wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil (Will Martin) (09/10/90)
Just heard the following on the Voice of America's "Communications World" program (the best airing of that for North American listeners is at 2110 GMT Saturdays on 15410 and 15580 kHz): Sunday, Sept. 9th, 1990 was the 50th Anniversary of Data Communications. On Sept. 9, 1940, Dr. George Stibbetts [sp? just heard it pronounced], of Dartmouth University, at a meeting of two [unnamed] mathematical societies at that campus, demonstrated the first recorded instance of computer data transmission over telephone lines, from New Hampshire to New York City. He entered, from Dartmouth, instructions to a computer in NYC to divide two eight-digit numbers, and received the answer back in 30 seconds. (No information was given in this item as to the nature of the "computer" he was using in 1940, nor the terminal equipment, nor the "modem" or equivalent, nor the communications protocol used.) Dr. Stibbetts is still alive, a Professor Emeritus at Dartmouth, and was briefly inverviewed regarding this event. He reported that the attendees at his demo were not overly impressed with the feat, and there was no inkling then of the future of datacomm as we know it today. Regards, Will Martin
dave@uunet.uu.net (Dave Levenson) (09/14/90)
In article <12009@accuvax.nwu.edu>, wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil (Will Martin) writes: > On Sept. 9, 1940, Dr. George Stibbetts [sp? just heard it pronounced], > of Dartmouth University, at a meeting of two [unnamed] mathematical > societies at that campus, demonstrated the first recorded instance of > computer data transmission over telephone lines, from New Hampshire to > New York City. He entered, from Dartmouth, instructions to a computer > in NYC to divide two eight-digit numbers, and received the answer back > in 30 seconds. (No information was given in this item as to the nature > of the "computer" he was using in 1940, nor the terminal equipment, > nor the "modem" or equivalent, nor the communications protocol used.) There was no modem. The line was a telegraph line. The terminal was a teletypewriter. The cpu was constructed of telephone relays, including several crossbar switch matrices, and was located at Bell Laboratories, West Street, New York City. Stibitz is quoted, in a recent press release describing the event, that "one of the representatives of Bell Laboratories emphasized the fact that there would not be another computer made; he touught that no use would be found outside of the Bell Laboratories. I think we found he was in some error." Dave Levenson Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
CAPEK%YKTVMT.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Peter G. Capek) (09/17/90)
In recent postings, Will Martin and Dave Levenson have commented on the
first use of telephone lines to transmit data. If what is really
meant here is tranmission of digital data over voice phone lines, I
believe the "first" may be around 1953 or '54; I've been unable to
determine the exact date. The SAGE project, a joint effort of IBM,
Lincoln Labs (an adjunct of MIT which was established for the purpose)
and the Air Force claims a number of "firsts", among them this one. I
quote from "History of the Design of the SAGE Computer - the AN/FSQ - 7"
by Mort Astrahan, IBM Research Report RJ 3117, 1981:
"Highlights of ...these innovations:
Data communication over standard phone lines: The transmission of
digital data over voice-grade lines at 1300 bits per second was
pioneered by the Lincoln [Labs] people. Jack Harrington's group
of Division 2 designed the first modems to convert digital data to
and from analogue waveforms that could be accommodated by
voice-band channels. The channels required special conditioning
to minimize noise pickup and eliminate unequal phase shifts across
the frequency spectrum. The phase shifts were not noticeable in
voice transmission but distorted the data waveforms."
By the way, Astrahan claims other "firsts" for SAGE: Light Pens (which
he calls Light Guns; this was a military system, after all :-) ),
time-sharing (which might better be thought of as multiprogramming),
I/O in parallel with computing, associative memory implemented using
drums, hot-standby duplexing, core memory in a production machine,
computer control of voltage margins, and components automatically
mounted on and soldered into circuit boards.
Peter Capek