastructure, having some kind of dedicated road or pathway system, 197 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:29,040 Speaker 1: often with like stations or houses along the way, in 198 00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:32,040 Speaker 1: order to facilitate that fast travel, because of course, you know, 199 00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:35,840 Speaker 1: the terrain you're traveling over makes a very big difference 200 00:11:36,040 --> 00:11:39,040 Speaker 1: to how fast you can go. Of course, having the 201 00:11:38,559 --> 00:11:40,920 Speaker 1: UH the path laid out for you, and not having 202 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:43,640 Speaker 1: to navigate just through open country that also makes a 203 00:11:43,640 --> 00:11:46,680 Speaker 1: big difference. So one of the other examples I wanted 204 00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:50,440 Speaker 1: to mention were the famous the chas Keys of the 205 00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:54,640 Speaker 1: Incan Empire in the in the andies in South America. UH. 206 00:11:54,679 --> 00:11:58,280 Speaker 1: These were messengers who carried information by foot. They were 207 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:01,240 Speaker 1: runners who would carry keypoos with them. The keypoos were 208 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:06,640 Speaker 1: the talking knots, the not based UH notation system that 209 00:12:06,679 --> 00:12:09,120 Speaker 1: would be on these these cords or fibers, and the 210 00:12:09,160 --> 00:12:11,960 Speaker 1: knots in them would encode some kind of information, and 211 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:15,200 Speaker 1: so the runners would carry these keypos with them, UH, 212 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:19,880 Speaker 1: trading out with freshly rested runners at waypoints along this 213 00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:24,360 Speaker 1: road system throughout the Incan Empire, and a commonly cited 214 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:27,800 Speaker 1: figure is that these runners could UH could cover distances 215 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:30,800 Speaker 1: of about two hundred and forty kilometers a day, which 216 00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:35,559 Speaker 1: is very impressive. But as impressive as these systems are, 217 00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:38,440 Speaker 1: like the systems used by the Persians and the Incans, 218 00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:43,200 Speaker 1: there are still pretty stiff limitations on how fast a 219 00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:46,120 Speaker 1: message can travel by by runner or rider. I mean 220 00:12:46,120 --> 00:12:49,280 Speaker 1: that that's still relatively slow compared to solutions that would 221 00:12:49,280 --> 00:12:52,679 Speaker 1: come along later. Yeah, because it may only be uh, 222 00:12:52,920 --> 00:12:57,040 Speaker 1: you know, five miles as the crow flies, but even 223 00:12:57,120 --> 00:12:59,960 Speaker 1: with the best road that you've been able to cut 224 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:03,000 Speaker 1: between point A and point B, that that distance could 225 00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:06,800 Speaker 1: could be doubled. But speaking as of the crow, that 226 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:10,199 Speaker 1: may fly above the mountains and the roads and the 227 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:12,600 Speaker 1: bridges and the rivers and so forth. There, of course, 228 00:13:12,679 --> 00:13:15,120 Speaker 1: is the the other obvious solution to this, and it's 229 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:18,720 Speaker 1: the use of animals. It's the use specifically of homing pigeons, 230 00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:22,680 Speaker 1: and the practice of attaching messages to homing pigeons and 231 00:13:22,720 --> 00:13:27,120 Speaker 1: releasing them. This dates back to the ancient world. Uh. 232 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:30,480 Speaker 1: This this has been a trace back to depending on 233 00:13:30,559 --> 00:13:33,080 Speaker 1: where you're looking, what source you're looking at, to ancient 234 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:38,640 Speaker 1: Egypt or ancient Persia. Certainly the Romans used homing pigeons. Uh, 235 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:42,600 Speaker 1: certainly a subset of fast movers, and it depends on 236 00:13:42,679 --> 00:13:46,320 Speaker 1: a rare, domesticated animal mover that can be trusted to 237 00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:49,520 Speaker 1: return to a specific location. Now that's not to say 238 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:53,640 Speaker 1: it's guaranteed that a single bird will make it back 239 00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:56,200 Speaker 1: with the message. But and this is one of the 240 00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:59,160 Speaker 1: reasons why you would release more than one carrying the 241 00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:03,480 Speaker 1: same message. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The pigeons thing makes me 242 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:06,760 Speaker 1: think of the two generals problem again. There you're introducing 243 00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:10,000 Speaker 1: kind of serious questions about whether your message actually gets through. 244 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:12,160 Speaker 1: I think, yeah. I mean, because if you're sending a 245 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:15,360 Speaker 1: runner or you're sending a bird, there are just things 246 00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:18,280 Speaker 1: that can happen. A hawk uh might decide that that 247 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:21,640 Speaker 1: pigeon looks particularly delicious. Uh. That you could also have 248 00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:26,640 Speaker 1: counter intelligence enemy operatives who who are catching or shooting 249 00:14:26,680 --> 00:14:29,000 Speaker 1: pigeons out of the air that sort of thing, or 250 00:14:29,040 --> 00:14:31,600 Speaker 1: the pigeon might see something it's interested in along the 251 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:36,000 Speaker 1: way and get distracted. Right, It's again, it's not guaranteed. 252 00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:40,560 Speaker 1: I believe. We did an episode on homing pigeons and 253 00:14:40,640 --> 00:14:43,720 Speaker 1: also compared them to the use of other homing animals 254 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:48,280 Speaker 1: and other fantasy series and sort of talked about why 255 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:50,440 Speaker 1: don't we use owls, why do we use pigeons, Why 256 00:14:50,480 --> 00:14:52,920 Speaker 1: don't we use crows, why are they why are we 257 00:14:53,040 --> 00:14:56,240 Speaker 1: using pigeons, and so forth. Now, there's another method of 258 00:14:56,680 --> 00:15:00,880 Speaker 1: long distance communication that goes much faster, uh and has 259 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:04,560 Speaker 1: been achieved in some rather ingenious forms throughout the world, 260 00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:08,760 Speaker 1: and that's auditory long distance communication. That's right, Yeah, I 261 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:13,240 Speaker 1: mean this at heart, this is pretty straightforward, right. We 262 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:15,520 Speaker 1: use You can just use sound to communicate something. You 263 00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:17,160 Speaker 1: just need to make sure that it is a sound 264 00:15:17,160 --> 00:15:20,160 Speaker 1: that can be heard. Uh. We already alluded to the 265 00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:23,160 Speaker 1: possibility of summoning skech Maul the hunter by blowing a horn. 266 00:15:23,880 --> 00:15:26,720 Speaker 1: And another of course fantasy example that comes to mind, 267 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:28,960 Speaker 1: or the horns of the night Watch, and uh, the 268 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:31,800 Speaker 1: Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones. One 269 00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:34,600 Speaker 1: blast of the horn means rangers are returning. To blast 270 00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:38,200 Speaker 1: means it's wild things attacking the wall or you know, 271 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:40,440 Speaker 1: or in the vicinity out there. And then three horn 272 00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:44,360 Speaker 1: blasts that means it's the others or the White Walkers attacking. Now, 273 00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:47,400 Speaker 1: George RR. Martin and creating this is of course playing 274 00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:50,480 Speaker 1: off of the long history and human cultures of using 275 00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:53,360 Speaker 1: horns and other loud instruments to communicate. And these are 276 00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:56,840 Speaker 1: called signal instruments. And there are a great many things 277 00:15:56,840 --> 00:15:59,640 Speaker 1: that fall under this basic category, and many of them 278 00:15:59,840 --> 00:16:01,440 Speaker 1: some of the the example you're gonna point out here. They're 279 00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:05,640 Speaker 1: also far more complicated than this, uh the simple three 280 00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:09,560 Speaker 1: horn system would suggest. So signal drums are among the 281 00:16:09,560 --> 00:16:12,600 Speaker 1: oldest documented form of signal instruments and they have a 282 00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:16,520 Speaker 1: long history in Africa especially, and again these are pretty complicated. 