Chapter 5 - The Once And Future Digital Network

• Introduction
• The World Was Once Digital
• A Telegraph Is Digital [The telegraph is a digital technology because it transfers discrete clicks instead of a continuously varying signal]
• Morse Code (International Morse Code)
• Letters And Digits In Morse Code
• Users Did Not Encounter Morse Code
  • It is possible to encode all letters and digits using only two basic code values: dot and dash
  • A code used for message transmission defines a basic alphabet of characters that can be sent; the code can be useful even if it does not include all possible characters.
  • A customer of a telegraph service never encountered or understood the underlying encoding scheme.
• Virtually Instant Communication
• Speed Is Relative
• The Telephone Became Digital
• Relevance To The Internet
• Binary Encoding Of Data On The Internet
  Although the Internet uses a binary encoding for all data transferred, users usually remain completely unaware of the encoding.
• Why Use Two Symbols?

Terms

• binary digit (bit)
• binary encoding

References

• A Brief History of Morse Telegraphy
• Morse Code Translator