[ih] Early Internet history

Thu Jul 5 17:11:37 PDT 2018

Telegraph had an interesting way of bridging incompatible national networks. At national boundaries, PTTs had terminals for their own network and for their neighbors'. When messages came in, they were written down and then carried to operators of the desired terminal by office boys. The messages were then rekeyed and sent on their way.  

> On Jul 5, 2018, at 5:36 PM, Jack Haverty <jack at 3kitty.org> wrote:
> 
> Interesting.  Is the Internet now larger than the Phone network --
> measured in terms of numbers of entities (people and organizations) who
> can interact?  I still know lots of people who have phones but "don't do
> email".
> 
> One thing that sticks in my mind as being "novel" in the Internet world
> is one of the techniques used to achieve today's large scale.
> 
> AFAIK, the Internet is the first implementation of a "network" (i.e., a
> data communications system using lots of distributed processors to move
> bits) that is done with the components being designed, manufactured,
> installed, and operated independently but cooperatively by more than one
> organization.  Earlier networks of computers, e.g., the ARPANET, IBM's
> multi-drop networks, et al, were all under control of one entity.  Some
> such networks got to be pretty large, but were always under single
> management.  The Internet changed that, and IMHO that facilitate its
> growth.  Somebody will correct me if I'm wrong...
> 
> Of course, the international Phone network was multi-organizational, at
> least at the level of each country involved and their local PTT
> responsible for their part.  So in effect the Internet followed the lead
> of the Phone system to enable the interoperation of disjoint pieces.
> 
> IMHO, one of the key pieces enabling this technique was the creation of
> EGP.  I remember sitting with Eric Rosen in my office at BBN to figure
> out how to respond to Bob Kahn's directive to "make it possible for
> people other than BBN to build gateways".  We batted around ideas for a
> few hours, with the knowledge that the PTTs seemed to have been somehow
> able to do this.  EGP was the result.  Novel?  Maybe...
> 
> There were probably many other such techniques that enabled scale.  For
> example, the notion of defining a protocol and formats "on the wire"
> seems also important.  That was part of the ARPANET, but was likely
> preceded by similar techniques applied in places like memory and I/O
> busses, or railroad tracks, etc.
> 
> The recent discussion of "invention" got me thinking.  It seems that,
> every once in a while, something truly new is created.  I'd argue that
> an example would be the Stored Program Computer of von Neumann's vision.
> Then, for years or decades afterwards, that new element is
> opportunistically applied to do things that were done before in a
> different way.  As computers got small and cheap enough, packet switches
> became viable as replacements for human phone and telegraph operators or
> mechanical components (like I saw in the Paris museum)
> 
> Which of all these things are "inventions" will be debated forever...
> 
> /Jack
> 
> 
> On 07/05/2018 03:25 PM, Vint Cerf wrote:
>> well, you might want to think about scale for a moment.
>> 
>> v
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 5:50 PM, Richard Bennett <richard at bennett.com
>> <mailto:richard at bennett.com>> wrote:
>> 
>>    So there’s really nothing novel about the Internet. Digital
>>    communication has been done with end-to-end control of multiplexed
>>    packets since the early 20th century, and the phone network was just
>>    a diversion. 
>> 
>>    Cool.
>> 
>>    RB
>> 
>> 
>>>    On Jul 5, 2018, at 2:59 PM, Brian E Carpenter
>>>    <brian.e.carpenter at gmail.com <mailto:brian.e.carpenter at gmail.com>>
>>>    wrote:
>>> 
>>>    On 06/07/2018 03:34, Jack Haverty wrote:
>>>    ...
>>>>    I was in Paris recently and spent several hours at the Musee des
>>>>    Arts et
>>>>    Metiers, essentially a museum of technology.  One section is
>>>>    devoted to
>>>>    "Communications".  I noticed one display cabinet containing a machine
>>>>    that was somehow used to "allow several telegraph operators to
>>>>    share the
>>>>    same wire" - so I guess Multiplexing has been around since the
>>>>    19th century.
>>> 
>>>    It was perceived as a requirement very early. Wikipedia dates it
>>>    to the 1870s.
>>>    But I think the first really successful version was the "Murray
>>>    Multiplex" in
>>>    about 1909. My colleague Bob Doran has studied Donald Murray's
>>>    works at some length:
>>>    https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/historydisplays/FifthFloor/Murray/MurraySpielLR.pdf
>>>    <https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/historydisplays/FifthFloor/Murray/MurraySpielLR.pdf>
>>> 
>>>      Brian
>>> 
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>> 
>>    —
>>    Richard Bennett
>>    High Tech Forum <http://hightechforum.org> Founder
>>    Ethernet & Wi-Fi standards co-creator
>> 
>>    Internet Policy Consultant
>> 
>> 
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>>    assistance.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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—
Richard Bennett
High Tech Forum <http://hightechforum.org/> Founder
Ethernet & Wi-Fi standards co-creator

Internet Policy Consultant

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