Morse Code

Creators

o Samuel Finley Breese Morse, for whom the code was named, was a professional artist educated in England. While returning to America to teach painting and sculpture in New York City, Morse overheard a discussion about electromagnets that led to his development of an electric telegraph, beginning in 1832, for transmitting numerical code. Alfred Vail, a partner of Morse's in this project, later modified the code substantially. Rather than using Morse's original concept of arbitrary numerals assigned to words of the English language, Vail assigned unique values to each letter of the English alphabet.

Notable Dates

o The first transmission in Morse code occurred on May 24, 1844 from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore; the message, "What hath God wrought," was sent by Samuel Morse and was taken from the Book of Numbers. Perhaps the most famous usage of Morse code, the distress call known as "SOS" was made an official worldwide standard on July 1, 1908. However, as of February 1, 1999, international regulations no longer dictate that ships be prepared to broadcast this signal using Morse code. February 23, 2007 marked the date that, according to an FCC ruling, ham radio operators were no longer required to demonstrate Morse code proficiency to earn their licenses.

Code Fundamentals

o Morse code employs many unique combinations of dashes, or long values, and dots, or short values. Each combination represents a different alphanumeric or punctuation character. Unlike binary code, though, understanding the lengths of the pauses is crucial to decipher the code properly, as pause between letters is notably different than a pause between words. As Vail adapted Morse's original code, he assigned those letters that occur most frequently the English language the shortest symbols for ease of use. Morse can be transmitted using a variety of methods, such as electrically using a telegraph, by way of audio tones or using light.

Interesting Uses

o Notable practices and devices brought Morse code into widespread military use after its invention. During the American Civil War, Morse code messages were conveyed using flags in the daytime and torches at night. The heliograph, used from the late nineteenth century through World War II in some countries, transmitted messages in Morse code by essentially reflecting sunlight in a mirror. Today, Morse code is frequently used in assistive technology. Physically disabled people who are unable to use a computer mouse or keyboard are often able to find communicative freedom with Morse code, needing only the ability to indicate dots and dashes into a device. This device then proceeds to send the message through a voice box.

Ham Radio

What is Ham Radio?

Ham Radio, also known as Amateur Radio is a popular hobby and a service in which licensed participants operate communications equipment with a deep appreciation of the radio art.  The unique hobby of Amateur Radio is a mix of fun, public service, and convenience. Although hams get involved for many reasons, they all have in common a basic knowledge of radio technology and operating principles, and pass an examination for the FCC license to operate on radio frequencies known as the "Amateur Bands." These bands are radio frequencies reserved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for use by hams at intervals from just above the AM broadcast band all the way up into extremely high microwave frequencies.

Why are Amateur Radio Operators also called "Hams"?-

"Ham: a poor operator. A 'plug.'

That's the definition of the word given in G. M. Dodge's "The Telegraph Instructor" even before there was radio. The definition has never changed in wire telegraphy. The first wireless operators were landline telegraphers who left their offices to go to sea or to man the coastal stations. They brought with them their language and much of the tradition of their older profession. In those early days, every station occupied the same wavelength-or, more accurately perhaps, every station occupied the whole spectrum with its broad spark signal. Government stations, ships, coastal stations and the increasingly numerous amateur operators all competed for time and signal supremacy in each other's receivers. Many of the amateur stations were very powerful. Two amateurs, working each other across town, could effectively jam all the other operations in the area. Frustrated commercial operators would refer to the ham radio interference by calling them "hams." Amateurs, possibly unfamiliar with the real meaning of the term, picked it up and applied it to themselves in true "Yankee Doodle" fashion and wore it with pride. As the years advanced, the original meaning has completely disappeared.

Braile Writer

Braille, a system of raised dots that is read with the fingers, has historically been embossed on paper. The system was invented by Louis Braille of France in the early 1800s.

The Story of Louis BrailleLouis Braille was born on 4th January, 1809, at Coupvray, near Paris. At three years of age an accident deprived him of his sight, and in 1819 he was sent to the Paris Blind School. Young Louis Braille desperately wanted to read. He realized the vast world of thought and ideas that was locked out to him because of his disability. And he was determined to find the key to this door for himself, and for all other blind persons.

