Telegraph turns 150 [telecom]

Today's Internet is a direct descendant of the telegraph.

In 1940, Western Union telegraph lines were used to carry data communications, that is, machine-to-machine information for data processing operations. Processing was done by converting punched card to telegraph paper tape, transmission, and conversion back to punched card. As time went on, the machines were improved to include error correction and other controls.

Telegraph lines of that time were slow, but relatively cheap compared to telephone lines.

A very interesting IBM publication on bitsavers describes the pioneering efforts of data communications from 1940-1960 with various application examples and hardware descriptions.

As previously mentioned, the archives of this newsgroup contains the Western Union Technical Review, and many issues are concerned with data transmission.

Around here I've tested 125VAC at the outlet. Most power supplies can handle it since they're designed for anythign between 120VAC and 240VAC at either 50Hz or 60Hz. The only difference is the plug.