Portal:Telecommunication
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The Telecommunication Portal
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Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information with an immediacy comparable to face-to-face communication. As such, slow communications technologies like postal mail and pneumatic tubes are excluded from the definition. Many transmission media have been used for telecommunications throughout history, from smoke signals, beacons, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs to wires and empty space made to carry electromagnetic signals. These paths of transmission may be divided into communication channels for multiplexing, allowing for a single medium to transmit several concurrent communication sessions. Several methods of long-distance communication before the modern era used sounds like coded drumbeats, the blowing of horns, and whistles. Long-distance technologies invented during the 20th and 21st centuries generally use electric power, and include the telegraph, telephone, television, and radio.
Early telecommunication networks used metal wires as the medium for transmitting signals. These networks were used for telegraphy and telephony for many decades. In the first decade of the 20th century, a revolution in wireless communication began with breakthroughs including those made in radio communications by Guglielmo Marconi, who won the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics. Other early pioneers in electrical and electronic telecommunications include co-inventors of the telegraph Charles Wheatstone and Samuel Morse, numerous inventors and developers of the telephone including Antonio Meucci and Alexander Graham Bell, inventors of radio Edwin Armstrong and Lee de Forest, as well as inventors of television like Vladimir K. Zworykin, John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth.
Since the 1960s, the proliferation of digital technologies has meant that voice communications have gradually been supplemented by data. The physical limitations of metallic media prompted the development of optical fibre. The Internet, a technology independent of any given medium, has provided global access to services for individual users and further reduced location and time limitations on communications. (Full article...)
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The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the interlinked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and file sharing.
The origins of the Internet date back to research that enabled the time-sharing of computer resources and the development of packet switching in the 1960s. The set of rules (communication protocols) to enable internetworking on the Internet arose from research and development commissioned in the 1970s by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the United States Department of Defense in collaboration with universities and researchers across the United States and in the United Kingdom and France. The ARPANET initially served as a backbone for the interconnection of regional academic and military networks in the United States to enable resource sharing. The funding of the National Science Foundation Network as a new backbone in the 1980s, as well as private funding for other commercial extensions, encouraged worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies and the merger of many networks using DARPA's Internet protocol suite. The linking of commercial networks and enterprises by the early 1990s, as well as the advent of the World Wide Web, marked the beginning of the transition to the modern Internet, and generated sustained exponential growth as generations of institutional, personal, and mobile computers were connected to the network. Although the Internet was widely used by academia in the 1980s, the subsequent commercialization in the 1990s and beyond incorporated its services and technologies into virtually every aspect of modern life. (Full article...)General images
- Image 1"Fiction becomes fact": Imaginary "Edison" combination videophone-television, conceptualized by George du Maurier and published in Punch magazine. The drawing also depicts then-contemporary speaking tubes, used by the parents in the foreground and their daughter on the viewing display (1878). (from History of videotelephony)
- Image 2The Australian Broadcasting Corporation logo, first introduced in 1975 and based on the Lissajous curve (from History of broadcasting)
- Image 4Guglielmo Marconi (from History of broadcasting)
- Image 5Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 6DBS satellite dishes (from History of television)
- Image 7The Marconi Company was formed in England in 1910. The photo shows a typical early scene, from 1906, with Marconi employee Donald Manson at right. (from History of broadcasting)
- Image 8Donald Manson working as an employee of the Marconi Company (England, 1906) (from History of radio)
- Image 9Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television)
- Image 10The first commercial AM Audion vacuum tube radio transmitter, built in 1914 by Lee De Forest who invented the Audion (triode) in 1906 (from History of radio)
- Image 11Australian radio sets usually had the positions of radio stations marked on their dials. The illustration is a dial from a transistorised, mains-operated Calstan radio, circa 1960s. (Click image for a high resolution view, with readable callsigns.) (from History of broadcasting)
- Image 12Caricature of Sir John Reith, by Wooding (from History of broadcasting)
- Image 13Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 14Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
- Image 15Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right) (from History of television)
- Image 16Typical low-cost webcam used with many personal computers (from History of videotelephony)
- Image 19The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
- Image 20The master telephone patent, 174465, granted to Bell, March 7, 1876 (from History of telecommunication)
- Image 21A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
- Image 22The Kyocera VP-210 Visual Phone was the first commercial mobile videophone. The Personal Handy-phone System (PHS) phone was introduced in Japan (1999). (from History of videotelephony)
- Image 23Artist's conception: 21st-century videotelephony imagined in the early 20th century (1910) (from History of videotelephony)
- Image 24Oliver Lodge's 1894 lectures on Hertz demonstrated how to transmit and detect radio waves. (from History of radio)
- Image 25The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television)
- Image 26Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 27Broadcasting pioneer Frank Conrad in a 1921 portrait (from History of broadcasting)
- Image 28Reginald Fessenden, the "father" of radio broadcasting in the US (from History of broadcasting)