Louis BrailleLouis Braille invented braille printing.

Louis Braille and the Braille SystemThe basis of the various braille codes for the world's natural languages is a straightforward assignment of most of the dot patterns to letters of the alphabet, punctuation marks and other symbols.

The Life of Louis BrailleLouis Braille invented "braille", a worldwide system of embossed type used by blind and partially sighted people for reading and writing. It has been adapted to almost every known language, from Albanian to Zulu.

Television

HistoryTelevision was not invented by a single inventor, instead many people working together and alone over the years, contributed to the evolution of television.

Overview - Timeline of Television History

Broadcasting Pioneers: The Many Innovators Behind Television History

At the dawn of television history there were two distinct paths of technology experimented with by researchers.

Early inventors attempted to either build a mechanical television system based on the technology of Paul Nipkow's rotating disks; or they attempted to build an electronic television system using a cathode ray tube developed independently in 1907 by English inventor A.A. Campbell-Swinton and Russian scientist Boris Rosing.

Electronic television systems worked better and eventual replaced mechanical systems.

Paul Gottlieb Nipkow - Mechanical Television History

German, Paul Nipkow developed a rotating-disc technology to transmit pictures over wire in 1884 called the Nipkow disk. Paul Nipkow was the first person to discover television's scanning principle, in which the light intensities of small portions of an image are successively analyzed and transmitted.

John Logie Baird - Mechanical

In the 1920's, John Logie Baird patented the idea of using arrays of transparent rods to transmit images for television. Baird's 30 line images were the first demonstrations of television by reflected light rather than back-lit silhouettes. John Logie Baird based his technology on Paul Nipkow's scanning disc idea and later developments in electronics.

Charles Francis Jenkins - Mechanical

Charles Jenkins invented a mechanical television system called radiovision and claimed to have transmitted the earliest moving silhouette images on June 14, 1923.

Cathode Ray Tube - Electronic Television History

Electronic television is based on the development of the cathode ray tube, which is the picture tube found in modern TV sets. German scientist, Karl Braun invented the cathode ray tube oscilloscope (CRT) in 1897.

Vladimir Kosma Zworykin - Electronic

Russian inventor, Vladimir Zworykin invented an improved cathode-ray tube called the kinescope in 1929. The kinescope tube was sorely needed for television. Zworykin was one of the first to demonstrate a television system with all the features of modern picture tubes.

Philo T. Farnsworth - Electronic

In 1927, Philo Farnsworth was the first inventor to transmit a television image comprised of 60 horizontal lines. The image transmitted was a dollar sign. Farnsworth developed the dissector tube, the basis of all current electronic televisions. He filed for his first television patent in 1927 (#1,773,980).

Louis Parker - Television Receiver

Louis Parker invented the modern changeable television receiver. The patent was issued to Louis Parker in 1948.

Rabbit Ears - Antennae

Marvin Middlemark invented "rabbit ears", the "V" shaped TV antennae. Among Middlemark's other inventions were a water-powered potato peeler and rejuvenating tennis ball machine.

Color Television

Color TV was by no means a new idea, a German patent in 1904 contained the earliest proposal, while in 1925 Zworykin filed a patent disclosure for an all-electronic color television system. A successful color television system began commercial broadcasting, first authorized by the FCC on December 17, 1953 based on a system invented by RCA.

History of Cable TV

Cable television, formerly known as Community Antenna Television or CATV, was born in the mountains of Pennsylvania in the late 1940's. The first successful color television system began commercial broadcasting on December 17, 1953 based on a system designed by RCA.

Remote Controls

It was in June of 1956, that the TV remote controller first entered the American home. The first TV remote control called "Lazy Bones," was developed in 1950 by Zenith Electronics Corporation (then known as Zenith Radio Corporation).

Origins of Children's Programming

The American Broadcasting Company first aired Saturday morning TV shows for children on August 19, 1950.

Plasma TV

The very first prototype for a plasma display monitor was invented in 1964 by Donald Bitzer, Gene Slottow, and Robert Willson.

