Telegraph - The Victorian Internet

I just finished reading The Victorian Internet, by Tom Standage, which describes the parallels between the telegraph and the Internet.  The Victorian Age (1837 - 1901) roughly corresponds to the years of the development, peak use, and collapse of the telegraph.  It was the greatest revolution in communications since the printing press, and remained dominant until the invention of the telephone.

The telegraph was a new communications technology which allowed near instantaneous communication over great distances.  It consisted of a network of cables spanning continents and oceans.  Messages went from one telegraph office to the next, like messages today go from server to server.   Instead of bits and bytes, there were the dots and dashes of Morse code.

Let's look at some of the other similarities between the telegraph and the Internet...

INSTANT NEWS

Today's news cycle is near-instant, and it began its dramatic shortening during the heyday of the telegraph.  Whereas news between continents used to be limited by the speed of ships crossing oceans, with the laying of under-water cables, what used to take months turned into minutes.    News from Missouri to western U.S. was limited by the speed of the Pony Express, which folded as soon as the cross-continental telegraph was completed.

GLOBAL CONNECTION

Telegraph enabled newspapers to provide world coverage the same day events happened, allowing people to feel part of an extended global community.  Today we have YouTube and Twitter, Facebook and blogs - all of which link people around the world in what should be one happy mass of humanity.  

People were connected then, and even more connected now.  Peace is as elusive as ever.

NEWSPAPERS FEEL THREATENED

You're familiar with the decline of the newspaper industry since the web has taken over society.  Well, back then newspapers felt threatened by the telegraph.  Newspapers used to compete to be the first with news by using rival pony expresses and faster boats.  But with the telegraph, all newspapers were on a level-playing field as far as timeliness of news. 

James Gordon Bennett (founder, editor, and publisher of The New York Herald) was a prominent figure in the history of American newspapers.  He thought papers would go out of business and only magazines and other publications that featured commentary and analysis would continue.  He was wrong, of course.  The telegraph got news to the papers quickly, but it wasn't an efficient means of distributing that news to the masses.

SLANG

Both the telegraph and the Internet have their own jargon and slang.  Today we have entire websites devoted to Internet slang, like "IMA" (I'm going to) and "NM" (never mind).   Morse code had its own slang: SFD (stop for dinner); GA (go ahead); GM (good morning).  They also used numbers as abbreviations.  1 meant "wait a moment" and 2 meant "get answer immediately".

CRIME

Today we have hackers and identity theft.  Back then, the criminal element of the day also manipulated the telegraph for fraud and profit.  In 1888, the Chicago Police Department declared "It is a well-known fact that no other section of the population avail themselves more readily and speedily of the latest triumphs of science than the criminal class."

A sure way to make money was to telegraph results of horse races to a location where they weren't widely known, in time for those people to place a bet with their local bookmaker.   Even after rules disallowed such flagrant cheating, people would send innocent-sounding messages with mildly coded messages that included the colors worn by the winning horse.

Two bankers in France bribed telegraph operators to feed them Paris stock market information.  This arrangement worked well for all of them for two entire years.

PRIVACY

Although most operators were honest, there still was widespread concern over privacy.  Until 1865 in most European countries, only governments could use codes.  (By code, I'm not referring to Morse code, but rather to word/letter substitutions.)  It was considered acceptable for governments to intercept telegrams in the interest of national security.  Diplomats and spies routinely used codes and ciphers to protect their messages from other governments.  

I'm not sure how relevant this is to national security, but in India, the Department of Agriculture used the codeword "envelope" to mean "great swarms of locusts have appeared and ravaged the crops".

In the U.S., the telegraph network was controlled by private companies, not governments, so public use of codes and ciphers began much earlier.  

It seems funny, but books of codes were published and made available.  "The Secret Corresponding Vocabulary Adapted for Use to Morse's Electro-Magnetic Telegraph" was written by congressman and lawyer Francis O.J. Smith.  With the secret spilled,  no wonder that many industries developed their own codes for use with their overseas correspondents.

 SECURITY

 

Today we have https protocol for secure transactions.  Back then, on-line commerce was inhibited by the lack of security for telegraphic money transfers.  Although some banks had their own codes, they still had to rely on the integrity of the telegraph operators.  

In 1872, the situation improved significantly when Western Union implemented a new and secure scheme to transfer up to $100 between several hundred towns.  By 1877 it was being used to transfer $2.5 million annually.

ROMANCE

Today we have online dating services.  Back then, romances sometimes blossomed between telegraph operators at work.  Telegraphy was a good profession, and as long as you were accurate and quick, women were welcome.  In most cases, the females were physically segregated from the men, but they kept in direct contact with them over the wire.  According to one writer referring to the on-line romances: "Sometimes these flourished; sometimes they came to an abrupt halt when the operators met for the first time." 


