"Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com> (05/27/91)
These pages often contain examples of technology limited,
thwarted or prostituted to the greed of the "money people." The
technology of telecommunications has suffered perhaps more than most,
for beyond being a benefactor of human relations at greater distances
than most, it is usually benign to the public safety.
Airplanes can crash; ships can sink. Electrical power, gas,
water and sewers run amok can kill people in their own way. But the
relatively harmless technology, telecomunications, can be stretched
and milked to its staggering and failing point, with little risk of
arousing pulic ire from visible damage when it fails.
The result is that when its capital suppliers decide to stress
telecomm to failure, there's far less penalty than more generally
"dangerous" technologies.
There are many stories to illustrate this point, but I'd like
to step over to the side of the stream, to bring you a quotation from
a book that tells of how the world generally viewed two its the major
characters of the 19th century, Napoleon Bonaparte, a killer emperor
who pleased people because his killing brought them money anyway, and
Michael Faraday, from whose discoveries we all benefit daily in untold
ways ... but have forgotten. The words are so well told in the book,
"A History of Electrical Engineering," by Percy Dunsheath, a retired
President of the (British) Institution of Electrical Engineers and the
International Electrotechnical Commission, that it's best quoted
almost verbatim (with but a few insertions for clarity where
Dunsheath's text refers to previous chapters of his book, indicated by
parentheses):
<From Chapter XX, "English Social and Historical Background">
"Within a few weeks of the young bookbinder's apprentice,
Faraday, making (his) historical notes of (Sir Humphrey) Davy's
lecture at the Royal Institution in the spring of 1812, Napoleoon
collected the Grand Army, a mighty host of soldiers from France and
many other countries, armed and provisioned for a massive onslaught on
Russia. As the defenders retired they laid waste the country before
the advancing horde but Napoleon pressed on. At Borodino, where
100,000 dead were left on the battlefield, the last major obstacle was
overcome and by the end of the summer Napoleon was in Moscow. This,
however, proved to be a trap. Notwithstanding all his blandishments
he failed to secure the co-operation of the Muscovites and, with the
winter approaching only retreat was possible.
Then followed one of the most tragic marches in history. Without food
or shelter, the soldiers killed and ate their horses and died as they
slept, covered by snow. Weapons and booty were abandoned and in the
middle of December less than 20,000 ragged emaciated stragglers
returned, all that remained of the 600,000 who had set out as a
disciplined army six months before. During this same period Farady
had bound up his notes of the four lectures and submitted them to Davy
with a request to be found a post as an assistnat at the Royal
Institution.
As the stragglers from Moscow were re-entering France, Farady received
a letter from Davy making an appointment which led to (Faraday's) long
association with the Royal Institution during which he made so many
fundamental contributions to electrical engineering. Napoleon and
Faraday! What an interesting comparison and what an indictment of
man's ingratitude! Napoleon, the creator of misery and death for
hundreds of thousands, rests in solemn grandeur in Les Envalides (a
huge marble rotunda in Paris, where Napoleon's coffin lies surrounded
by the lesser heroes of France); Faraday, the great benefactor who, as
founder of electrical engineering, did so much for human progress,
lies in a modest grave at Highgate cemetery known to few." <end of
quote>
Dunsheath's anecdote here shows that the larger world has
often and always accorded honors to the manipulator beyond those to
the benefactor. Telecommunications (a true descendant of Faraday) is
no exception.