The Victorian Internet
The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers
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Narrated by:
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Derek Perkins
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By:
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Tom Standage
About this listen
The Victorian Internet tells the colorful story of the telegraph's creation and remarkable impact and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it, from eighteenth-century French scientist Jean-Antoine Nollet to Samuel F. B. Morse and Thomas Edison. The electric telegraph nullified distance and shrank the world quicker and further than ever before or since, and its story mirrors and predicts that of the Internet in numerous ways.
©1998 Tom Standage. Afterword Copyright 2007 by Tom Standage. Afterword Copyright 2013 by Vinton Cerf (P)2015 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In the mid- to late-19th century, a burgeoning science called electricity promised to shine new light on a rousing nation. Inventive and ambitious minds were hard at work. Soon that spark was fanned, and a war was under way to be the first to light - and run - the world with electricity. Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor of direct current (DC), engaged in a brutal battle with Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse, the inventors of alternating current (AC). There would be no ties in this race - only a winner and a loser - and the prize was a nationwide monopoly in electric current.
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Very well written!
- By Amanda McCoy on 07-17-19
By: Mike Winchell
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A Mind at Play
- How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age
- By: Rob Goodman, Jimmy Soni
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Claude Shannon was a tinkerer, a playful wunderkind, a groundbreaking polymath, and a digital pioneer whose insights made the Information Age possible. He constructed fire-breathing trumpets and customized unicycles, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots, but he also wrote the seminal text of the Digital Revolution. That work allowed scientists to measure and manipulate information as objectively as any physical object. His work gave mathematicians and engineers the tools to bring that world to pass.
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I wanted more information about Information Theory
- By Bonny on 05-08-18
By: Rob Goodman, and others
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Kingdom of Characters
- The Language Revolution That Made China Modern
- By: Jing Tsu
- Narrated by: Jing Tsu
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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After a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world’s most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to leave them behind. In Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu argues that China’s most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the formidable Chinese language accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology.
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Missed important information
- By Ms. on 04-01-22
By: Jing Tsu
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Wilbur and Orville
- A Biography of the Wright Brothers
- By: Fred Howard
- Narrated by: Larry McKeever
- Length: 21 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
The Wrights' longest flight in 1903 covered 852 feet and lasted 59 seconds. In 1905, Wilbur flew 24 miles in 38 minutes and the issue was no longer how to fly but how to cash in. Their effort to exploit their invention is a suspense story of the best kind; their voyage into flight and into American history is a gripping tale from takeoff to landing.
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Interesting but not hard to put down...
- By James on 03-17-12
By: Fred Howard
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Meet You in Hell
- Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Here is history that reads like fiction: the riveting story of two founding fathers of American industry, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, and the bloody steelworkers' strike that transformed their fabled partnership into a furious rivalry. Author Les Standiford begins at the bitter end, when the dying Carnegie proposes a final meeting after two decades of separation. Frick's reply: "Tell him that I'll meet him in hell."
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an extended journalistic tour
- By D. Littman on 06-08-05
By: Les Standiford
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Whatever Happened to the Metric System?
- How America Kept Its Feet
- By: John Bemelmans Marciano
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
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Overall
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The American standard system of measurement is a unique and odd thing to behold with its esoteric, inconsistent standards: 12 inches in a foot, three feet in a yard, 16 ounces in a pound, 100 pennies to the dollar. For something as elemental as counting and estimating the world around us, it seems like a confusing tool to use. So how did we end up with it? Most of the rest of the world is on the metric system, and for a time in the 1970s America appeared ready to make the switch.
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Deceptive Title - Not really about the US
- By Kah on 04-08-22
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Neither Snow nor Rain
- A History of the United States Postal Service
- By: Devin Leonard
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
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Performance
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Few institutions are as loved, as loathed, and as historically important as the United States Postal Service, the subject of this landmark century-spanning social, political, and economic history. The United States Postal Service is a wondrous American creation. Seven days a week, its army of 300,000 letter carriers delivers 513 million pieces of mail, 40 percent of the world's volume. It is far more efficient than any other mail service - more than twice as efficient as the Japanese and easily outpacing the Germans and British. And the USPS has a storied history.
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Woa!, the post office's history is America
- By anon on 12-06-16
By: Devin Leonard
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Birdmen
- The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies
- By: Lawrence Goldstone
- Narrated by: Jonathan Fried
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Wilbur and Orville Wright are two of the greatest innovators in history, and together they solved the centuries-old riddle of powered, heavier-than-air flight. Glenn Hammond Curtiss was the most talented machinist of his day; he first became the fastest man alive when he perfected the motorcycle, then turned his eyes toward the skies to become the fastest man aloft. But between the Wrights and Curtiss bloomed a poisonous rivalry and a patent war so powerful that it shaped aviation in its early years and drove one of the three men to his grave.