283 00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:21,720 Speaker 1: According to David Locke and Godwin Belly in article titled 284 00:16:21,760 --> 00:16:25,360 Speaker 1: Drum language in a Zogbo, this is an example of 285 00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:28,440 Speaker 1: what we can indeed think of as quote, a surrogate 286 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:32,680 Speaker 1: language played on musical instruments. And in addition to the 287 00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:39,720 Speaker 1: use of drums, we see the use of um of courtaphones, aeriophones, membronophones, 288 00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:43,440 Speaker 1: and ideophones used as in this manner historically among various 289 00:16:43,560 --> 00:16:48,480 Speaker 1: African people's quote. These surrogate languages maybe signals, that is, 290 00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:53,920 Speaker 1: special symbolic codes or representations of speech, that is, actual 291 00:16:54,000 --> 00:17:00,000 Speaker 1: imitations of spoken language. These talking drums worked generally by 292 00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:03,240 Speaker 1: imitating the rhythm of words in a given language, so 293 00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:06,399 Speaker 1: like the rise and fall of specific words. And they 294 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:09,080 Speaker 1: could be used to send messages up to twenty miles 295 00:17:09,160 --> 00:17:10,840 Speaker 1: or thirty or two kilometers, and then of course the 296 00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:15,119 Speaker 1: message could then be relayed by other drummers to spread 297 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:19,280 Speaker 1: news or other communications. And yeah, these were used, according 298 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:23,119 Speaker 1: to Lock and Belly, for all sorts of things you 299 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:31,040 Speaker 1: could have, um, uh you know, messages, messages, announcements, invocations, prayers, proverbs, eulogies, 300 00:17:31,440 --> 00:17:35,040 Speaker 1: emergency alarms, etcetera. And of course we continue to see 301 00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:38,280 Speaker 1: you know, echoes of these very basic uses, like anytime 302 00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:41,720 Speaker 1: there is allowed announcement that needs to be heard by people, 303 00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:44,520 Speaker 1: uh you know, and sometimes that announcement is made via 304 00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:47,120 Speaker 1: a sound. Uh. You know, we're kind of dipping into 305 00:17:47,119 --> 00:17:50,560 Speaker 1: this same area. Now, there are additional examples we might 306 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:53,720 Speaker 1: turn to if we were to do an exhaustive look 307 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:57,560 Speaker 1: at the different forms of auditory long distance communication you have, 308 00:17:57,800 --> 00:18:01,040 Speaker 1: especially in military uh said situations. You have things like 309 00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:05,359 Speaker 1: fife and drum corps. You have as tech conk signal ers. 310 00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:09,199 Speaker 1: You have alpine horns, bugle players, church bells. Even we 311 00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:10,840 Speaker 1: don't really think of that, but a church bell is 312 00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:15,080 Speaker 1: a way of communicating uh something to the surrounding area. Bagpipes, 313 00:18:15,119 --> 00:18:17,840 Speaker 1: of course are a big one in uh, in different cultures. 314 00:18:18,359 --> 00:18:20,280 Speaker 1: So yeah, there's a whole list of any anything you have. 315 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:23,280 Speaker 1: Time you have something that can create a very loud noise, 316 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:26,920 Speaker 1: and especially we can be modulated, uh in some form 317 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:29,719 Speaker 1: or another. Well that can be used to communicate. All right, 318 00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:33,800 Speaker 1: well that's long distance uh communication by sound. But another 319 00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:37,520 Speaker 1: thing that we should explore is what is sometimes called 320 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:42,080 Speaker 1: optical telegraphy uh. And we of course associate the telegraph 321 00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:44,440 Speaker 1: with the technology we're gonna be talking about in a bit, 322 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:50,000 Speaker 1: the electrical telegraph, but telegraph technically just means distance writing basically, 323 00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:53,800 Speaker 1: you know, writing writing far away uh. So communication at 324 00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:56,840 Speaker 1: a distance, and it was used to refer to these 325 00:18:56,840 --> 00:19:00,760 Speaker 1: optical techniques before it was ever used to for two 326 00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:04,560 Speaker 1: electrical techniques. And the optical techniques could involve all kinds 327 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:08,640 Speaker 1: of things, uh, fire and smoke signals, thing what's known 328 00:19:08,640 --> 00:19:13,720 Speaker 1: as semaphore, towers with shutters and flags basically, oh, mirrors 329 00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:17,159 Speaker 1: that reflect the sunlight. Basically anything you can use to 330 00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:20,920 Speaker 1: create a visual signal that somebody at a distance could 331 00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:24,440 Speaker 1: see and then maybe relay along to the next station. Uh, 332 00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:27,040 Speaker 1: so that you can go beyond a single a single 333 00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:30,840 Speaker 1: station's line of sight that also works to transmit messages 334 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:34,160 Speaker 1: at a distance. Yeah. And of course if you need 335 00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:36,320 Speaker 1: if you say you're if you're at sea or something 336 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:42,480 Speaker 1: dealing with you know, with with uniform um heights and all, 337 00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:44,840 Speaker 1: and it's just like one person on one ship and 338 00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:47,080 Speaker 1: it's just as far as the next ship is visible. 339 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:49,280 Speaker 1: But in other cases you might need to make use 340 00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:53,880 Speaker 1: of towers or higher points of elevation. Um. But yeah, 341 00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:56,320 Speaker 1: and all of this, uh you see everything from me 342 00:19:56,359 --> 00:20:01,040 Speaker 1: a mirrors to a lot of flares and towards chosen lights. 343 00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:04,320 Speaker 1: But also yeah, this use of semaphore UM. This was 344 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:07,159 Speaker 1: used for ship ship ship to ship communication often you know, 345 00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:10,720 Speaker 1: you accomplished with flags, but it could also be carried 346 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:16,439 Speaker 1: out by a giant puppet sort of. Um Claude Chope 347 00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:20,720 Speaker 1: in France and developed a system by which giant pivoted 348 00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:23,600 Speaker 1: arms on a tower could convey the signal to other 349 00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:26,600 Speaker 1: towers uh five to ten miles or eight to sixteen 350 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:29,639 Speaker 1: kilometers apart, and then these messages could be then read 351 00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:33,480 Speaker 1: by telescopic sightings. Okay, this makes me think, like the 352 00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:36,920 Speaker 1: Aliens are landing, it's eighteen hundred or so, and they 353 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:40,359 Speaker 1: just see this long string along the countryside of these 354 00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:44,680 Speaker 1: like dancing giant scarecrows with their arms waving all over 355 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:49,200 Speaker 1: the place. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it looked kind of like, um, 356 00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:52,280 Speaker 1: I guess it kind of looks like an American football goal, 357 00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:55,320 Speaker 1: but of course it can move, and it's to create 358 00:20:55,359 --> 00:21:00,560 Speaker 1: these various shapes that represent different letters. Uh so, yeah, 359 00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:03,119 Speaker 1: it's pretty crazy to think about like this. This was 360 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:07,000 Speaker 1: one way of carrying out this form of long distance communication, 361 00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:09,760 Speaker 1: which makes me think in a fantasy setting. I don't 362 00:21:09,760 --> 00:21:11,359 Speaker 1: know that anyone has done this, but say, like like 363 00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:13,960 Speaker 1: take a game of Throne style world or any of 364 00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:17,040 Speaker 1: these other ones. You often have giants about. The giants 365 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:19,880 Speaker 1: are generally tasked with things like breaking down walls and 366 00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:22,840 Speaker 1: heaving stones, but it seems like kind of a waste 367 00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:24,720 Speaker 1: of their ability get them to stand on the nearest 368 00:21:24,800 --> 00:21:27,639 Speaker 1: hill and do a bunch of arm motions and send 369 00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,880 Speaker 1: signals to another giant on another hill. Well, this does 370 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,840 Speaker 1: highlight something that I mean, as far as the actual 371 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:37,840 Speaker 1: speed of travel from station to station goes with optical symaphore, 372 00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:39,440 Speaker 1: I mean, you can't really beat the speed of light. 