[ih] Nit-picking an origin story

[Vint Cerf]

add Packet Satellite Network
what about Ethernet?
and the Deep Space Network?

On Sun, Aug 17, 2025 at 12:49 AM Joly MacFie via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> I feel compelled here to copy the Chapter list from Lori Emerson's '
> *Other
> Networks:A Radical Technology Sourcebook'
> <
> https://shop.mexicansummer.com/merch/495898-lori-emerson-other-networks-a-radical-technology-sourcebook
> >*
>
> *Sound Networks*
> [1] Drums
> [2] Whistling
>
> *Air Networks*
> [3] Fire or Smoke Signals
> [4] Pneumatic Tubes
> [5] Skywriting
>
> *Water Networks*
> [6] Hydraulic Semaphore
>
> *Optical Networks*
> [7] Flag Signaling
> [8] Optical Telegraph
> [9] Infrared Communication
> [10] Signal Lamp
> [11] Heliograph
> [12] Photophone
> [13] Ultraviolet Communication
> [14] Laser Communication
> [15] Visible Light Communication
>
> *Radio Networks*
> [16] Amateur Radio
> [16.1] Radiotelegraphy
> [16.2] Radioteletype
> [16.3] Amateur Television
> [16.4] Hellschreiber
> [16.5] Earth-Moon-Earth Communication
> [16.6] Amateur Radio Satellite
> [16.7] Amateur Packet Radio
> [17] Radio Broadcast
> [18] Pirate Radio
> [19] Radiofax
> [20] Two-Way Radio
> [21] Pager
> [22] Meteor Burst Communication
> [23] Slow Scan Television
> [24] Project West Ford
> [25] Pirate Television
> [26] Packet Radio Network
> [27] Microbroadcast
> [28] Software Defined Radio
> [29] Wi-Fi
> [30] Bluetooth
>
> *Microwave Networks*
> [31] Microwave Radio-Relay
> [32] Communications Satellite
>
> *Wired Networks:*
> *Electrical Wire Networks*
> [33] Electrical telegraph
> [33.1] Electrical Printing Telegraph
> [33.2] Image Telegraph
> [33.3] Fire Alarm Telegraph
> [33.4] Pantelegraph
> [33.5] Telephonic Telegraph
> [34] Telephone
> [35] Wired Radio
> [36] Telautograph
> [37] Telefacsimile
> [38] Videophone
> [39] Telex
>
> *Barbed Wire Networks*
> [40] Barbed Wire Telegraph
> [41] Fence Phones
>
> *Hybrid Networks:*
> [42] Library
> [43] Book
> [44] Postal System
> [44.1] Pigeon Post
> [44.2] Projectile Post
> [44.3] Balloon Mail
> [44.4] Pony Express
> [44.5] Airgraph and V-Mail
> [44.6] Email Letter
> [45] Sneakernet
> [46] Radio Broadcast Network
> [47] Broadcast Television
> [48] Cable Television
> [48.1] NABU
> [49] Cellular Network
> [50] Time-Sharing Network
> [51] Teletext
> [52] Videotex
>
> *Imaginary Networks:*
> [53] Necromancy
> [54] Pasilalinic-Sympathetic Compass
> [55] Telephonoscope
> [56] Telepathy
> [57] Ley Lines
> [58] Mundaneum
> [59] World Brain
> [60] Memex
> [61] Faster-Than-Light Communication Networks
> [62] Project Xanadu
> [63] Metaverse
> [64] The Clacks
> [65] Pandoran Neural Network
> [66] Cosmic Internet
>
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 16, 2025 at 11:01 PM Brian E Carpenter via Internet-history <
> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>
> > Excellent list, Joe. To the pre-electric era, I'd add smoke signals and
> > alpenhorns, and I'm sure there were others in various cultures around the
> > world.
> >
> > I'd also insert Baudot and Murray after Morse. They brought in 5-bit
> > binary encoding instead of on/off encoding, and Murray invented both
> > multiplexing and CR/LF.
> >
> > Regards/Ngā mihi
> >     Brian Carpenter
> >
> > On 17-Aug-25 12:40, touch--- via Internet-history wrote:
> > >
> > >> On Aug 16, 2025, at 5:15 PM, Dave Crocker via Internet-history <
> > internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> the scope of my original query was meant to be about much closer --
> and
> > possibly competitive or complementary -- milestones: automated, shared
> > (wide-area) digital communications.
> > >>
> > >> So, for example, telegraph signal/smoke fires, heliography and the
> like
> > play into the larger... picture.
> > >
> > > I included a history when I taught intro to networking.
> > >
> > > Couriers                      Spoken/written language (30,000 BC)
> > > Pigeons                       2900 BC, Egypt
> > > Beacons                       1200 BC, Troy
> > > Calling posts         400 BC, Persia
> > > Heliographs           400 BC, Greece
> > > Flags                 400 BC, Greece
> > > Hooke semaphore       1680s (shutters and symbols)
> > > Chappe’s telegraph    1790s (arms) with time sync, collision
> management,
> > priority flow control, and error recovery
> > > Edelcrantz            1790s (just shutters, inspired by Chappe)
> > > Cooke/Wheatstone      1830s magnetic needles
> > > Morse                 1830s electromagnetic relays
> > > Morse                         1850s teleprinter (like a stock ticker)
> > > Bell                          1870s phone
> > > Marconi                       1890s RF
> > > Tube amps             1900s
> > > Transistor            1950s
> > > Laser                 1950s
> > > Satellite                     1960s
> > >
> > > As you note, the adjectives are the key, as with most superlatives.
> > >
> > > For "computer networking", I would say Sage is the first in the 1950s,
> > with SABRE (reportedly inspired by SAGE) and telephone switches (arguably
> > remote machine-machine) not far behind in the early 1960s, all AFAICT
> > predating ARPAnet.
> > >
> > > Joe
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > --
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> >
>
>
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> --------------------------------------
> Joly MacFie  +12185659365 <(218)%20565-9365>
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