In 1996, two people were married on-line by a minister 10 miles away in Seattle.  In the 1840s, a couple was married over the telegraph as a way of circumventing the wishes of the bride's father.  He promised his daughter to another man, and when he found out his daughter had her own preference, he sent his daughter's choice on a business trip to England.  The ship made a stopover in New York, and with the groom in New York and the bride in Boston, they were wed by a magistrate in a legally binding ceremony.

SOCIAL ISOLATION

 


Today some people fret about the prevalence of on-line contact over face-to-face communication.  The same thing happened back then.  Thomas Stevens, a British telegraph operator stationed in Persia (Iran), vastly preferred the online contact with other operators in England over socializing in person with the locals, whom he considered "barbarous".  


 

CHAT ROOMS

Today we have chat rooms and instant messaging.  Back then they had something similar.  Employees of the American Telegraph Company's lines between Massachusetts and Maine had an after-hours meeting.  There were hundreds of operators in 33 offices along 700 miles of wire.  Because they were networked, each operator's remarks were heard by all the other operators at the same time.  They must have been happy to have their opinions heard and respected, because after an hour they adjourned the meeting, reportedly "in great harmony and kindly feeling".

INFORMATION OVERLOAD

There was a story on NBC's nightly news recently about the increasing number of hours that Americans work compared to a few decades ago.  Where it used to be common to go home at night and on the weekends, and have time to yourself, many more businesses now expect their employees to be available and responsive 24/7.  

Things started on this slippery slope back in the 1860s when businesses received national and global information almost instantly. In order to stay competitive, they had to embrace the telegraph and the accelerated pace of business life.  

Companies used to subscribe to a digest of the morning papers or a summary of the most recent stock market prices.  Daily and even twice daily reports weren't enough.  The demand for more frequent updates led to the development of stock tickers that spewed forth continuous information.  Enter Smart Phones.

Morse code, the language of the telegraph, is fading away.  Western Union shut down its telegraph services in 2006.  Sweden and the United Kingdom use telegrams for nostalgia purposes.  Just a handful of countries (Russia, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Mexico, and the Netherlands) still offer full telegraph services.

One remnant that used to make extensive use of Morse code was amateur radio, also known as ham radio.  The FCC requires a license and exam to operate an amateur radio station.  The exam used to require extensive knowledge of electronics along with a proficiency in CW (continuous wave, or  Morse code) transcription.  You didn't need to send Morse code, but you needed to be able to listen to it and translate it at various levels of speed.

Most of the "hams" are an aging population and in order to attract a younger generation, the FCC kept easing up on requirements.  In 2007, the Morse code proficiency requirement was dropped.  At this rate, Morse code will be so little known that it can become a secret code all on its own.

73 (best regards) 

Tea for Tuesday - Not a Czech Teapot

January is "Hot Tea Month", so on this last Tuesday of the month, I wanted to bring you another episode of Tea for Tuesday before it's too late.

For all the years I've had this teapot, which isn't all that many, to tell the truth, I thought it was from Czechoslovakia.  It has the bright colors of some Czech pottery, and I've always displayed it with the Czech cup and saucer seen below.

This morning when doing research on it, I tipped it over and read "Made in Japan".  Hmm.  It makes no difference to me where it was made; I bought it for the bright colors that were hand painted.  I'm sure about the hand painting, because I read that on the bottom, too.

The cup and saucer were made by MZ Altrohlau which was in business from 1884 - 1945.  The mark on the bottom says "Czechoslovakia" which existed as a country between 1918 and 1992.  That would narrow the date of this cup and saucer between 1918 and 1945.

Here's a better view of the paint job, which is more watercolor-ish than the pot.  I personally prefer the teapot because of its crisp lines.  

Today's frigid weather makes it the perfect day to enjoy hot tea.  Happy Hot Tea Month to you!

I'm In the Mood for Fashion Illustration

Over the past 100 years, and then some, the popularity of fashion illustration has come and gone, then come back again. It most likely started with the covers for Vogue, founded in 1892 as a weekly magazine targeting upper-echelon men and women.  It was a glorified society page, listing their weddings, debuts, travels and entertainment, in addition to fashion.

Conde Nast bought the magazine in 1909 with a goal of increasing circulation from 14,000 to 100,000.  His first step was to emphasize cover art.  And art it was.

 

Illustrations reflected an archetype, not a specific person.  Covers portrayed the times through the eyes of young artists with a variety of styles.  Here, Art Deco graphic arts is combined with 1920's fashion.

Vogue's first cover with a photograph came in 1932.  It was considered modern, and by the end of the decade photographs took over all their covers.   With a few exceptions, fashion illustration basically fell out of favor for nearly fifty years.

In the 1980s there began an international revival of interest in fashion illustration, both functionally and as an art form.  Popularity continues today - with the current appetite for all things retro, the tables have turned and illustration is what is feeling "fresh".

