2001 IEEE Conference on the History of Telecommunications

2001 IEEE Conference on the History of Telecommunications

The 2001 IEEE Conference on the History of Telecommunications (CHT2001) was the fourth in a series of workshops sponsored by the IEEE History Committee and the IEEE History Center at Rutgers University. The profound role telecommunications has had in shaping the modern world made this an important topic of historical study!

This workshop was held at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's, Canada. This was an ideal site for such as meeting. It was here on 12 December 1901 that Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic radio signal. 27 July 2001 was the 135th anniversary of the landing of the first transatlantic cable at Heart's Content in Newfoundland.

A total of 27 papers were submitted for this conference, of which 18 are available online.

In 2001 a special feature was added to the workshop, a worldwide Student History Paper Contest. A grant from the IEEE Foundation made it possible to provide travel funds for the winners of the contest. Additional funds for the conference were supplied by the National Science Foundation. The five papers, presented in a poster session are also available online.

Roster/Contact Info

Attendee	Organization	E-Mail
Bissell, Christopher	UK Open University's Faculty of Technology	c.c.bissell@open.ac.uk
Bowers, Brian	Science Museum, London	b.bowers@iee.org
Barnes, Sue	Fordham University	barnes@fordham.edu
Burns, Bill	Atlantic-Cable.com	billb@ftldesign.com
Carlson, Bernard	University of Virginia	wc4p@virginia.edu
Carvallo- Fernandini, Rodrigo	Catholic U., Valparaiso, Chile	r_fernandini@usa.net
Chapuis, Robert	International Telecommunications Union	n/a
Collins, Martin	National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution	martin.collins@nasm.si.edu
Connolly, Cornelia	University of Limerick, Ireland	Cornelia.Connolly@ul.ie
Crowther-Heyck, Hunter	University of Oklahoma	crowther-heyck@prodigy.net
de Cogan, Donard	University of East Anglia (UEA) Norwich	ddc@sys.uea.ac.uk
Dewalt, Bryan	Canada Science and Technology Museum	bdewalt@nmstc.ca
Dilhac, Jean-Marie	Institut National des Sciences Appliquees of Toulouse	dilhac@laas.fr
Finn, Barney	National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution	finnb@si.edu
Frazer, Edward	E. J. Frazer & Associates Ltd.	ejfrazer@sfu.ca
Freeze, Karen	University of Washington	freezek@u.washington.edu
Fridlund, Mats	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	fridlund@mit.edu
Geselowitz, Michael	IEEE History Center	m.geselowitz@ieee.org
Graham, Margaret	McGill University	grahamm@management.mcgill.ca
Hayes, Jeremiah (Jerry)	Concordia University	jerry@ece.concordia.ca
Heyes, Howard	Memorial University of Newfoundland	howard@engr.mun.ca
Hochfelder, David	IEEE History Center	hochfeld@rci.rutgers.edu
Hoffman, Mary Ann	IEEE History Center	m.hoffman@ieee.org
Hong, Sungook	University of Toronto	sungook@chass.utoronto.ca
Izawa, Tatsuo	NTT Electronics Corporation	izawa@hqs.nel.co.jp
Levine, Gertrude (Trudy)	Fairleigh Dickinson University	levine@alpha.fdu.edu
Magoun, Alexander	David Sarnoff Library	amagoun@davidsarnoff.org
Malik, Rahul	Nanyang Technological U., Singapore	rahulm@ieee.org
Moloney, Cecilia	Memorial University of Newfoundland	moloney@engr.mun.ca
Morton, David	IEEE History Center	d.morton@ieee.org
Nebeker, Jakob	University of Illinois	nebeker@uiuc.edu
Nebeker, Rik	IEEE History Center	r.nebeker@ieee.org
Olivier, Guy	Ecole Polytechnique Montreal	guy.olivier@courriel.polymtl.ca
Read, Wallace	Board of Commissioners of Public Utilities	w.read@ieee.org
Sappol, Michael	National Library of Medicine	SappolM@mail.nlm.nih.gov
Schwartz, Mischa	Columbia University	schwartz@ctr.columbia.edu
Sloan, Martha	Michigan Tech University	m.sloan@ieee.org
Stone, Gerry	n/a	n/a
Swartzlander, Earl	University of Texas, Austin	swartzla@ece.utexas.edu
Symons, Lenore	Institution of Electrical Engineers	lsymons@iee.org.uk
Tanaka, Keiko	University of Washington	keiko-tanaka@msn.com
Voss, Robert	n/a	telegraphy@prodigy.net
Walp, Robert	GCI, Inc.	rwalp@gci.com

Invited Papers

Full program with abstracted papers

Brief conference program

Session 1: Technology and Business Strategy: Part 1

• From the Cutting Edge to the Conservative Trough: The Telegraphy Business from the 1850s to the 1920s, Bernard Finn
• Partners in Crime: The Telegraph Industry, Finance Capitalism, and Organized Gambling, 1870-1920, David Hochfelder
• Several Paths Leading to the Use of Small Earth Stations for Satellite Communications Systems, Robert M. Walp. See also C-Band Story Ku Band Story‎, S-Band Story, S-band Report

Session 2: Technology and Business Strategy: Part 2

• Turning up the Clock Speed: Corning and the Fiber Optics Revolution, Margaret Graham
• History of Developments of Vapor-Phase Axial Deposition for Optical-Fiber Fabrication and Pioneering Work of Silica-Based Planar Lightwave Circuits, Tatsuo Izawa
• One World, One Telephone, One Love: Iridium, A Post-Cold War, Postmodern, Global-A-Go-Go Tale, Martin Collins