- Image 29The British Broadcasting Corporation's landmark and iconic London headquarters, Broadcasting House, opened in 1932. At right is the 2005 eastern extension, the John Peel wing. (from History of broadcasting)
- Image 30Early experiment demonstrating refraction of microwaves by a paraffin lens by John Ambrose Fleming in 1897 (from History of radio)
- Image 31AT&T Picturephone (Mod II) fully enclosed in its housing, control pad at bottom (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
- Image 32Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 33An exposed view of the Picturephone's rear circuit board (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
- Image 34Charles Logwood broadcasting at station 2XG, New York City, circa November, 1916 (from History of broadcasting)
- Image 36The 1969 AT&T Mod II Picturephone, the result of decades long R&D at a cost of over $500M. (from History of telecommunication)
- Image 37Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television)
- Image 38Lee DeForest broadcasting Columbia phonograph records on pioneering New York station 2XG, in 1916 (from History of broadcasting)
- Image 40The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television)
- Image 41Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television)
- Image 42Emil Voigt, founder of 2KY on behalf of the Labor Council of New South Wales. This photo was taken in earlier days when Voight was a prominent British athlete, and winner of the Gold Medal for the five mile race at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. (from History of broadcasting)
- Image 43Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
- Image 44A replica of one of Claude Chappe's semaphore towers (optical telegraph) in Nalbach, Germany (from History of telecommunication)
- Image 46First television test broadcast transmitted by the NHK Broadcasting Technology Research Institute in May 1939 (from History of television)
- Image 48An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television)
- Image 49Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available (from History of television)
- Image 50Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 51Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
- Image 53RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television)
- Image 54The Nipkow disk. This schematic shows the circular paths traced by the holes, which may also be square for greater precision. The area of the disk outlined in black shows the region scanned. (from History of television)
- Image 55Right side view, housing removed, one of its printed circuit boards exposed (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
- Image 56AT&T magazine advertisement announcing commercial launch of Picturephone service. (from History of videotelephony)
- Image 57In the 1920s, the United States government publication, "Construction and Operation of a Simple Homemade Radio Receiving Outfit", showed how almost any person handy with simple tools could a build an effective crystal radio receiver. (from History of radio)
- Image 58Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 59The "Kerbango Internet Radio" was the first stand-alone product that let users listen to Internet radio without a computer. (from History of broadcasting)
- Image 60The Regency TR-1, which used Texas Instruments' NPN transistors, was the world's first commercially produced transistor radio in 1954. (from History of radio)
- Image 61Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander using an Ericsson videophone to speak with Lennart Hyland, a popular TV show host (1969) (from History of videotelephony)
- Image 62British Post Office engineers inspect Guglielmo Marconi's wireless telegraphy (radio) equipment in 1897. (from History of radio)
- Image 63"Doc" Herrold is shown at the microphone of KQW, early 1920s. (from History of broadcasting)
- Image 64Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
- Image 66The French Matra videophone (1970) (from History of videotelephony)
- Image 67Actor portraying Alexander Graham Bell in a 1932 silent film. Shows Bell's second telephone transmitter (microphone), invented 1876 and first displayed at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. (from History of the telephone)
- Image 68Reginald Fessenden (around 1906) (from History of radio)
- Image 691917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
- Image 70Around 1920, radio broadcasting started to get popular. The Brox Sisters, a popular singing group, gathered around the radio at the time. (from History of radio)
- Image 71Code of letters and symbols for Chappe telegraph (Rees's Cyclopaedia) (from History of telecommunication)
- Image 72Naomi ("Joan") Melwit and Norman Banks at the 3KZ microphone, in the late 1930s (from History of broadcasting)
- Image 73Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1856–1894) proved the existence of electromagnetic radiation. (from History of radio)
- Image 74Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
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Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory.
Edison was raised in the American Midwest. Early in his career he worked as a telegraph operator, which inspired some of his earliest inventions. In 1876, he established his first laboratory facility in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where many of his early inventions were developed. He later established a botanical laboratory in Fort Myers, Florida, in collaboration with businessmen Henry Ford and Harvey S. Firestone, and a laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, that featured the world's first film studio, the Black Maria. With 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as patents in other countries, Edison is regarded as the most prolific inventor in American history. Edison married twice and fathered six children. He died in 1931 due to complications from diabetes. (Full article...)Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch
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- ... that New Jersey politics expert Nick Acocella hosted Pasta & Politics, a television show where he would make pasta with various politicians including Thomas Kean, Cory Booker, and Chris Christie?
- ... that when Florida television station WITV ceased broadcasting in May 1958, its owner was reported to be on a yacht at sea and thus unavailable for comment?
- ... that in Bio's Bahnhof, a German live music talk show presented by Alfred Biolek in a former train depot, Kate Bush made her first television appearance?
- ... that in its final years, Mississippi radio station WKXG allegedly attempted to maintain its broadcast license by "taking turns" with another station in their transmitter facility?
- ... that Iowa radio station KFQC was said to change programming and ownership "almost as regularly as dental check-ups are recommended"?
- ... that ranchers in the community now known as Loybas Hill ran their own telephone company for 60 years?
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