373 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:42,520 Speaker 1: That that's great, but you are limited by line of sight. 374 00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:46,000 Speaker 1: So you would be required to have stations close enough 375 00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:49,200 Speaker 1: together and enough of them that they could keep like 376 00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:52,680 Speaker 1: seeing the message the last station transmitted and then transmit 377 00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:56,600 Speaker 1: that along the chain to its intended destination. And so 378 00:21:56,680 --> 00:21:59,720 Speaker 1: that does require a lot of infrastructure and like human 379 00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:04,639 Speaker 1: off paraders for these big weird puppets. Yeah uh. And 380 00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:06,600 Speaker 1: of course with with semaphore also, yeah, you have to 381 00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:15,320 Speaker 1: you have to know the language of it. Now, there's 382 00:22:15,359 --> 00:22:17,040 Speaker 1: a There are a couple of other systems I want 383 00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:20,560 Speaker 1: to want to discuss here, and you could categorize them 384 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:25,360 Speaker 1: both as being hydraulic telegraphs. Though to be clear, even 385 00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:28,600 Speaker 1: though they both are water based and involved water. One 386 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:31,600 Speaker 1: of them is essentially an optical system. The other is 387 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:36,800 Speaker 1: more overtly hydraulic in nature. So it's two different systems. 388 00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:39,720 Speaker 1: There's one that's a fourth century BC Greek system and 389 00:22:39,760 --> 00:22:43,600 Speaker 1: the Lads and nineteenth century British invention that UH and 390 00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:47,320 Speaker 1: the Greek system in question here it was actually used. 391 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:51,600 Speaker 1: The British invention never really progressed past the test phase 392 00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:55,119 Speaker 1: for obvious reasons, as we'll get into. But the Greek 393 00:22:55,119 --> 00:22:57,640 Speaker 1: technology of the hydraulic telegraph was used during the First 394 00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:01,400 Speaker 1: Punic War, and it's described by both Tacticus and the Polybius. 395 00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:05,800 Speaker 1: It was essentially a system of water aided semaphore, so 396 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:09,440 Speaker 1: torches were used to sync up two sides. So again, 397 00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:12,480 Speaker 1: imagine two sides on two different hills. They can see 398 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:16,240 Speaker 1: the flames that each side has so they can communicate 399 00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:19,160 Speaker 1: with torch. But in addition to each side having a torch, 400 00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:22,399 Speaker 1: each side also has a water vessel with a with 401 00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:26,879 Speaker 1: a lined vertical rod inserted inside it. UH. You know, 402 00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:28,879 Speaker 1: like you might use to to measure the depth and 403 00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:31,199 Speaker 1: measure to measure how much water is in that vessel. 404 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:34,199 Speaker 1: Once they the two sides have syncd up, with their 405 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:38,000 Speaker 1: with reveals of their torches. Then they both start draining 406 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,399 Speaker 1: their vessels, and we have to stress these vessels are 407 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:45,480 Speaker 1: not connected in any way. Okay. Uh So then they 408 00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:49,159 Speaker 1: both stop when the sender signal stop with the torch. 409 00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:51,119 Speaker 1: So it's again it's like all right, your flash of 410 00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:54,120 Speaker 1: the torch, start draining your vessel. Okay, now stop, let's 411 00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:56,399 Speaker 1: both stop at the same time, and they both stop. 412 00:23:57,040 --> 00:24:00,679 Speaker 1: Uh So, the different measured water levels in side the 413 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:04,080 Speaker 1: vessel that both sides have have different messages at the 414 00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:07,760 Speaker 1: different depth levels, such as calvalry arrived in the country, 415 00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:12,160 Speaker 1: or heavy infantry or ships or corn, simple messages like that, 416 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:14,280 Speaker 1: and if it's ancient Greece, that would have to be 417 00:24:14,359 --> 00:24:17,880 Speaker 1: corn in the older meaning of like grain in general, 418 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:21,639 Speaker 1: not meaning maze right right now. The British system in 419 00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:24,800 Speaker 1: question here was designed by civil engineer Francis wish Shaw, 420 00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:29,000 Speaker 1: who later worked in electric telegraphs, and it was devised 421 00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:32,400 Speaker 1: to you know, similarly to to send a coded message 422 00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:35,800 Speaker 1: that could be read, but and based on water pressure 423 00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:38,600 Speaker 1: in a chamber, though in this case the receiving chamber 424 00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:42,400 Speaker 1: would be connected to the sending chamber, so there's literally 425 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:47,280 Speaker 1: like a hose of some sort or pipe connecting these 426 00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:52,359 Speaker 1: two different stations, and of course multiple stations as well. Um. 427 00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:57,080 Speaker 1: So they wouldn't have labeled specific messages within the chamber. 428 00:24:57,119 --> 00:24:59,639 Speaker 1: But whether there was a language of changes in water 429 00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:02,320 Speaker 1: pressure sure more in keeping with what will act we'll 430 00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:06,200 Speaker 1: discuss in reference to say like morse code. Um. So 431 00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:08,919 Speaker 1: it would not be like, okay, go to level five 432 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:11,160 Speaker 1: and that means that we need ships. No, it would 433 00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:14,359 Speaker 1: be like, uh, you know, increase, increased, decrease, There's something 434 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,199 Speaker 1: to that effect. There would be a language of changing 435 00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:20,240 Speaker 1: levels in the water. Um. Of course, there are obvious 436 00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:22,720 Speaker 1: limitations that come to mind with this. You're dealing you're 437 00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:25,240 Speaker 1: dealing with with with water and the pressure of water. 