History of Closed Captioning TV

TV closed captions are captions that are hidden in the television video signal, invisible without a special decoder.

Web TV

Web TV was rolled out in 1996.

Telephone

Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray raced to invent the telephone.

In the 1870s, two inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically (the telephone). Both men rushed their respective designs to the patent office within hours of each other, Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone first. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won.

Alexander Graham Bell - Evolution of the Telegraph into the Telephone

The telegraph and telephone are both wire-based electrical systems, and Alexander Graham Bell's success with the telephone came as a direct result of his attempts to improve the telegraph.

When Bell began experimenting with electrical signals, the telegraph had been an established means of communication for some 30 years. Although a highly successful system, the telegraph, with its dot-and-dash Morse code, was basically limited to receiving and sending one message at a time. Bell's extensive knowledge of the nature of sound and his understanding of music enabled him to conjecture the possibility of transmitting multiple messages over the same wire at the same time. Although the idea of a multiple telegraph had been in existence for some time, Bell offered his own musical or harmonic approach as a possible practical solution. His "harmonic telegraph" was based on the principle that several notes could be sent simultaneously along the same wire if the notes or signals differed in pitch.

Alexander Graham Bell - Talk with Electricity

By October 1874, Bell's research had progressed to the extent that he could inform his future father-in-law, Boston attorney Gardiner Greene Hubbard, about the possibility of a multiple telegraph. Hubbard, who resented the absolute control then exerted by the Western Union Telegraph Company, instantly saw the potential for breaking such a monopoly and gave Bell the financial backing he needed. Bell proceeded with his work on the multiple telegraph, but he did not tell Hubbard that he and Thomas Watson, a young electrician whose services he had enlisted, were also exploring an idea that had occurred to him that summer - that of developing a device that would transmit speech electrically.

While Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson worked on the harmonic telegraph at the insistent urging of Hubbard and other backers, Bell nonetheless met in March 1875 with Joseph Henry, the respected director of the Smithsonian Institution, who listened to Bell's ideas for a telephone and offered encouraging words. Spurred on by Henry's positive opinion, Bell and Watson continued their work. By June 1875 the goal of creating a device that would transmit speech electrically was about to be realized. They had proven that different tones would vary the strength of an electric current in a wire. To achieve success they therefore needed only to build a working transmitter with a membrane capable of varying electronic currents and a receiver that would reproduce these variations in audible frequencies.

First Sounds - Twang

On June 2, 1875, Alexander Graham Bell while experimenting with his technique called "harmonic telegraph" discovered he could hear sound over a wire. The sound was that of a twanging clock spring.

Bell's greatest success was achieved on March 10, 1876, marked not only the birth of the telephone but the death of the multiple telegraph as well. The communications potential contained in his demonstration of being able to "talk with electricity" far outweighed anything that simply increasing the capability of a dot-and-dash system could imply.

First Voice - Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.

Alexander Graham Bell's notebook entry of 10 March 1876 describes his successful experiment with the telephone. Speaking through the instrument to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, in the next room, Bell utters these famous first words, "Mr. Watson -- come here -- I want to see you."

Alexander Graham Bell - Brief Biography

Born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Alexander Graham Bell was the son and grandson of authorities in elocution and the correction of speech. Educated to pursue a career in the same specialty, his knowledge of the nature of sound led him not only to teach the deaf, but also to invent the telephone.

Notebook Computer

A laptop computer is a personal computer for mobile use. A laptop has most of the same components as a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device such as a touchpad (also known as a trackpad) and/or a pointing stick, and speakers into a single unit. A laptop is powered by mains electricity via an AC adapter, and can be used away from an outlet using a rechargeable battery. Laptops are also sometimes called notebook computers, notebooks, ultrabooks or netbooks.

Portable computers, originally monochrome CRT-based and developed into the modern laptops, were originally considered to be a small niche market, mostly for specialized field applications such as the military, accountants and sales representatives. As portable computers became smaller, lighter, cheaper, more powerful and as screens became larger and of better quality, laptops became widely used for all sorts of purposes.

