1850 – 1877
developing radio commercially before his death
in 1886. In the UK David Edward Hughes proved
a signifi cant pioneer into the phenomenon of
radio waves, but he met with little encourage-
ment. It was left to Heinrich Hertz, the German
electrical scientist, to convince the scientific
community of the existence and signifi cance of
radio waves, thus making possible the develop-
ment of radio telegraphy and broadcasting.
1867 Invention of the typewriter by American
Christopher Sholes.
1868 London, Press Association founded.• (^) New York: Staats Zeitung fi rst newspaper to be
printed on wood-pulp paper.
1870 UK: Education Act inaugurates systematic
primary school education for all.
1870–1 Jessie White Mario becomes world’s fi rst
woman war correspondent, covering the Franco-
Prussian War for several US and British papers.
1872 Issue of fi rst illustrated daily newspaper, the
New York Daily Graphic.
1873 The New York Daily Graphic is first to
publish a half-tone photograph, 2 December
- an illustration of the city’s Steinway Hall
appeared on the back page.
1874 American writer Mark Twain becomes the
fi rst author to possess a typewriter – made by
Remington. By 1890 in the US there were 30
manufacturers producing typewriters. In the UK
none were on sale until 1889, from the Maskelyne
British Typewriter & Manufacturing Company.
• (^) In the same year George C. Blickensderfer’s
Connecticut company produced the first
portable, the Blick. Th e introduction of the type-
writer into business created new employment
opportunities for women.
1876 Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell success-
fully initiates telephonic communication. Bell, of
Edinburgh, patented the telephone on 9 March,
and on 10 March, in Boston, US, the fi rst truly
coherent transmission took place – a message
from Bell to his assistant, Thomas Watson:
‘Come here, Watson, I want you.’ The speak-
ing telephone was demonstrated by Bell at the
Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 25 June.
In July of the following year the fi rst telephone
line between two separate buildings was laid,
in London, between the Queen’s Theatre and
Canterbury Hall. In the same year the first
telephone exchange was created on behalf of the
New England Telephone Company by Isaac D.
Smith.
1877 Th omas Alva Edison of America patents the
Phonograph, the fi rst sound-recording system.
The prototype being completed by Edison’s
mechanic, John Kruesi at West Orange, New
for a mouthpiece and a stretched sausage skin
for a diaphragm. In 1861 Reis demonstrated an
improved version to the Frankfurt Physical Soci-
ety, transmitting verses and songs – albeit with
very poor clarity – over a 300-foot line.
• (^) The editor of the UK Morning Chronicle
employs Eliza Lyn Linton to write features and
reviews. She later became the paper’s Paris
correspondent. On her return to the UK she
became Fleet Street’s fi rst-ever full-time woman
journalist. She became known for her antipathy
to women’s suff rage.
1850 UK: Public Libraries Act.
• (^) Philadelphia: Frederick Langenheim patents
fi rst photographic slides.
1852 J.W. Brett lays first submarine telegraph
cable between Dover and Calais.
• (^) UK: House of Commons Press Gallery opens.
• (^) Surgeon John MacCosh is first British war
photographer; 47 studies survive of his photo-
coverage of the Second Burma War.
1853 Liverpool: the Northern Daily Times
becomes England’s fi rst daily provincial paper.
1854 Paris: Le Figaro founded.
1855 Englishman Alexander Parkes invents cellu-
loid.
• (^) Foundation of the Daily Telegraph.
• (^) In UK, newspaper tax abolished.
1858 First transatlantic telegram sent by John
Cash, American name-tape manufacturer, from
London to his New York representative. At 1 a
word, it read: ‘Go to Chicago’.
1860 Antonio Meucci demonstrates, in New
York, his ‘telefono’ but has insufficient funds
to patent his invention. Only in 2002 was he
acknowledged, by the US House of Representa-
tives, as the true originator of the telephone
(rather than Alexander Graham Bell who had
access to Meucci’s materials and had shared a
laboratory with him). However, it was Bell who
patented a version of Meucci’s device in 1876.
1865 Father Giovanni Caselli developed the fi rst
fax machine between 1857 and 1864. It was intro-
duced for public service over the Paris-Lyons
telegraph line in May 1865. However, the fi rst
offi ce fax did not become commercially available
until the Xerox LDX was demonstrated in the
company’s showroom in New York, May 1964.
The Japanese firm Sharp introduced the first
colour fax in 1984.
1866 Mahloon Loomis of Washington DC, having
described a system of radio signalling in a paper
of July 1866, succeeds in October in broadcasting
messages over a 14-mile distance. He was granted
the world’s fi rst wireless patent in 1872. Lack of
funds in a period of recession prevented Loomis