Electri City and From Telegraph to Internet - Essay Example

The French engineer Nicholas Cugnot (1769) invented the first self-propelled transport - a three-wheeled tractor. It was used by military to haul artillery and reached speeds of 21/2 mph. Cugnot recorded the first accident in a mechanized vehicle which landed him in financial problems when his financiers pulled the plug on him. Several improvements were done of this 'car' each model becoming faster than previous generation culminating in shift from mechanical to modern electrical cars. The steam engines introduced a revolution in transportation.

Samuel Homfray funded adoption of steam power in 1803 and Richard Trevitheck (1771-1833) managed to build the first steam propelled tramway locomotive. It carried a load of more than 10 tons over a distance of 9 miles at an average speed of 41/2 miles. Man's desire for speed is illustrated by the story of Baron von Drais who invented the bicycle in 1817. This instrument which was initially made of wood enabled Drais "to navigate the royal gardens faster". The machine was initially powered by pushing using feet enabling the rider to glide along.

Several modifications led to the bicycle as we know it today. All the transport inventions were driven by man's need for speed. . All this was achieved by man's craving for greater speed. Space tourism beckons with the first space tourist having been recorded in 2004. Many more will follow as man's journey leads to other planets and beyond.The black spot of all this is that the earth's environment has been affected by the road and rail network that crisscrossing the earth bringing pollution and upsetting ecosystems and scenery.

Telegraph to internetThe invention of telegraph by Joseph Henry in 1831 speeded up long-distance communication by decoupling communication from human travel. Alexander Bell's telephone invention that followed later has evolved into the ubiquitous mobile cell phone network of today. The internet has taken mankind on another giant leap forward.From dawn of time man used signs and sounds to communicate with each other. The earliest appearance of printed messages is traced to the Chinese in 3500 B.C. They used paper-like material to pass messages in their primitive postal network around 900 B.C. Bound books started appearing around 100 A.D. and then newspapers and magazines followed around 1450.

The typewriter only appeared as late as 1714 A.D. Henry's telegraph sent messages as a sound on metal wires. Bell reasoned that it should be possible to send complete human speech over wires. By 1876 he had perfected his telephone and by 1914 the first transcontinental call could be made. Around 1896 Guglielmo Marconi had shown that you could dispense with connecting wires and use radio waves to carry both telegraph and voice.For a time things remained pretty much the same on the communications front for a while as inventors as inventors explored the possibilities of other communications such as radio,