438 00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:27,960 Speaker 1: You're if you had this system set up in a 439 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:30,480 Speaker 1: place where the temperatures dropped enough, you'd have to deal 440 00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:34,320 Speaker 1: with potential freezes and so forth. So it was apparently 441 00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:38,800 Speaker 1: never developed outside of tests. Okay, interesting idea though, yeah, 442 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:42,600 Speaker 1: And of course obviously it becomes unnecessary given the advances 443 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:48,280 Speaker 1: of the electric telegraph. Exactly. So the real revolution comes 444 00:25:48,359 --> 00:25:52,439 Speaker 1: with the discovery of electricity. In particular a few a 445 00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:56,640 Speaker 1: few different breakthroughs. One is the work of Alessandro Volta 446 00:25:56,840 --> 00:26:00,359 Speaker 1: on the storage and control of electrical current with the 447 00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:03,359 Speaker 1: use of the voltaic pile, which is pretty much the 448 00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:06,000 Speaker 1: same principle as what we would today call a battery, 449 00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:10,919 Speaker 1: which Volta created around the year eighteen hundred and Another 450 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:14,520 Speaker 1: input on the development of electrical telegraphy was the research 451 00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:19,280 Speaker 1: on the relationship between electricity and magnetism, especially that of 452 00:26:19,359 --> 00:26:23,639 Speaker 1: Hans Christian or Instead of Denmark in eighteen twenty, where 453 00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:26,399 Speaker 1: he found, for example, that you could attract one of 454 00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:29,960 Speaker 1: the polls of a magnetic compass by running current through 455 00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:34,080 Speaker 1: a nearby wire. Now, building on this knowledge, the idea 456 00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:40,320 Speaker 1: of transmitting messages across electrical wires created an exciting technological 457 00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:44,840 Speaker 1: frontier in around the eighteen thirties. Now, the electrical telegraph 458 00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:48,160 Speaker 1: is not one of those inventions that was a unique 459 00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:51,680 Speaker 1: stroke of genius by a single inventor working alone from 460 00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,840 Speaker 1: out of nowhere. Rather, it's it's exactly the opposite. It's 461 00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:58,360 Speaker 1: one of those cases where lots of people all around 462 00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:02,840 Speaker 1: the same time became interested in basically the same idea. 463 00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:05,960 Speaker 1: In this case, they became aware that you could use 464 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:11,200 Speaker 1: electromagnetism to send encoded messages over wire across a great 465 00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:15,240 Speaker 1: distance and at great speed, receipt would be practically instantaneous. 466 00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:18,440 Speaker 1: You can't ask for much better than that. So electrical 467 00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:22,200 Speaker 1: telegraphy was not an unexpected breakthrough that came from from 468 00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:26,119 Speaker 1: a single point, but rather a kind of uh race 469 00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:30,160 Speaker 1: between many different inventors and teams to design the ideal 470 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:34,399 Speaker 1: system to implement this new potential. And there were so 471 00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:37,719 Speaker 1: many different ideas we certainly can't mention them all. Instead, 472 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:40,080 Speaker 1: we're going to focus on a couple of the major 473 00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:44,120 Speaker 1: early models that were the most influential. So one team 474 00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,399 Speaker 1: was based in England and that was Sir William Cook 475 00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:51,639 Speaker 1: and Sir Charles Wheatstone. And then another team was based 476 00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:54,919 Speaker 1: in the United States. That was Samuel Morise, Leonard Gael 477 00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:58,280 Speaker 1: and Alfred Vale and uh And a kind of interesting 478 00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:01,080 Speaker 1: thing to to keep in mind here is that, really 479 00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:05,120 Speaker 1: I think the most important differences in the systems were 480 00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:08,320 Speaker 1: actually not so much in the core transmission technology, but 481 00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:12,680 Speaker 1: in the systems for encoding and decoding the messages, because 482 00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:15,960 Speaker 1: remember this is not a phone call. There's no complex 483 00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:20,000 Speaker 1: audio signal traveling through the wires of a telegraph. Instead, 484 00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:22,439 Speaker 1: what was clear in the eighteen thirties was that you 485 00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:26,200 Speaker 1: could send current through a wire. You could send h 486 00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:30,480 Speaker 1: current or pulses of electricity and by extension magnetism, and 487 00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:33,399 Speaker 1: so the question was what is the best way to 488 00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:38,800 Speaker 1: encode and decode information using that electrical current across wire? 489 00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:41,680 Speaker 1: So first I'm gonna talk about the the English team 490 00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:46,200 Speaker 1: the Cook and Wheatstone telegraph. This was also known sometimes 491 00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:49,480 Speaker 1: as the five needle telegraph, though there were actually many 492 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:52,600 Speaker 1: models with different numbers of needles, but it was a 493 00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:56,120 Speaker 1: way to transmit written messages across wires with the use 494 00:28:56,240 --> 00:29:01,080 Speaker 1: of a coding diamond and an array of five different 495 00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:05,760 Speaker 1: magnetic pointer needles. Unfortunately, I think this is one that's 496 00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:08,040 Speaker 1: just really hard to explain without a visual aid. So 497 00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:10,000 Speaker 1: if you can look up a picture of the Cook 498 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:13,320 Speaker 1: Wheatstone Telegraph, I recommend it, but if not, I will 499 00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:16,720 Speaker 1: do my best to explain it. So imagine a sort 500 00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:21,000 Speaker 1: of large diamond shape made out of many smaller diamonds, 501 00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:25,760 Speaker 1: and those smaller diamonds are connecting letters of the alphabet. 502 00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:28,800 Speaker 1: So on the upper half of the diamond, picture like 503 00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:32,640 Speaker 1: a pyramid with the letter A at the top, and 504 00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:36,280 Speaker 1: then two lines forking down from the A, and those 505 00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:40,720 Speaker 1: forks go to the letters B, and D, and each 506 00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:44,000 Speaker 1: of those letters has two lines below it, forking down 507 00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:46,400 Speaker 1: to two more letters, So the B forks to an 508 00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:48,880 Speaker 1: E and an F, the D forks to the F 509 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,440 Speaker 1: and the G, and so on. And then this forking 510 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:57,240 Speaker 1: alphabet pyramid is again represented upside down with different letters 511 00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:01,160 Speaker 1: below the middle line of this diamond. So the big 512 00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:03,960 Speaker 1: diamond is full of the letters of the alphabet, not 513 00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:06,000 Speaker 1: all the letters of the alphabet, as we'll get to 514 00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:08,960 Speaker 1: in a minute, but most of them. And then in 515 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,800 Speaker 1: the middle of this big vertical diamond, it is bisected 516 00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:16,600 Speaker 1: by a line, which is a rack mounted with five 517 00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:21,200 Speaker 1: magnetic needles. Now, the five needles could be operated by 518 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:26,000 Speaker 1: switches at the transmitting station, which would send current through 519 00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:30,200 Speaker 1: the wire associated with each needle and would attract or 520 00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:33,440 Speaker 1: repell it, causing it to move pointing either to the 521 00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:38,320 Speaker 1: left or the right. By triggering two different pointer needles 522 00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:42,280 Speaker 1: at the same time, you could essentially point to any 523 00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:45,680 Speaker 1: letter on the diamond. So one needle would turn and 524 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:48,560 Speaker 1: you'd look up the line where it's pointing. Another needle 525 00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:51,080 Speaker 1: would turn, you'd look up the line where it's pointing, 526 00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:54,120 Speaker 1: and you'd see where those two lines intersected, and that 527 00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:57,760 Speaker 1: would be the letter that's encoded in the message. Now 528 00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:00,240 