The History of Electronic Communication up to the Invention of Text Messages
The history of long distance communication through the use of electricity gets it start way back in 1729. That’s when Stephen Grey discovered that electricity could be sent long distance using insulated copper wires. But how did we get from zapping each other over a distance all the way to texting? This timeline should explain that.
1799 — Volta invents the electric battery
Alessandro Volta created the first electric battery and named it the Voltaic cell. It consisted of two plates of different metals immersed in chemicals that generated electricity. The electricity flowed evenly through a conductor in a closed circuit. Because it was the very first battery, no one was quite sure what to do with it. However it was the first reproducible source of electrical current created, and was the first step towards developing electrical equipment. In his honor, today we still call a unit of electric potential the volt.
1834 — Charles Wheatstone measures the velocity of electricity in a wire
Wheatstone was able to show that electricity travelled at a set velocity using a circuit that today is called the Wheatstone bridge circuit.