History

The Epson HX-20

As the personal computer (PC) became feasible in the 1970s, the idea of a portable personal computer followed. A "personal, portable information manipulator" was imagined by Alan Kay at Xerox PARC in 1968,[3] and described in his 1972 paper as the "Dynabook".[4]

The IBM Special Computer APL Machine Portable (SCAMP), was demonstrated in 1973. This prototype was based on the IBM PALM processor (Put All Logic in Microcode or 128 bit).

The IBM 5100, the first commercially available portable computer, appeared in September 1975, and was based on the SCAMP prototype.[5]

As 8-bit CPU machines became widely accepted, the number of portables increased rapidly. The Osborne 1, released in 1981, used the Zilog Z80 and weighed 23.6 pounds (10.7 kg). It had no battery, a 5 in (13 cm) CRT screen, and dual 5.25 in (13.3 cm) single-density floppy drives. In the same year the first laptop-sized portable computer, the Epson HX-20, was announced.[6] The Epson had a LCD screen, a rechargeable battery, and a calculator-size printer in a 1.6 kg (3.5 lb) chassis. Both

Tandy/RadioShack and HP also produced portable computers of varying designs during this period.[7][8]The first laptops using the flip form factor appeared in the early 1980s. The Dulmont Magnum was released in Australia in 1981–82, but was not marketed internationally until 1984–85. The US$8,150 (US$19,390 today) GRiD Compass 1100, released in 1982, was used at NASA and by the military among others. The Gavilan SC, released in 1983, was the first computer described as a "laptop" by its manufacturer.[9] From 1983 onward, several new input techniques were developed and included in laptops, including the touchpad (Gavilan SC, 1983), the pointing stick (IBM ThinkPad 700, 1992) and handwriting recognition (Linus Write-Top,[10] 1987). Some CPUs, such as the 1990 Intel i386SL, were designed to use minimum power to increase battery life of portable computers, and were supported by dynamic power management features such as Intel SpeedStep and AMD PowerNow! in some designs.

Displays reached VGA resolution by 1983 (Compaq SLT/286), and colour screens started becoming a common upgrade in 1991 with increases in resolution and screen size occurring frequently until the introduction of 17"-screen laptops in 2003. Hard drives started to be used in portables, encouraged by the introduction of 3.5" drives in the late 1980s, and became common in laptops starting with the introduction of 2.5" and smaller drives around 1990; capacities have typically lagged behind physically larger desktop drives. Optical storage, read-only CD-ROM followed by writeable CD and later read-only or writeable DVD and Blu-ray, became common in laptops soon in the 2s.

Typewriter

A typewriter by definition is a small machine, either electric or manual, with type keys that produced characters one at a time on a piece of paper inserted around a roller. Typewriters have been largely replaced by personal computers and home printers.

History:

Christopher Sholes was an American mechanical engineer, born on February 14, 1819 in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania, and died on February 17, 1890 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He invented the first practical modern typewriter in 1866, with the financial and technical support of his business partners Samuel Soule and Carlos Glidden. Five years, dozens of experiments, and two patents later, Sholes and his associates produced an improved model similar to today's typewriters.

Mobile Phone

Mobile: A type of wireless communication that is most familiar to mobile phones users. It's called 'mobile' because the system uses many base stations to divide a service area into multiple 'cells'. Cellular calls are transferred from base station to base station as a user travels from cell to cellThe basic concept of mobile phones began in 1947, when researchers looked at crude mobile (car) phones and realized that by using small cells (range of service area) with frequency reuse they could increase the traffic capacity of mobile phones substantially. However at that time, the technology to do so was nonexistent.

Anything to do with broadcasting and sending a radio or television message out over the airwaves comes under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation. A cell phone is a type of two-way radio. In 1947, AT&T proposed that the FCC allocate a large number of radio-spectrum frequencies so that widespread mobile telephone service would become feasible and AT&T would have a incentive to research the new technology. We can partially blame the FCC for the gap between the initial concept of cellular service and its availability to the public. The FCC decided to limit the amount of frequencies available in 1947, the limits made only twenty-three phone conversations possible simultaneously in the same service area.