Speaker 1: I've been describing the five needle model. The rack stally 529 00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:03,560 Speaker 1: other variations on on the Cook and Wheatstone design which 530 00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:07,440 Speaker 1: required which had different numbers of needles and as fewer needles, 531 00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:09,760 Speaker 1: which was cheaper to do because you didn't have to 532 00:31:09,840 --> 00:31:13,000 Speaker 1: use as many wires, but which required more training for 533 00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:16,400 Speaker 1: the operators to encode and decode messages rather than using 534 00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:20,240 Speaker 1: the whole alphabet diamond um So, after its invention in 535 00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:23,000 Speaker 1: the eighteen thirties, the Cook and Wheatstone telegraph was put 536 00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:26,720 Speaker 1: into use in several variations by railway companies in Britain, 537 00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:32,560 Speaker 1: since rail stations were the places where instantaneous distance communication 538 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:36,400 Speaker 1: was actually useful, that was needed there, and they had 539 00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:40,000 Speaker 1: the money to invest in the infrastructure necessary to operate 540 00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:43,640 Speaker 1: the machines. Though I think actually um Cook and Wheatstone 541 00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:46,640 Speaker 1: may have paid out of pocket to implement some of 542 00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:51,440 Speaker 1: the original designs because it was initially considered experimental, early 543 00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:55,400 Speaker 1: implementations of the telegraph would widely be associated with rail 544 00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:59,360 Speaker 1: and railway stations. Uh and and in fact that actually 545 00:31:59,360 --> 00:32:01,960 Speaker 1: plays into one of the most famous stories about how 546 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:04,240 Speaker 1: the telegraph was used. Early on. So the Cook and 547 00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:09,440 Speaker 1: wheat Stone telegraph was famously used in the apprehension of 548 00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:14,320 Speaker 1: a murderer named John Tawell in eighteen forty four. Have 549 00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:17,720 Speaker 1: you ever heard of this rob So the story goes 550 00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:21,800 Speaker 1: like this. Tawell was a British shopkeeper and chemist who 551 00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:25,000 Speaker 1: had at multiple points he had been a member of 552 00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:29,360 Speaker 1: the Quakers, and he had been carrying on an extramarital 553 00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 1: affair with a woman named Sarah Hart, and I think 554 00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:35,320 Speaker 1: it was on New Year's Day eighteen forty five he 555 00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:39,760 Speaker 1: apparently murdered her by poisoning her beer with hydrogen cyanide, 556 00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:43,760 Speaker 1: and witnesses saw him leaving her house and then she 557 00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:47,040 Speaker 1: was found dead in her house. He was tracked to 558 00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:49,640 Speaker 1: the railway station in the city where he was, which 559 00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:54,440 Speaker 1: was slow in southern England. Towell tried to flee the 560 00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:57,640 Speaker 1: area by boarding a steam engine in Slough that was 561 00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:02,480 Speaker 1: bound for Paddington station in Westminster, but the authorities used 562 00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:06,640 Speaker 1: the telegraph to send a head a description to Paddington 563 00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:10,200 Speaker 1: and there he was apprehended successfully. He was put on 564 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:13,480 Speaker 1: trial and he was convicted. And as a side note, 565 00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:16,720 Speaker 1: I think he his lawyer tried to argue that um 566 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:21,520 Speaker 1: that the woman had been poisoned by eating by eating 567 00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:25,600 Speaker 1: the seeds of an apple. But an interesting quirk of 568 00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:30,000 Speaker 1: the telegraph technology was that again it didn't code for 569 00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:33,160 Speaker 1: every letter of the alphabet, just most of them, So 570 00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:36,240 Speaker 1: the machine did not have letters such as Q or 571 00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:41,280 Speaker 1: J or X or U or C or z, presumably 572 00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:43,959 Speaker 1: because you could replace all of these letters phonetically with 573 00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:47,080 Speaker 1: combinations of other letters, as they actually did in the 574 00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:51,840 Speaker 1: message they sent. Because the main fact used to identify 575 00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:54,560 Speaker 1: um John Towell at the location was that he was 576 00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:58,880 Speaker 1: wearing uh quote Quaker garb, so he was wearing the 577 00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:02,680 Speaker 1: clothing commonly associated with the Quakers. But they didn't have 578 00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:04,400 Speaker 1: a queue on the machine, so they had to spell 579 00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:07,400 Speaker 1: at k W a k e er, which apparently led 580 00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:11,320 Speaker 1: to great confusion, but they eventually figured it out. Also, 581 00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:13,640 Speaker 1: the very opening of the message, because there was no 582 00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:18,040 Speaker 1: J in the machine, says a murder has gust been committed. 583 00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:21,920 Speaker 1: But anyway, so looking at the Cook and Wheatstone model 584 00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:24,959 Speaker 1: with when you're when you're actually talking about the five 585 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,279 Speaker 1: needle model, the one that's got the most complete alphabetic 586 00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:31,640 Speaker 1: diamond with all those needles. A great upside here is 587 00:34:31,640 --> 00:34:34,920 Speaker 1: that you didn't really need any special training to decode 588 00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:38,560 Speaker 1: messages other than basic literacy, because they would be spelled 589 00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:42,600 Speaker 1: out in plane language with a few simple phonetic substitutions. 590 00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:46,680 Speaker 1: A downside to the five needle model was that in 591 00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:49,560 Speaker 1: order to operate all these needles, the machines had to 592 00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:53,000 Speaker 1: be connected by cable arrays consisting of like five or 593 00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:58,759 Speaker 1: six different wires strung out along polls, and that was expensive. Yeah, 594 00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:01,919 Speaker 1: not just one wire but multiple wires. And then also, 595 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,799 Speaker 1: let's face it, criminals could have eventually figured this out. 596 00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:06,520 Speaker 1: They're like, Okay, if I'm going to commit a crime, 597 00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:08,480 Speaker 1: I just need to make sure there are a lot 598 00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:10,680 Speaker 1: of j's and queues and cs and what I'm doing. 599 00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:14,239 Speaker 1: So I need to dress as a juggler, uh while 600 00:35:14,280 --> 00:35:18,720 Speaker 1: wearing a queen's tierra um and be on the lookout 601 00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:22,880 Speaker 1: for guggler. What can you imagine the confusion and sending 602 00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:27,640 Speaker 1: messages about jazz, oh goodness, no JA or Z will 603 00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:30,759 Speaker 1: that be g A S S. You can't do it, 604 00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:34,160 Speaker 1: It just doesn't work. You gotta you gotta have the ZS. Okay. 605 00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:35,880 Speaker 1: But that was one of the big English models, the 606 00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:38,560 Speaker 1: model that really won out in the in the early 607 00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:41,640 Speaker 1: telegraph Wars was the one that that grew out of 608 00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:46,439 Speaker 1: the work of Morse, Gael and Veil in America. That's right, Yeah, 609 00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:49,680 Speaker 1: that leads us to American artist and inventor Samuel F. B. Morris. 