From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Book Review: "How the World Was One: Beyond the Global Village" Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Mon, 23 May 94 08:41:46 GMT David Ofsevit (ofsevit@nac.lkg.dec.com) writes: > I was surprised that in the excellent series of articles on > telegraph and telephone cables there was no mention of Arthur C. > Clarke's fine book "Voice Across the Sea" (Harper, 1958). I don't > know whether it's in print anymore, but it is very well written and > worth finding. I doubt that it's in print, because in 1992, Clarke incorporated a large part of it into a new book. I posted a review of that one then, here and in slightly different form to certain other Usenet newsgroups. I saved a copy of the other version of the review; here it is. At the rate that books go out of print these days, it seems entirely possible that *this* one isn't available *either*; I don't know. ---------------------- "How the World Was One: Beyond the Global Village", 1992 Bantam hardcover, approx 300 pages. US price $22.50. ISBN 0-553-07440-7. This book is for people who are interested in telecommunications. They'll like it. Those readers who are voracious Clarke fans, however, may find that they've read considerable parts of it before. The book contains five main parts. The first and longest one tells about the early history of submarine telegraph cables, culminating with the tribulation-filled laying of the first successful cable across the Atlantic; and the second part rapidly takes the story forward to transoceanic telephony and radio. Most of this material was taken from Clarke's 1958 book "Voice Across the Sea", but I had not read that one, and I found it fascinating. Perhaps the most interesting thing was the many kinds of technical difficulties encountered in the early days. Cables were too light, too heavy, too short; they broke, they leaked; they even sabotaged themselves (no, I won't explain that one!). And then there were people problems -- wrong assumptions about technology went untested until after they had been embedded in thousands of miles of cable. On one of the cable-laying attempts, two ships started out in the middle of the ocean and sailed in opposite directions with the two ends of the cable, each paying it out as it went. Their only communication with each other was by telegraph through the cable itself. At one point the connection broke and the ships returned to their starting point -- and each hailed the other with "How did the cable break?" Something had happened on the seabed, and they never did find out what. Then when the first cable was finally laid and the technology finally tested, it hardly worked: after 12 days of trying to adjust the instruments, the operators still needed over 16 hours to transmit a 99-word official telegram. Depending just how they timed their Morse-like code, I figure that the transmission rate must have been somewhere between .05 and .1 baud! The remaining three parts of the book do not really tell a continuous story as do the first two; there are many distinct essays and speeches and even a few pieces of fiction. I had read several of the pieces before, and some of them overlap to some extent. So for these reasons I didn't enjoy the second half of the book as much as the first; but I still found it well worth reading. The third part deals with Clarke's own involvement in the early development of communication satellites. As most of you will know, he invented the idea of using the geostationary orbit for comsats -- though it didn't occur to him then that they might be unmanned! This part puts the idea in context of what he was doing at the time and of what had already been invented by others, and includes the short story "I Remember Babylon" where he anticipated some less savory uses to which comsats might be put. The fourth part concerns the impact of comsats as it has turned out in fact, and Clarke's thoughts on where how they should develop in the future; and the short fifth part is about the renaissance of submarine cables with the appearance of fiber optics. Look how the world has changed already since the telephone appeared ... here are two early reactions to the news of its invention: When news of Alexander Graham Bell's invention reached the United Kingdom, the chief engineer of the British Post Office failed to be impressed. "The Americans," he said loftily, have need of the telephone -- but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys ..." ... In contrast ... the mayor of a certain American city was wildly enthusiastic. He thought that the telephone was a marvelous device and ventured this stunning prediction: "I can see the time," he said solemnly, "*when every city will have one*." The thesis of the book is simple, and one with which most of us on Usenet will agree. I know *I* do. Better communication unites societies, reduces ignorance, and generally benefits everyone; and it is, accordingly, something on which the expenditure of time and money is well worthwhile. As Clarke said on the occasion of the signing of the Intelsat agreement: For today, gentlemen, whether you intend it or not -- whether you wish it or not -- you have signed far more than yet another intergovernmental agreement. You have just signed the first draft of the Articles of Federation of the United States of Earth. Mark Brader "... There are three kinds of death in this world. msb@sq.com There's heart death, there's brain death, and SoftQuad Inc., Toronto there's being off the network." -- Guy Almes This article is in the public domain.