Usage:

Communication

Mobile phones' basic function, of course, is to allow you to talk to another person while you're almost anywhere. You can place and receive calls and messages by simply pressing a person's name in your contact list, eliminating the need for memorization or a separate address book. The ability of mobile phones to connect to people in other countries helps family and friends who are from far from one another stay in touch.

Emergency

Mobile phones can be especially important during emergencies. When you get into a car accident or are in trouble, you can use your mobile phones to call 911. You may also use your mobile phone's camera function to take pictures, which could deter an assailant or stalker.

Storage

Mobile phones are also important because they allow you to store data. Pictures, text and audio can be stored on many mobile phones. This enables you to carry your files around wherever you go, ensuring that you are always with important documents for work or your personal life.

Entertainment

Aside from communicating, mobile phones are important because of their entertainment features. New mobile phones have music player capabilities that allow owners to play music and even record audio. Some phones may have the ability to play video, enabling you to watch clips or movies while on the go.

Applications

Mobile phone applications extend the functionality of mobile phones. Word and spreadsheet processors are available, and those who may need on-the-go computing may find this a great benefit of mobile phones. Standard mobile phone applications include alarm clocks, calculators and converters, all of which may help your productivity.

Facsimile machine

The first fax machine was invented by Scottish mechanic and inventor Alexander Bain. In 1843, Alexander Bain received a British patent for “improvements in producing and regulating electric currents and improvements in timepieces and in electric printing and signal telegraphs”, in laymen's terms a fax machine.

Several years earlier, Samuel Morse had invented the first successful telegraph machine and the fax machine closely evolved from the technology of the telegraph.

The earlier telegraph machine sent morse code (dots & dashes) over telegraph wires that was decoded into a text message at a remote location.

Fax Machine HistoryMany inventors after Alexander Bain, worked hard on inventing and improving fax machine type devices.

In 1850, a London inventor named F. C. Blakewell received a patent what he

called a "copying telegraph". In 1860, a fax machine called the Pantelegraph sent the first fax between

Paris and Lyon. The Pantelegraph was invented Giovanni Caselli. In 1895, Ernest Hummel a watchmaker from St. Paul, Minnesota invented

his competing device called the Telediagraph. In 1902, Dr Arthur Korn invented an improved and practical fax, the photoelectric system. In 1914, Edouard Belin established the concept of the remote fax for photo and news reporting. In 1924, the telephotography machine (a type of fax machine) was used to send political convention photos long distance for newspaper publication. It was developed by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) worked to improve telephone fax technology. By 1926, RCA invented the Radiophoto that faxed by using radio broadcasting technology. In 1947, Alexander Muirhead invented a very successful fax machine.On March 4, 1955, the first radio fax transmission was sent across the continent.

Usage:

For starters, we all know that they can send messages. They can send them to other fax equipments for quicker delivery of documents. All you have to do is dial the number that you are going to send it to and slip it in. It scans it and you keep the copy.

It also allows other people to transmit documents to you. They allow you to receive faxes in the very speedy and secure manner. It comes in handy especially if you need signatures for an important document and so forth.

There are also those that find that the fax device can be used for other things as well. One of functions of most of the modern day fax machines its usage as a copier and scanner. Most of today's machines are multifunctional.

Then, there is one last thing that it can be used for. It can be used as a printer in a way. You can send faxes from your computer which will then make a copy for you as well. This can be quite economical for some who are tight on money.

Radio

Edwin Howard Armstrong invented frequency-modulated or FM radio in 1933. FM improved the audio signal of radio by controlling the noise static caused by electrical equipment and the earth's atmosphe. Until 1936, all American transatlantic telephone communication had to be routed through England. In that year, a direct radiotelephone circuit was opened to Paris. Telephone connection by radio and cable is now accessible with 187 foreign points.

Radio technology has grown significantly since its early development. In 1947, Bell Labs scientists invented the transistor. In 1954, a then small Japanese company called Sony introduced the transistor radio.

NAME : ALIA SAFIA BT ZAHARIN

CLASS :4 BAIDURI

SUBJECT : ENGLISH