Pictographs and Petroglyphs

Pictographs are symbols that convey meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical
object a pictorial symbol for a word or phrase that is painted on to rock or other objects. Written
pictorial languages appear to have come about around 1200 BC in China and around 600 BC in
the Americas.

Petroglyphs are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving,
or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as
"carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images.

Similar to this early form of writing are the ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs, which date back to
around 3200 BC.
The First Phonetic Systems

With phonetic systems, symbols refer to spoken sounds. It was used for the writing of
Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia. It became one of
the most widely used writing systems and was assimilated into many other cultures.

This alphabet gave rise to the Aramaic and Greek alphabets. These in turn led to the writing
systems used throughout regions ranging from Western Asia to Africa and Europe. The Greek
and Latin alphabets in the early centuries of the Common Era gave rise to several European
scripts.
Long Distance Communication

Long distance communication had its beginnings as the Greeks, for the first time in recorded
history, had a messenger pigeon deliver results of the first Olympiad in the year 776 BC.

A historical entry in the book “Globalization and Everyday Life” noted that around 200 to 100
BC: “Human messengers on foot or horseback common in Egypt and China with messenger
relay stations built. Sometimes fire messages used from relay station to station instead of
humans.”

The heliograph, a tool used regularly by the British army until the 1960s, used the reflection of
the sun to warn allies of invasion, ask for assistance, or convey a range of other messages.
Similar to a tiny mirror, which can be used to signal a plane tens of miles away, so too was the
heliograph able to cover great distances at the speed of light.
Paper and Papyrus

With a well-developed writing system and messenger services, the Chinese would be the first to
invent paper and papermaking when in 105 AD an official named Cai Lung submitted a proposal
to the emperor in which he, according to a biographical account, suggested using “the bark of
trees, remnants of hemp, rags of cloth, and fishing nets” instead of the heavier bamboo or costlier
silk material.
Papyrus is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It
can also refer to a document written on sheets of such material, joined together side by side and
rolled up into a scroll, an early form of a book.
Electricity and the New Era of Communication

Early constructions of the telegraph started popping up across the world during the 19th century.
Some used static electricity while others worked off of electromagnetic principles to send
messages to another connected telegraph a great distance away

The Cooke and Wheatstone system however, developed by William Fothergill Cooke and
Charles Wheatstone, was the first commercial electrical telegraph.

Another telegraph system that gained popularity around the same time as the Cooke and
Wheatstone device was the Morse system. Patented in the U.S. by Samuel Morse in 1837, this
system of communication sent messages through Morse code.
Printing and Newspapers

While the technology underwent other advancements, it wasn’t until a German smithy named
Johannes Gutenberg built Europe’s first metal movable type system that mass printing would
experience a revolution.

Around 1605, a German publisher named Johann Carolus printed and distributed the world’s first
newspaper. The paper was called “Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien,”
which translated to “Account of all distinguished and commemorable news.”

(page from 1609)

The first commercial typewriters were introduced in 1874, but did not become common in
offices until after the mid-1880s. A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for
writing characters similar to those produced by printer's movable type. The typewriter quickly
became an indispensable tool for practically all writing other than personal handwritten
correspondence.
Radio, Telephone and Television

One of the widest reaching communication systems from the early 1900s that’s still around
today, the radio brought news, entertainment, and a sense of community to entire generations
across the world.
By World War II, which further increased the medium’s power and range, radio had become a
household norm, airing everything from national news to late night soap operas, making radio
the most widespread mass communication medium the world had ever seen.
Widely considered to be the primary means of conveying a message across great distances for
over a century, the telephone combined the lossless communication of conversation with the
instantaneousness of the telegraph.
Patented in 1875 by Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone gained popularity in the early 1900s.
Calls across the country and the world were connected by physical switchboards manned by
human operators who would literally connect one line to another. And although it lacked the
widespread audience of radio, it allowed a more personal means of long distance
communication.

First popping up in the public in the 1920s, it wasn’t until after World War II that a television in
every household became truly commonplace. Since then, the television has seen a myriad of
changes and improvements. From the implementation of color transmission to massive
improvements in screen resolution, the televisions of today are far different than their
predecessors, unlike radio which has staying relatively the same.
Internet

Also known as “the web”, the internet is a global network of interconnected computers. Once
connected, a device is able to access information that is put on the web. It allows instant
communication between persons across the world and lets users access information that would
otherwise be impossible to obtain.

Modern technology has made such advancements that all sorts of surprising objects, from
toasters to doorbells, are able to access the internet wirelessly through WiFi networks and
Bluetooth technology.

The ease of internet has led to a whole new level of connectivity, not only in the social realm.
Businesses and companies are able to have real-time access to trillions of data points in an
instant, enabling them to monitor market updates, safety conditions, or global communications
instantaneously and bringing an entirely new reality to business and government as well as
personal communications.
REFERENCES
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u43zr_7Y0ts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxTUC5I22LU

Links:
https://www.thoughtco.com/early-history-of-communication-4067897
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_communication_technology
https://www.conferencecallsunlimited.com/history-of-communication-technology/ -
http://doloreskellymbc.blogspot.com/2015/11/brief-history-of-communication.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_alphabet
https://avatel.wordpress.com/2013/04/15/the-evolution-of-long-distance-
communication/
https://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-long-distance-
communication/