610 00:35:50,200 --> 00:35:54,360 Speaker 1: Um is an interesting guy, a Calvinist painter who was 611 00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:57,719 Speaker 1: also interested in electricity, a little bit interested in politics, 612 00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:02,359 Speaker 1: and then ultimately falls into and to helping to invent this, 613 00:36:02,520 --> 00:36:07,040 Speaker 1: uh this, this this impressive technology. And of course Morrise code. 614 00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:11,120 Speaker 1: So as a child he was apparently eccentric and at 615 00:36:11,200 --> 00:36:14,960 Speaker 1: times disinterested. As a student, but he was interested in 616 00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:18,720 Speaker 1: painting miniature portraits, which one biographer was looking at said 617 00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:21,440 Speaker 1: that it apparently distressed his parents. You know that this 618 00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:24,080 Speaker 1: is this is his interest because his father was a 619 00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:29,680 Speaker 1: distinguished geographer and uh, Congregationalist clergyman. But here is a 620 00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:32,120 Speaker 1: little Morrise and he just wants to paint little pictures 621 00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:34,759 Speaker 1: for the most part. Can you imagine the horror that 622 00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:39,960 Speaker 1: your son wants to paint. But Morris ends up graduating 623 00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:43,200 Speaker 1: from Yale. While he's there, he attends some lectures on electricity, 624 00:36:43,239 --> 00:36:45,319 Speaker 1: so he does become interested in uh in some of 625 00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:49,120 Speaker 1: this new technology. After graduating, travels to England, to study 626 00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:53,240 Speaker 1: under the American painter Washington Allston, and when he comes back, 627 00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:55,560 Speaker 1: he turns to painting portraits to make a living. He 628 00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:57,880 Speaker 1: wasn't well off, but he moved in intellectual circles and 629 00:36:57,880 --> 00:37:00,840 Speaker 1: eventually taught at what would become in Why You. And 630 00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:04,160 Speaker 1: then it happens he's returning from another trip to Europe 631 00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:07,840 Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty two, and he overhears a conversation about 632 00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:12,440 Speaker 1: this exciting new electro magnet technology and he gets it 633 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:14,680 Speaker 1: in his head like other people have gotten it in 634 00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:17,720 Speaker 1: their head. This is how we can we can send 635 00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:21,239 Speaker 1: a long distance communication. Uh. He seems to have, like 636 00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:23,839 Speaker 1: many of these individuals, probably thought that he came up 637 00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:26,280 Speaker 1: with the idea and uh, you know, and was perhaps 638 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:28,640 Speaker 1: the first, but of course it had already been proposed 639 00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:31,520 Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty three, had been tested in seventeen seventy four, 640 00:37:31,880 --> 00:37:34,800 Speaker 1: but he persisted and made his own model by eighteen 641 00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:37,839 Speaker 1: thirty five and was all in on the invention by 642 00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:42,480 Speaker 1: eighteen thirty seven. Uh. Sometimes it is it's argued that 643 00:37:42,840 --> 00:37:44,600 Speaker 1: you know that he's a that he was like a 644 00:37:44,640 --> 00:37:47,399 Speaker 1: quote unquote failed painter who then became this And then 645 00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:49,560 Speaker 1: if he had been successful, as a painter, maybe he 646 00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:52,319 Speaker 1: would not have turned to this innovation. I don't know. 647 00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:55,160 Speaker 1: Those are often strange conversations to get into a lot 648 00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:58,440 Speaker 1: of like what ifs in the arching narrative of a 649 00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:05,040 Speaker 1: single individual. Okay, his collaborators were Leonard Gail and Alfred Vale. Yes, yeah, 650 00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:07,440 Speaker 1: he ends up teaming up with a chemist Leonard Gail, 651 00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:10,200 Speaker 1: and a machinist Alfred Vale. I don't know if you 652 00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:13,720 Speaker 1: insisted on their names rhyming like that that came together. 653 00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:17,480 Speaker 1: They both became partners in his telegraph venture. Morse and 654 00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:21,319 Speaker 1: Vale developed a code to use the telegraph, consisting of 655 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,680 Speaker 1: the system of dots and dashes. I've also seen it 656 00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:27,719 Speaker 1: credited as being a situation where Morse invented it, but 657 00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:31,319 Speaker 1: then Vale helped improve upon it. Uh. And there were 658 00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:34,920 Speaker 1: other points at which it needed to be improved upon. So, 659 00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:38,200 Speaker 1: for instance, it was developed in America. Um. But then 660 00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:41,200 Speaker 1: it was introduced to Europe and they realized, okay, well, 661 00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:42,680 Speaker 1: we've got to make changes with it so that it 662 00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:46,720 Speaker 1: will work with other languages. So the International Morse Code 663 00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:49,799 Speaker 1: or Continental Morse Code was devised in eighteen fifty one 664 00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:53,279 Speaker 1: by a conference of European nations. Yeah, and I think 665 00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:57,200 Speaker 1: the original uh idea of Morse code was that in 666 00:38:57,400 --> 00:38:59,439 Speaker 1: it in many ways you can see why it would 667 00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:01,920 Speaker 1: be an improved and over say these like, uh, you know, 668 00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:05,120 Speaker 1: five wires for the letter diamond thing, because Morse code, 669 00:39:05,320 --> 00:39:08,719 Speaker 1: you're just opening and closing the circuit, right is just 670 00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,319 Speaker 1: like there, there's a simple action. And then all you 671 00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:14,920 Speaker 1: need is a code for the timing of your your 672 00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:17,840 Speaker 1: dots and dashes for like closing the circuit for a 673 00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:20,399 Speaker 1: quick thing or a little bit longer. That's your dot 674 00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:23,120 Speaker 1: in your dash. And then with the combination of dots 675 00:39:23,120 --> 00:39:26,359 Speaker 1: and dashes, you can code out the entire alphabet. I 676 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:28,799 Speaker 1: believe the original idea with Morse code was that it 677 00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:31,640 Speaker 1: was supposed to first um be something that would be 678 00:39:31,960 --> 00:39:36,080 Speaker 1: transcribed as dots and dashes on paper and then decoded 679 00:39:36,200 --> 00:39:38,720 Speaker 1: on paper by somebody who has trained in the code. 680 00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:41,600 Speaker 1: But eventually they figured out that oh, okay, operators who 681 00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:44,160 Speaker 1: have some experience with this just learn the code and 682 00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:46,759 Speaker 1: then they can go straight from hearing it to knowing 683 00:39:46,800 --> 00:39:50,120 Speaker 1: exactly what the actual plain text messages. So at that 684 00:39:50,160 --> 00:39:53,800 Speaker 1: point they modified the technical design to make it like Louder, 685 00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:56,800 Speaker 1: to make it into sort of very clear audible beeps 686 00:39:56,840 --> 00:40:01,560 Speaker 1: and bibs instead of just the clicking of the eating implement. Yeah, 687 00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:04,839 Speaker 1: and I imagine a lot of you have heard audio 688 00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:07,719 Speaker 1: of this before. You know where the code takes on 689 00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:09,840 Speaker 1: the form of something like say di di di di 690 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:13,080 Speaker 1: di dit data sort of a thing, or you've perhaps 691 00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:16,279 Speaker 1: you've seen a movie where someone uses Morse code to 692 00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:19,320 Speaker 1: communicate whilst you trapped in a casket or a tomb 693 00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:22,560 Speaker 1: or something. You know, um that it's been. It's been 694 00:40:22,640 --> 00:40:26,120 Speaker 1: utilized a number of times in motion pictures. Interesting thing 695 00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:28,880 Speaker 1: about the message s O S that is something that 696 00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:32,680 Speaker 1: comes from Morse code, and it actually doesn't stand for anything. 