Connecting the Nineteenth-Century World

Abstract

By the end of the nineteenth century the global telegraph network had connected all continents and brought distant people into direct communication 'at the speed of thought' for the first time. Roland Wenzlhuemer here examines the links between the development of the telegraph and the paths of globalization, and the ways in which global spaces were transformed by this technological advance. His groundbreaking approach combines cultural studies with social science methodology, including evidence based on historical GIS mapping, to shed new light on both the structural conditions of the global telegraph network and the historical agency of its users. The book reveals what it meant for people to be telegraphically connected or unconnected, how people engaged with the technology, how the use of telegraphy affected communication itself and, ultimately, whether faster communication alone can explain the central role that telegraphy occupied in nineteenth-century globalization.

Industrial Policy and the Great Divergence

“…Britain dominated the telegraph network, owning 66.3% of the global network in 1892, both via private companies based in London and the British government (Wenzlhuemer, 2012). Historians have argued that the international telegraph network was primarily a "tool of empire"-at one point there was a scheme to build a strategic "All Red Route" which would have connected the globe only through British territories (Headrick, 1981, 163).…”

Toward Immersive Communications in 6G

“…1, i.e., XR, haptic communication, and holographic communication. 1 Via introducing the concept, basic implementation procedure, and the network requirements Teleconference [28], [75] Tele-operation [54], [68] E-heath [64], [87] E-commerce [88], [89] Smart home [90], [91] Manufacturing [92], [93] Tourism and travel [94], [95] Metaverse [9], [45], [77], [96] for each of the three forms, we aim to sketch an overall picture of immersive communications. The requirements of representative immersive communications use cases are illustrated in Fig.…”

“…Ever since its birth, communication technology has been a symbol of the modernization of human society, and the evolution of communication technology has accompanied the advance of civilization. The commercialization of electrical telegraph and telephone during the second industrial revolution boosted globalization by facilitating finance and trade overseas [1]. The debut of vehicle-mounted mobile radio systems ("car phones") and the analog first generation (1G) mobile telecommunication systems from the 1950s to 1980s enabled voice calls on the go [2].…”

Mobility, network, message: spy fiction and film in the long 1930s

“…The differences between these two versions of more or less the same story seem to me significant enough to offer some support to Wenzlhuemer's thesis concerning the dematerialisation of information flows. Of course, it's the flow of information which becomes immaterial, not the technologies which sustain it, as Wenzlhuemer makes clear . The materiality of a network's apparatus, and of the men and women who operate it, constitute in a variety of ways a limit to information's flow: a limit reinforced by every attempt to exceed it.…”