[1601] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Some History
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Richard Mandelbaum)
Wed Nov 27 14:52:08 1991
To: com-priv@psi.com, nren-discuss@psi.com
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 91 14:49:53 -0500
From: Richard Mandelbaum <rma@tsar.cc.rochester.edu>
With the HPCC bill having passed both houses of Congress and due to be
signed shortly by the President , I thought it would be amusing to recall
the nations first great venture in digital electronic communications. (the
first venture in digital communications was probably the smoke signals used
by the Plains Indians, although I am not sure about that.)
The following is taken from "The Telecommunications Industry, by G.W. Brock
Harvard University Press. pg 56
Morse ...by 1836 had developed a working model of a
simple telegraph..., and in 1838 filed a patent application for the Morse
telegraph.
Because Morse and his associates lacked the personal
financial resources necessary for continued development of
the telegraph, and because prior visual telegraphs had
been built by governments for military use, Morse sought
government funds for an experimental line. Morse'U 1838
demonstration of his apparatus was convincing enough to
cause the House Committee on Commerce to recommend a
$30,000 appropriation to build an experimental line, but
the bill failed to pass the entire Congress. However, the
committee chairman, F. O. J. Smith of Maine, was so
impressed by the invention that he offered to provide
legal counsel and promotional funds to the Morse
partnership in exchange for a one-quarter interest in the
patent. The offer was promptly accepted. Smith'Us
promotional funds were used to finance a European trip for
Morse in an unsuccessful attempt to secure foreign rights
to the telegraph.
For the next five years, little was
done with the telegraph. After renewed lobbying by Morse
and his associates, Congress appropriated $30,000 to build
an experimental line between Baltimore and Washington.
The project was completed in May 1844. The Morse
invention established practically instantaneous
communication between the two cities. The telegraph
received a great deal of favorable publicity when the
Democratic National Convention met in Baltimore just as
the line was completed and Morse was able to provide
communication between the convention and Washington.
For a year the Baltimore-Washington telegraph was
operated by the government on an experimental basis
without charge. Although it was shown to be a technical
success, little demand materialized. In April 1845 the
line was transferred to the Post Office and operated under
a tariff of 1 cent" for four words. It was not a financial
success. For the first six months of public operation,
total income was $413.44 while total expenses were
$3,284.17. The postmaster general argued for government
control of the telegraph but did not believe that its
revenues would cover expenses under any feasible set of
tariffs.{1}
FOOTNOTES********************************
1
Robert L. Thompson, Wiring a Continent (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1947), 6-34.
Test Questions
1.How much in 1991 dollars is $30,000 in 1844 dolars?
2.What does 1 cent for four words (1844) become in $/kilobyte (1991)?
3. What are the implications for the NREN in this story