According to Laird Borrelli's Stylishly Drawn, there are three broad categories of fashion illustration.  She calls the first one "Sensualists".  They emphasize the fine arts tools (paints, inks, woodblocks, etc.) as much as the end product.  The Vogue cover above, although it's from 1935, is an example.  The clothes are subtle suggestions, not detailed depictions.  Kareem Iliya is one of the big names in this Sensualist style.

A second category is "Technocrats".  These are computer-generated illustrations.  Kristian Russell is a Technocrat illustrator.

Borrelli's third category is "Gamines and Sophisticates", characterized by caricatures and cartoon-like illustrations.  I bought Rebecca Moses' A Life of Style  three years ago, fascinated by her drawing style.  This is a good example of "Gamines and Sophisticates". 

Up to this point, the discussion has focused on fashion illustration as art.  There also is the utilitarian side, where the emphasis is on depicting garments accurately for seamstresses.  Patterns naturally come to mind.  I was lucky enough to come across some pages from an original issue of a 1930 McCall's Magazine; I bought all the ones with pretty colors. 

The description for pattern # 6088 on the left is "Paris is paying more and more attention to pleats in the new sports things. An embroidered motif in single and running stitch on pockets lend an attractive touch."

For number 6085, on the right, "The V of a crossed yoke cut in one with short cape sleeves is repeated in the V heading a panel of pleats in the front of a sports frock.  A narrow belt is used."

 After all that, I felt I would be able to draw at least SOMETHING with my new drawing toys.  So yesterday I drew about a dozen pictures, one more failed than the other.  The more I drew, the worse I got.  I was tempted to just give up, but I think I should just practice more.

Because now that I'm in the mood for fashion illustration, I want to actually create something.

Progress Report - Knitted Chevron Pillow

I started my  Knitted Chevron Pillow in early January.  I needed to knit eight rectangles, and I just finished the eighth one.

Here's all the ingredients.  That zipper looks a little short to me; I should probably buy a longer one.

I didn't get the results I expected from the variegated yarn.  I thought the yellows, oranges, and greens would all blend together.  But instead, I got chunks of yellow/orange and chunks of green.  Some of the diagonals are almost entirely one color.  Now that I look closer at the yarn, I can see that's the way it's dyed.  Since I don't like that, it's something to look out for next time I choose a "blended" color.

I wound up with lots of curly edges that I'm not sure how to deal with.  I guess I'll try getting them wet, then pinning them to my ironing board to dry.  If that doesn't work, then I'll just have to a lot more texture after I sew them together than what I envisioned.

I'll probably make the rest of the pillow parts next week.  I'm going to work on something else now.

How Do You Decide?

I'm listening to "The Art of Critical Decision Making", which talks about the individual, group, and organizational aspects of decisions.  

 © Marco Bellucci used with permission of Creative Commons licensing

There are so many decisions we make throughout the day and throughout our life, and mostly we don't even think about the process we use.  Sometimes we don't have a process.  For those times when decisions are important, part of this course talks about cognitive biases that one should be aware of.  They are called biases because they have the potential to be irrational, and possibly subconscious, factors that affect your choice.

Let's look at them, one-by-one.

OVERCONFIDENCE

People tend to be overly confident in their judgments.

SUNK-COST EFFECT 

When people have made substantial investments of time, money, or energy, they tend to stay committed to that course of action no matter what.  This is the "throw good money after bad" scenario.

RECENCY EFFECT
 
We place too much emphasis on recent events, because that's what we remember best, and because that information is readily available to us.

CONFIRMATION BIAS

People gravitate toward information that confirms, or is equal to, their existing beliefs.  They ignore or downplay conflicting information, regardless of its validity.

ANCHORING

An initial reference point can distort our decision, if that anchor point is too extreme.  Sometimes people ask for something way out of line, then settle for a middle ground which is what they wanted all along.  You might like it if you're trying to negotiate to your advantage, but be aware when this tactic is being used on you.

ILLUSORY CORRELATION

Just because two things happen at the same time doesn't necessarily mean they have a cause-and-effect relationship.  This is how superstitions are created.

HINDSIGHT BIAS

It's easy to look back at past events and say they were predictable.  But at the time they happened, they probably weren't obvious at all.  People have a tendency to "blame the victim" as a way of distancing themselves from the possibility of that event happening to them.

EGOCENTRISM

This is when we give ourselves more credit for an outcome than what an objective, outside party would.  We all like to think we have a bit of superhero in us.

SO NOW WHAT?

In addition to staying on the lookout for the cognitive biases described above, and counteracting them if you find any, there's something else you can do - consider how issues are framed.

 

How we frame a problem can shape the solution we arrive at.  If we frame a situation in terms of what we stand to gain, we act differently than if we frame it in terms of what we have to lose.

The best thing is to balance the two competing frames.  Framing a situation as a threat encourages us to apply more resources to the task.  But also framing it as an opportunity helps us to be flexible and adaptive in order to use those resources effectively.