697 00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:35,440 Speaker 1: S OS is not an acronym. It's just a code 698 00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:38,120 Speaker 1: that was chosen because it's easy to code and easy 699 00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:40,799 Speaker 1: to distinguish when you hear it, because one letter is 700 00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:45,080 Speaker 1: just three dots and one letter is three dashes. Now, apparently, 701 00:40:45,120 --> 00:40:47,960 Speaker 1: in creating this, Morse was trying to cash in on 702 00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:51,080 Speaker 1: like a bounty that had been established by the US 703 00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:55,040 Speaker 1: Congress of something like thirty thou dollars for someone who 704 00:40:55,040 --> 00:41:00,200 Speaker 1: could create a real time telegraphy system that would essentially 705 00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:02,560 Speaker 1: connect a bunch of different I don't remember exactly what 706 00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:04,480 Speaker 1: the extent of it was supposed to be, but they 707 00:41:04,480 --> 00:41:07,480 Speaker 1: had some specifications and and Morrise was trying to claim 708 00:41:07,520 --> 00:41:10,040 Speaker 1: that money, saying like, well, I've done it, I've got 709 00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:12,600 Speaker 1: what you're looking for. And all this does lead up 710 00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:17,400 Speaker 1: to Morse doing a demonstration of the new technology for 711 00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:21,000 Speaker 1: the US Congress. So whenever there's a new technology for 712 00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:24,560 Speaker 1: transmitting or recording messages, you always want to know what 713 00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:26,879 Speaker 1: was the first message. And you know, there's a little 714 00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:29,080 Speaker 1: bit of slide of hand in these stories because you 715 00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:31,280 Speaker 1: can imagine, well, there were probably always like a little 716 00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:35,360 Speaker 1: weird test messages before that whatever the canonical supposed first 717 00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:38,920 Speaker 1: message was. But we still know about some famous examples. 718 00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:41,840 Speaker 1: So you got the first telephone call in eighteen seventy six, 719 00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:45,720 Speaker 1: where supposedly what it was was Alexander Graham Bell calling 720 00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:48,960 Speaker 1: his associate Thomas Watson and saying, Mr Watson, come here, 721 00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:51,719 Speaker 1: I want you. And then of course there's always the 722 00:41:51,800 --> 00:41:55,680 Speaker 1: question of the first audio recording made. That's a little 723 00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:58,560 Speaker 1: bit more complicated. It depends on if you count recordings 724 00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:02,400 Speaker 1: made by somebody named Edward Leone Scott de Martinville in 725 00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:05,600 Speaker 1: France in the eighteen fifties, or I think maybe in 726 00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:08,799 Speaker 1: the year eighteen sixty this consisted of a recording of 727 00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:12,440 Speaker 1: all Claire Duloon. But the more commonly cited example is 728 00:42:12,440 --> 00:42:16,680 Speaker 1: Thomas Edison recording into his talking machine around eighteen seventy seven. 729 00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:19,640 Speaker 1: And I think he claimed that the first message recorded 730 00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:23,200 Speaker 1: was him reciting Mary had a little Lamb, But some 731 00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:26,080 Speaker 1: evidence indicates maybe the real answer was that he was 732 00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:29,319 Speaker 1: reciting the alphabet, or just saying messages like can you 733 00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:32,560 Speaker 1: hear this? Yeah, I'll come back to this in a 734 00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:36,360 Speaker 1: in a bit here. But technology historian James Burke mentions 735 00:42:36,400 --> 00:42:40,880 Speaker 1: this um in Connections, and he describes it not as 736 00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:43,520 Speaker 1: a singing but as a shouting of Mary had a 737 00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:47,160 Speaker 1: little lamb. It's flee sowless, white as snow. So if 738 00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:49,480 Speaker 1: it was more shouting than singing, then maybe you can 739 00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:52,520 Speaker 1: get a little um pedantic about whether this constitute of 740 00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:56,080 Speaker 1: first recording of the song. Okay, but at least you know, 741 00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:59,160 Speaker 1: if you buy the mythology the canonical examples, Mr Watson, 742 00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:01,200 Speaker 1: come here, I want you Mary had a little lamb. 743 00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:03,759 Speaker 1: What are we going to get for the telegraph? Well, 744 00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:07,719 Speaker 1: apparently the first public message sent by telegraphs as a 745 00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:11,840 Speaker 1: demonstration for the US Congress by Samuel Morrison Alfred Vale. 746 00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:15,120 Speaker 1: It was sent between Washington, d C. And Baltimore, and 747 00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:21,279 Speaker 1: the message was what hath God wrought? Something about? This 748 00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:24,320 Speaker 1: is hilarious to me. It's a quotation from the Bible, 749 00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:27,160 Speaker 1: and I am sure Morse did not mean it this way, 750 00:43:27,160 --> 00:43:30,560 Speaker 1: but it suggests a sort of Oppenheimer esque horror and 751 00:43:30,719 --> 00:43:33,879 Speaker 1: regret about the birth of this new technology. I'm sure 752 00:43:33,960 --> 00:43:35,600 Speaker 1: that is not what it was supposed to sound like. 753 00:43:35,719 --> 00:43:38,520 Speaker 1: But I don't know. I think something is lost across 754 00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:41,799 Speaker 1: the culture and history there. Yeah, I don't. I don't 755 00:43:41,880 --> 00:43:45,920 Speaker 1: understand why this particular quote screams to be the first 756 00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:49,719 Speaker 1: transmitted message. Yeah, like, why not something a little more 757 00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:54,080 Speaker 1: upbeat or just a little more clear? What have I done? 758 00:43:55,800 --> 00:43:58,880 Speaker 1: But okay, But anyway, we get all these telegraph innovations, 759 00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:01,440 Speaker 1: electrical telegraph in a vations in the eighteen thirties and 760 00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:04,560 Speaker 1: eighteen forties and in the decades to follow. It becomes 761 00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:08,600 Speaker 1: an essential part of technological civilization. You know. It's like 762 00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:11,600 Speaker 1: it's used for all kinds of things. I've read multiple 763 00:44:11,640 --> 00:44:16,680 Speaker 1: references to it being used to make rail travel safer, presumably, 764 00:44:16,719 --> 00:44:20,320 Speaker 1: I think to coordinate travel along rail lines to reduce 765 00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:23,239 Speaker 1: the risk of say, collisions or something. Okay, so not 766 00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:28,799 Speaker 1: just to help prevent murderous quakers from traveling. Yes, you 767 00:44:28,800 --> 00:44:31,120 Speaker 1: know it. It's coming back to the two generals problem. 768 00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:34,600 Speaker 1: It also certainly had an impact on military operations, as 769 00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:37,080 Speaker 1: it could be used in real time to solve this 770 00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:41,279 Speaker 1: very problem. It's been discussed by historians that the telegraph 771 00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:44,840 Speaker 1: was a technology that helped Abraham Lincoln in the defeat 772 00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:49,560 Speaker 1: of the Confederates. The Confederates the Confederate States during the 773 00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:52,640 Speaker 1: Civil War they had telegraph technology as well, but they 774 00:44:52,640 --> 00:44:56,040 Speaker 1: didn't use them as much or as well as the 775 00:44:56,120 --> 00:44:59,399 Speaker 1: Union Army. Um. Now, you might not think about this, 776 00:44:59,520 --> 00:45:03,480 Speaker 1: but uh, what this amounted to is not just taking 777 00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:06,719 Speaker 1: advantage of pre existing telegraph lines, but you had to 778 00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:12,080 Speaker 1: have someone to build telegraph lines during battles, including like 779 00:45:12,160 --> 00:45:15,880 Speaker 1: maintaining them during an actual shooting battle. And that's exactly 780 00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:20,000 Speaker 1: what the Union Armies Telegraph Construction Corps did, uh do. 781 00:45:20,200 --> 00:45:23,640 Speaker 1: So it's it's pretty pretty impressive to to think about. Interesting. 