[time-nuts] Help - Hope?
Rob Seaman
seaman at NOAO.EDU
Tue Jan 3 17:26:29 UTC 2006
Hi Dan,
Thought others might be interested, too.
>> I'm reading the history of the first Atlantic telegraph cable.
>> Great story full of details like Kelvin's invention of the
>> precision galvanometer
>
> Which book is this? Sounds quite interesting.
"A Thread Across the Ocean" by John Steele Gordon. You might also
take a look at Neal Stephenson's excellent article in the December
1996 Wired (http://wired-vig.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/
ffglass_pr.html). Wired did have a few - very few - good stories
over the years - for instance, liked the article comparing container
shipping to a packet switching network (might have been October
1999). And there was an excellent little exhibit on submarine cables
at the Smithsonian a half dozen years ago.
A marvelous use of technology. A grand vision at the time - and it
still remains. The latency and limited capacity of communications
satellites likely ensures that.
Rob Seaman
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
More information about the Time-nuts_lists.febo.com
mailing list