Communication system
Communication system is a system model describes a
communication exchanges between two stations, transmitter, and receiver. Signals or
information’s passes from source to distention through what is called channel, which represents
a way that signal use it to move from source toward destination.
List of Early Communication Systems
1. Morse Code and the Telegraph
The telegraph was developed in the 1830s by Samuel Morse (1791-1872), it
revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical
signals over a wire laid between stations. In addition to helping invent the telegraph,
Samuel Morse developed a code (bearing his name) that assigned a set of dots and
dashes to each letter of the English alphabet and allowed for the simple transmission
of complex messages across telegraph lines. In 1844, Morse sent his first telegraph
message, from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland. Although the telegraph had
fallen out of widespread use by the start of the 21st century, replaced by the
telephone, fax machine and Internet, it laid the groundwork for the communications
revolution that led to those later innovations.
Advantages
It allowed for communications over long distances. The technology connected
different areas and regions, and geographical movement was not required to send or receive
messages. It allowed for the interconnection of towns, which served as stations, and enabled
the system to cover a wider area.
Limitation
➢ A serious drawback of telegraph devices was that they lacked quality in
communication
➢ Slow speed
➢ Poor quality communication
2. Landline Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell’s original telephone, patented in 1876, worked by converting sound into
an electrical signal via a ‘liquid transmitter’. This process centered around directing sound
through a receiver and onto a thin membrane stretched over a drum. On the outside of the
membrane a cork with a needle attached to a battery extended to a cup filled with sulphuric acid
and a metal contact. When sound waves hit the membrane, it caused vibrations, varying the
strength of the current passing between the needle and the contact. This created a varying
strength electric signal that travelled down a wire to a receiver, where through a reversed
process, the sounds were re-created. While not the only person to make a telephone at this time,
Bell was the first to transfer his invention into a commercial product with a supporting network
of exchanges and switchboards, etc.
Just like many other innovations, the idea for the telephone came along far sooner than it was
brought to reality. While Italian innovator Antonio Meucci is credited with inventing the first
basic phone in 1849, and Frenchman Charles Bourseul devised a phone in 1854, Alexander
Graham Bell won the first U.S. patent for the device in 1876. Bell began his research in 1874 and
had financial backers who gave him the best business plan for bringing it to market.
In 1877-78, the first telephone line was constructed, the first switchboard was created and the
first telephone exchange was in operation. Three years later, almost 49,000 telephones were in
use. In 1880, Bell merged his company with others to form the American Bell Telephone
Company and in 1885 American Telegraph and Telephone Company (AT&T) was formed; it
dominated telephone communications for the next century.
By 1900 there were nearly 600,000 phones in Bell's telephone system; that number shot up to 5.8
million by 1910. In 1915 the transcontinental telephone line began operating. By 1907, AT&T
had a near monopoly on phone and telegraph service. By 1948, the 30 millionth phone was
connected in the United States; by the 1960s, there were more than 80 million phone hookups in
the U.S. and 160 million in the world; by 1980, there were more than 175 million telephone
subscriber lines in the U.S.