782 00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:27,719 Speaker 1: I didn't know that outside of warfare, though sometimes this 783 00:45:27,840 --> 00:45:31,120 Speaker 1: also factors into warfare. Obviously, telegraph technology had a big 784 00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:34,920 Speaker 1: impact on journalism. Uh, It's just it comes down to 785 00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:37,879 Speaker 1: just how quickly you can convey information, and it's why 786 00:45:37,960 --> 00:45:41,720 Speaker 1: so many newspapers to this day have telegraph in their names. 787 00:45:42,480 --> 00:45:46,040 Speaker 1: Well how about wire service? Yeah, yeah, there you go. Yeah, 788 00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:48,480 Speaker 1: it all comes down to the same thing because and 789 00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:50,359 Speaker 1: of course this is playing on the fact too that 790 00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:52,880 Speaker 1: you also have these other papers that have the older 791 00:45:53,040 --> 00:45:55,960 Speaker 1: terms of like post and mail in their titles. But 792 00:45:56,480 --> 00:45:58,719 Speaker 1: journalism at the time where there are many of these 793 00:45:58,719 --> 00:46:01,640 Speaker 1: outlets that were just ready to fully embrace this new 794 00:46:01,640 --> 00:46:06,040 Speaker 1: technology high speed communication. High speed communication means better news, 795 00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:09,560 Speaker 1: and we're gonna put that slap dab in the title 796 00:46:09,719 --> 00:46:12,600 Speaker 1: of the paper itself. Though. It's funny thinking about if, 797 00:46:13,080 --> 00:46:16,799 Speaker 1: like the similar principle applied to later ways, like the 798 00:46:16,840 --> 00:46:19,880 Speaker 1: technology that was used to acquire the information that is 799 00:46:19,880 --> 00:46:23,280 Speaker 1: published in the article, Like if later newspapers were called 800 00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:28,319 Speaker 1: like the daily telephone or something, Yeah, the weekly outsourcing 801 00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:35,800 Speaker 1: of reporting duties or so forth. Um, but your morning 802 00:46:35,840 --> 00:46:40,400 Speaker 1: facts Yeah, um, but yeah, I know, you know, you can, 803 00:46:40,480 --> 00:46:42,200 Speaker 1: you can. There may be there may be some example 804 00:46:42,320 --> 00:46:45,719 Speaker 1: that I'm I'm missing the where we can envision this. 805 00:46:45,840 --> 00:46:48,640 Speaker 1: But I mentioned that I was going to come back 806 00:46:48,840 --> 00:46:52,279 Speaker 1: to Uh, Mary had a little lamb. And I want 807 00:46:52,280 --> 00:46:55,640 Speaker 1: to come back to something that technology historian James Burke 808 00:46:55,680 --> 00:46:57,880 Speaker 1: brings up in connections, and that is that there is 809 00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:01,000 Speaker 1: a direct line to be drawn from the repeating telegraph 810 00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:04,600 Speaker 1: to the invention of the Edison phonograph. So in the 811 00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:07,759 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy seven innovation allowed the coded messages from a 812 00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:11,000 Speaker 1: telegraph to be encoded by a stylus on a waxed 813 00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:15,200 Speaker 1: paper disc. The stylist moved up and down, making indentations 814 00:47:15,239 --> 00:47:18,280 Speaker 1: in the disc as it revolved on what was essentially 815 00:47:18,280 --> 00:47:21,840 Speaker 1: a turntable. Uh. To replay the message, you flip the 816 00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:26,560 Speaker 1: paper disc over, which turned these inventions into bumps. Uh. 817 00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:30,200 Speaker 1: And a reader stylist traveled over these bumps. Okay, so 818 00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:33,400 Speaker 1: Thomas Edison is said, and again we have to consider 819 00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:37,759 Speaker 1: the possible, you know, myth making uh uh mild or 820 00:47:37,840 --> 00:47:40,839 Speaker 1: overt in any invention story. But Thomas Edison is said 821 00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:43,040 Speaker 1: to have been listening to such a machine work at 822 00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:46,400 Speaker 1: high speed and realize that there was a connection between 823 00:47:46,400 --> 00:47:50,440 Speaker 1: the vibration of the stylists and a sound pattern. Burke writes, quote, 824 00:47:50,560 --> 00:47:53,040 Speaker 1: he hit upon the idea, not a new one, that 825 00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:55,880 Speaker 1: he could reproduce sounds as vibrations by the use of 826 00:47:55,880 --> 00:47:58,640 Speaker 1: a thin membrane. So he placed a needle on the 827 00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:02,400 Speaker 1: membrane that would up and down as the membrane vibrated, 828 00:48:02,600 --> 00:48:05,040 Speaker 1: and mounted it in such a way to score a 829 00:48:05,080 --> 00:48:08,960 Speaker 1: bumpy path in tinfoil. So he tinkered with this setup 830 00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:12,080 Speaker 1: and then famously was able to and again Burke describes 831 00:48:12,120 --> 00:48:14,600 Speaker 1: it as a shouting of Mary had a little lamb 832 00:48:14,680 --> 00:48:17,400 Speaker 1: its flee so it's white as snow at the membrane. 833 00:48:17,680 --> 00:48:20,880 Speaker 1: Then return it to the original position, placed the needle 834 00:48:20,920 --> 00:48:23,680 Speaker 1: in the groove and turned the cylinder at the same 835 00:48:23,719 --> 00:48:27,920 Speaker 1: speed to reproduce his own voice through the vibrating membrane. 836 00:48:28,239 --> 00:48:31,480 Speaker 1: And so the phonograph and the age of recorded sound 837 00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:35,520 Speaker 1: was essentially born out of this shift. And these are 838 00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:37,520 Speaker 1: just a few of the examples, because ultimately we were 839 00:48:37,520 --> 00:48:40,960 Speaker 1: talking about the the the advent of the telegraph. I mean, 840 00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:43,640 Speaker 1: it really was a game changer. Like we're entering the 841 00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:47,360 Speaker 1: age of of of telecommunication at this point, you know, 842 00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:51,000 Speaker 1: we're entering the age of rapid communication. And this is 843 00:48:51,920 --> 00:48:55,120 Speaker 1: this is the this technology is the forerunner of so 844 00:48:55,160 --> 00:48:58,480 Speaker 1: many of the technologies as defined life in the modern 845 00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:01,000 Speaker 1: age totally. I mean there's a lot more we could 846 00:49:01,040 --> 00:49:03,040 Speaker 1: talk about on the subject, though I think for time 847 00:49:03,080 --> 00:49:05,520 Speaker 1: we got to wrap it up. Yeah, so we're gonna 848 00:49:05,520 --> 00:49:07,399 Speaker 1: go ahead and call it there, but yes, we may 849 00:49:07,400 --> 00:49:10,040 Speaker 1: come back in the future. If there's a particular aspect 850 00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:13,640 Speaker 1: of this episode you'd like to be further explored, let 851 00:49:13,719 --> 00:49:17,160 Speaker 1: us know. Let us know also your thoughts on the 852 00:49:17,200 --> 00:49:21,399 Speaker 1: invention of the telegraph technologies that came before UH technologies 853 00:49:21,440 --> 00:49:24,799 Speaker 1: and traditions as well. We'd love to hear from you. 854 00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:27,719 Speaker 1: As always remind you, We remind you that Stuff to 855 00:49:27,719 --> 00:49:30,120 Speaker 1: Blow Your Mind is a science podcast that publishes on 856 00:49:30,160 --> 00:49:32,279 Speaker 1: Tuesdays and Thursdays and the Stuff to Blow Your Mind 857 00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:36,880 Speaker 1: podcast feed um and we also have a Monday episode 858 00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:39,280 Speaker 1: which is usually a listener mail. On Wednesdays we usually 859 00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:42,719 Speaker 1: publish a short form artifact or monster fact episode, and 860 00:49:42,719 --> 00:49:45,640 Speaker 1: on Friday's we do Weird Our Cinema. That's our time 861 00:49:45,680 --> 00:49:48,080 Speaker 1: to set aside most serious concerns and just talk about 862 00:49:48,080 --> 00:49:50,960 Speaker 1: a weird film, huge things. As always to our excellent 863 00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:54,160 Speaker 1: audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to 864 00:49:54,200 --> 00:49:56,640 Speaker 1: get in touch with us with feedback on this episode 865 00:49:56,760 --> 00:49:58,920 Speaker 1: or any other, to suggest a topic for the future 866 00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:01,200 Speaker 1: or just to say hello. You can email us at 867 00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:11,800 Speaker 1: contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff 868 00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:14,000 Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind is production of I Heart Radio. 869 00:50:14,360 --> 00:50:16,480 Speaker 1: For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the i 870 00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:19,360 Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listening to 871 00:50:19,400 --> 00:50:25,560 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.