Text C. Telecommunications: a brief historical review

The first true telecommunications system using electrical signals to carry messages started in the 1840s with machine telegraphy. Samuel Morse first developed the telegraph in 1832 but it was not until the mid-1840s that the system was put into practical use - sending coded electrical messages (Morse Code) along the wires. The telegraph became a rapid success, its speed quickly outdating the Pony Express for long-distance communications.

The next major step forward came in 1878 with the invention of the telephone by Bell. This enabled speech to be transported as electrical signals along wires and revolutionized personal communications.

In 1886, Hertz verified experimentally that electrical energy could be radiated and thus proved the existence of electromagnetic wave. This opened the way for the free-space transmission of information without wires. This provided the basis for all radio and TV broadcasting.

In 1901, Marconi established long-distance telegraph communication by transmitting between England and Canada. Although he did not realize it at the time, he achieved such long 20 distances by reflecting radio waves in the ionosphere (layers of ionized gases and electrons existing in the earth's upper atmosphere at heights of 50-500 km). This overcame the problem of transmitting round the earth from one side of the Atlantic to the other.

With the discoveries of the diode and thermionic valve in the early part of the last century, advances were made in both receiver and transmitter design with an associated impact in telegraphy, telephony, and civil and military communications. Radio broadcasting soon followed, with powerful transmitters serving to communicate over wide areas. Television (TV) was first established in 1937. Radar (radio detection and ranging) was also developed from the 1930s and played a vital role in aircraft detection and navigation in World War II.

As further advances in technology took place (e.g. the invention of the transistor in 1947 and the subsequent development of microelectronic integrated circuit technology), new applications became feasible, and new systems were developed.

Data communications - the transmission of coded data (e.g. text,graphics, financial information) between 'intelligent' terminals and computers - was first established in the early 1950s using modems, equipment which enables the telephone network to convey data as well as speech. Other improvements in materials and devices also led to the transmission of information via cables. Much of today's long-distance telephone traffic is by submarine cable.

The space race led to yet another means of long-distance communication, via fixed and mobile earth stations to satellites. Today, several hundred satellites orbit the earth, and satellite links provide all forms of communication and related services such as telephony, data, TV, navigation, meteorology, and surveillance.

One of the very latest developments is the optical fiber cable - a tiny glass fiber which can be used to convey signal information by light pulses. Optical fiber cable with extremely low loss at low cost has now been developed with very high data-carrying capacity. Several thousands of telephone messages can be carried down a single fiber.

Perhaps the greatest change which has occurred in the last decades is that from analogue to digital methods of information transmission. The very first commercially employed telecommunication system, telegraphy, was and still is a digital system. However, telephony, radio, and TV all started as analogue systems. Today, the general trend is strongly towards the digital, and now the vast majority of telecommunications systems are digital. Problems of noise and interference can be combated much more successfully in a digital system.

The advances in microelectronics and the merging of communications with computers have led naturally to the digital transmission mode with its advantages of computer control, automatic error checking of signals, excellent memory storage, facilities for data, and intelligent terminals. The market need for vast quantities of information transmission and processing at very high speed can only be reliably catered for by using digital techniques. In fact, the most rapidly growing field is almost certainly in data communications employing high-speed digital techniques.

1.11 Translate the following sentences into Russian.

a) Samuel Morse first developed the telegraph in 1832 but it was not until the mid-1840s that the system was put into practical use…

b) Perhaps the greatest change which has occurred in the last decades is that from analogue to digital methods of information transmission.

с) The market need for vast quantities of information transmission and processing at very high speed can only be reliably catered for by using digital techniques.

1.12 Find English equivalents of the following terms and phrases:

Стационарные и подвижные наземные станции; это позволило передавать речь в виде электрических сигналов по проводам; малые потери при низкой стоимости; стационарные и подвижные наземные станции; в течение следующего десятилетия телевизионные системы станут, преимущественно, цифровыми; рыночные потребности в передаче больших объемов информации.

1.13 Answer the following questions:

1) What invention, according to the text, “revolutionized personal communication”?

2) What advances were the discoveries of the diode and thermionic valve followed by?

3) What are the advantages of the digital transmission mode?

4) What, according to the text, is the greatest change which has occurred in the last twenty years in methods of information transmission?

5) What advantages of digital transmission mode, besides excellent memory storage, were mentioned in the text?

1.14 Take brief notes from the text on the significance of the developments in telecommunications (Nineteenth century; 1901-1945; 1946-1980; 1980s on).

1.15 Read the following text and render the information in English.

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