Session 3: Submarine Telephony

• The First Transatlantic Telephone Cables, Lenore Symons
• Reminiscences of TAT-1, Jeremiah F. Hayes
• Milestones in Submarine Telecommunications, Robert Chapuis

Session 4: Politics and Communications Technology

• Communications in Troubled Times: the Case of Ireland and Newfoundland, Donard de Cogan
• Switching in a National Relation: Public-Private Cooperation in the Development of Telephony Technology in Postwar Sweden, Mats Fridlund
• Contention Control in Multi-Access Resource Systems, Gertrude Levine

Session 5: Assessing Stature in the History of Telecommunications: Part 1

• Cooke and Wheatstone, and Morse: A Comparative View, Brian Bowers
• The First Transatlantic Wireless Telegraphy in 1901: Collaboration or Competition between Guglielmo Marconi and John Ambrose Fleming?, Sungook Hong
• Promotion versus Manufacturing as a Strategy for Earning Money from Inventions: Lessons from the Career of Nikola Tesla, 1885-1915, W. Bernard Carlson

Session 6: Assessing Stature in the History of Telecommunications: Part 2

• Pushing Technology: David Sarnoff and Wireless Communications, 1911-1921, Alexander B. Magoun
• Peter C. Goldmark: Technological Visionary, Karen J. Freeze
• Judge Harold H. Greene: A Pivotal Judicial Figure in Telecommunications Policy and His Legacy, Bill Yurcik

Session 7: Student History Papers

• The History of CTC and Entel: Precursors of Telecommunications in Chile, Rodrigo Carvallo-Fernandini, Catholic University of Valparaiso, Valparaiso, Chile (Region 9)
• The History of Telecommunications in Ireland, Cornelia Connolly, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland (Region 8)
• Spread Spectrum - Secret Military Technology to 3G, Rahul Malik, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (Region 10)
• Science and Technology: Lord Kelvin's Atlantic Cable, Jakob Nebeker, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA (Region 4)
• The Mobile Communications Environment in the European Union: Systems, Regulations, and Consequences in the Past, Present, and Future, Keiko Tanaka, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA (Region 6)

Session 8: Microelectronics and Telecommunications

• The Telephone Answering Machine as a Reflection of Modern Society, 1877-2001, David Morton
• Alan Kay: Transforming the Computer Into a Communication Medium, Susan Barnes
• Towards a History of Computer Communications: the 1950's to the 1970's, Mischa Schwartz

Session 9: Science, Mathematics, and Telecommunications

• The "American Method": The 19th-Century Telegraphic Revolution in Finding Longitude, Trudy E. Bell
• Inventing the "Black Box": Mathematics as a Neglected Enabling Technology in the History of Communications Engineering, Chris Bissell
• The Recent History of Secure Voice Communications, Earl E. Swartzlander, Jr.

Session 10: The Internet and Earlier Telecommunications Networks

• The Telegraph of Claude Chappe: An Optical Telecommunication Network for the 18th Century, Jean-Marie Dilhac
• Weaving the Once and Future Web: Comparative Telecommunications History in Public Space, Michael Sappol and Hunter Crowther-Heyck
• Content Versus Connectivity in Telecommunications History, Andrew Odlyzko

Corresponding Papers

• The Invention of Enigma and How the Polish Broke It Before the Start of World War II, Slawo Wesolkowski
• Connecting Continents, Wallace S. Read, P.Eng.

Student Paper Contest

Student Winners: Jakob Nebeker, Keiko Tanaka, Rahul Malik, Cornelia Connolly and Rodrigo Carvallo-Fernandini, (l to r)

Through a generous grant from the IEEE Foundation, CHT2001 conducted its first worldwide history paper competition among the IEEE Student Branches and offered the winners an opportunity to travel to St. John's and present his or her winning paper at a Poster Session during this Conference. In addition, each winner's Student Branch received an honorarium.

The winners attended an Awards Luncheon, sponsored by Aliant, during the conference. Presentation of the Awards was made by Martha Sloan, 2001 IEEE History Committee Chair, and Dr. Maxwell House, Lieutenant- Governor of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Special recognition goes to Wally Read, Local Arrangements Chair, who arranged for the Lieutenant-Governors attendance, and funding by Aliant.

Undergraduate

2nd - The History of CTC and Entel: Precursors of Telecommunications in Chile, Rodrigo Carvallo-Fernandini, Catholic Univ of Valparaiso, Chile (Region 9)

1st - Science and Technology: Lord Kelvin's Atlantic Cable, Jakob Nebeker, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, (Region 4)

Graduate

3rd - The History of Telecommunications in Ireland, Cornelia Connolly, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland (Region 8)

2nd - Spread Spectrum - Secret Military Technology to 3G, Rahul Malik, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (Region 10)

1st - The Mobile Communications Environment in the European Union: Systems, Regulations, and Consequences in the Past, Present, and Future, Keiko Tanaka, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA (Region 6)

Awards Luncheon

Rodrigo Carvallo-Fernandini with Dr. Maxwell House

Jacob Nebeker

Cornelia Connolly

Rahul Malik

Keiko Tanaka

Committees/Volunteers

Organizing Committee

• Martha Sloan, General Chair
• Wally Read, Local Arrangements
• Earl Swartzlander
• David Mindell

Program Committee

• Mike Geselowitz, Co-Chair
• Rik Nebeker, Co-Chair
• David Morton
• Dave Hochfelder