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Exceptional
- By Ken on 05-16-15
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How the Post Office Created America
- A History
- By: Winifred Gallagher
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The founders established the Post Office before they had even signed the Declaration of Independence, and for a very long time it was the US government's largest and most important endeavor - indeed, it was the government for most citizens. This was no conventional mail network but the central nervous system of the new body politic, designed to bind 13 quarrelsome colonies into the United States by delivering news about public affairs to every citizen - a radical idea that appalled Europe's great powers.
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Super interesting. I'm so disappointed.
- By william kearns on 07-21-16
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The Woman Who Smashed Codes
- A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America's Enemies
- By: Jason Fagone
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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In 1912, at the height of World War I, brilliant Shakespeare expert Elizebeth Smith went to work for an eccentric tycoon on his estate outside Chicago. The tycoon had close ties to the US government, and he soon asked Elizebeth to apply her language skills to an exciting new venture: code breaking. There she met the man who would become her husband, groundbreaking cryptologist William Friedman. Though she and Friedman are in many ways the Adam and Eve of the NSA, Elizebeth's story, incredibly, has never been told.
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Captivating Biography
- By Jean on 11-20-17
By: Jason Fagone
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What listeners say about The Victorian Internet
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Don F. Erwin
- 10-28-23
And we thought we had invented the Internet!
This is a well research story of the affects of global communication pn the world in the 19th century and draws parallels to the affects on the Internet in the 20th and very early 21st centuries. Well worth the time to those curious about technology and how humans use it.
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- Andrew Darlow
- 01-17-24
An absolutely fascinating look at the impact of telography!
I found this book to be captivating, informative and entertaining, and read by a wonderful narrator who came across as being very interested in the subject.
Here are a few reasons why I enjoyed it so much:
The chronological approach made it easy to follow. It was fascinating to learn about optical telegraphs and the impact they had on electrical ones.
The human side was not forgotten, and I had no idea before this that Samuel Morse was a painter, and his personal story, which impacted his decision to work on the telegraph.
The cluelessness of polititians during one demonstration was a head scratcher, yet in many ways, I believe similar things happen today.
The parallels to the modern internet are fascinating, and the many comments about peace were heartwarming, but also upsetting when you look at what actually transpired in the world after the mid 1800s.
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- Daniel
- 12-27-22
Historically fascinating.
Finished in one sitting. A captivating account of a modern technological precursor. Highly recommend.
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- Bryan Todd
- 10-10-24
Clear and fun.
A delightful listen. The author makes a very plain case. Clever and illuminating. Now I've got fodder for conversation at cocktail parties!
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- David
- 05-23-16
Very nice audiobook
This topic is a favorite of mine and I already own 'A Thread Across the Ocean'. That book has as its subject the rather hurculean effort to lay down the first trans Atlantic cable. The title Victorian Internet is entirely apt; I came to the same conclussion years ago and this is a fine accounting of the entire affair.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Fred V.
- 10-30-22
Dot Dash Domination
Perhaps the most significant achievement of the 19th century, we live in a world of communication unthinkable in the 18th century. The telegraph created the world of expectations and fears that continue today. The telegraph truly changed the world in a way that is difficult to comprehend; this book helps illuminate the nature of that change and makes us not only informed but wiser. Bravo-Zulu.
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- NeverStop4444
- 06-12-23
History truly does repeat itself
Very interesting take on new technology 200 years ago, and how it parallels many of the issues we have with technology today
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- Garshom L. Arkoff
- 09-14-23
Interesting but not what I expected
I had rather thought that this would be a sociological history of the telegraph. While there is some of that, it is as much a technological history of the telegraph (how it was invented, how it spread, etc.)
I am a big history buff (one of my two favorite categories of audio books. I thought this book was interesting, if a bit narrow in focus. While I learned some new facts, I don't feel like it really opened my eyes, the way some really well written history books can.
I got it on the plus catalogue, which I would do again, but I would not spend a credit on it.
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- Daniel Gardner
- 01-02-24
I Never Realized the Impact the Telegraph Had Until I Read this Book
I didn't know that there were other forms of Telegraphs besides the one developed by Morse that most of us are familiar with. Also, I did not realize how wired for telegraphy the world had become by the early 1900s. This book is very informative without getting too deep into the technolog. If you use the Internet, you might be surprised how much it and the days of the Telegraph have in common.
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- Andrew
- 12-16-19
One of my favorite non-fiction audiobooks
The telegram was when distance stopped mattering to communication. Every development since then - the telephone, fax, email, social media - has just been an incremental improvement. The big change was when news in London could be news in New York in the same hour, not weeks to months later as it had always been before.
With that in mind it's no surprise that the telegram had it's own subcultures, and jargon, online crimes, and love affairs. Give people a new technology and they'll use it for the same old things.
This book was a fascinating journey through a world that is distant and very different, but populated by people who seem very familiar.
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