With the development of civilisation and written languages came the need for more frequent and reliable

methods of communication allowing messages to re ach longer distances. This was essential to the control of trade and other affai rs between nations and empires. Early man used cave walls as the media on which messages could be transc ribed, this was common for many years, until the Egyptians discovered a special kind of rush (Papyrus) that could be woven to form a portable writing material. In about 105AD the Chinese discovered a way to make a similar substance from woo d pulp. Over the next few centuries printing techniques advanced rapidly, especi ally through the use of steam power. The first typesetting machine, the Linotype , was patented in 1884 by the German-American Ottmar Mergenthaler. In the meantime, postal services and moved from being privately to nationally ow ned, and long distance postal services became an affordable option. For the firs t time, an ordinary person could correspond with people in other countries. A vi sual semaphore system was also implemented in both Europe and the United States, providing a way of 'echoing' messages nationally via large towers placed in str ategic positions; however this proved slow as each method had to be verified to ensure message accuracy. Following the discovery and partial understanding of electricity in the 18th Cen tury scientists looked towards a way of relaying messages electronically. This a ttracted great interest because of the speed and efficiency such a system would bring, nevertheless it was not until 1837 that the first practical telegraph sys tem was produced. In the years that followed various offshoots were announced, m odern telex systems are an improved version of this basic concept. Now that the basic frontiers of electronics had been broken, telecommunications moved into a new era, in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell patented the worlds first tr ue speech telephone. Research into magnetism had also revealed the relationship between magnetic fields and electric currents, thus laying the technical foundat ion for wireless telegraphy. Twenty five years later the Italian inventor Marche se Guglielmo Marconi sent a wireless signal across the Atlantic Ocean, opening u p new possibilities for communication systems. Satellite technology had been steadily increasing, with several already launched . America was the leader in this technology, with satellites programs such as th e COMSAT and INTELSAT systems. These networks of geostationary satellites covere d the entire globe, handling approximately 50000 voice/data/video lines. Global communication was now relatively cheap. From 1985 onwards the major growth area in technology has been with Personal Com puters. Bringing with it new uses for old technology. The Internet has received so much media hype that the number of subscribers is increasing exponentially. E lectronic mail is not a new concept, however it is only recently that people hav e started to use it on a large scale. Large computer networks spanning the entir e globe allow communication between tens of millions of people. As the main form of communication is text based and transfer speeds are slow e-mail is not a dep endable form of communication - but with the increase in cable networks it could be a viable solution in the future. These increases in communication have effected commercial and industrial markets , companies specialising in communications have emerged and thrived. The technol ogy has a strategic role to play in the military, allowing soldiers, aircraft, a nd base units to communicate freely without the need for landlines. News agencie s have also benefited from this technology, it is now commonplace to see live pi ctures from a particular news-story with the reporter using satellite technology to transmit the broadcast. SKY television provides around 100 video channels, a nd a handful of audio channels. This can be received in almost any part of the w orld and hence has a huge audience. SKY is currently owned by an American, Ruper t Murdoch, who also has control over many other media companies including many A merican and British newspapers. Ultimately he has so much influence over what ap pears in the British media it would not be a challenge to exploit this power to

sway public opinion. As we move into the next millennium communication systems are still under rapid improvement. Fibre optic phone lines are being installed throughout the country, and will allow faster digital communication expanding the possibilities of comp uter communication. Internet 'Phones' are under development allowing full duplex conversations between people over different countries and continents. With adva nces in satellite transmission it is now possible to purchase satellite phones f rom which you can also check your e-mail. They operate from anywhere in the worl d and are no larger than an average laptop computer. National and international boundaries are becoming more and more obsolete, it ma y be that in the future we are not run from London, but Europe is governed as on e large country from a central point. In the words of Bill Wiley (vice president of PTT Telecom) "That long Distance feeling is finally disappearing".