Chronology of Events - 1800s

The following is a chronological listing of significant events in the development of the field of Information Technology during the 1800s:

1801

 * Joseph-Marie Jacquard makes an improvement to the textile loom that used a series of punched cards as a template to allow his loom to weave intricate patterns automatically. The use of punched cards was used later by Charles Babbage in his plans for the Analytical Engine.

1803

 * Joseph-Marie Jacquard receives a patent for the loom that uses punch cards.

1811-1813

 * The Luddite Movement in England (November 11, 1811 – January 12, 1813) results in the destruction of machinery by workers and craftsmen concerned about the loss of their jobs due to mechanization in the workplace.

1820

 * Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar creates the "arithometer," the first commercially successful calculating machine.

1822

 * Charles Babbage designs his first mechanical computer.

1831

 * Joseph Henry of Princeton invents the first working telegraph.

1832

 * Semen Korsakov uses punch cards to store and search for information.

1837

 * Charles Wheatstone and William Fothergill Cooke patent the telegraph.
 * Charles Babbage conceptualizes and designs a fully programmable mechanical computer that he calls the Analytical Engine.
 * Samuel F. B. Morse invents a practical form of electromagnetic telegraph using an early version of his "Morse code."

1842

 * Facsimile transmission is developed and patented by Alexander Bain.

1843

 * Per and Georg Scheutz construct the first working Difference Engine based on Babbage's design in Stockholm.

1844
May 24, 1844 &mdash; Samuel Morse transmits the first message by "Morse code" between New York and Philadelphia.

1845

 * The transatlantic cable is proposed.

1851

 * Western Union was founded.

1855

 * Antonio Meucci establishes a telephone link inside an apartment in New York City.

1856
July 10, 1856 &mdash; Nikola Tesla is born.

1857
March 25, 1857 &mdash; The phonautograph (phonograph) is patented by Frenchman Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville.

1865

 * The International Telegraph Union (now the International Telecommunication Union) (ITU) is created.

1866
July 27, 1866 &mdash; The first transatlantic cable is successfully completed. It runs from Ireland to Newfoundland.

1868
July 14, 1868 Christopher Sholes patents a typewriter with the QWERTY layout keyboard.

1870

 * French telegraph engineer Émile Baudot invented the Baudot Code.

1873

 * The QWERTY keyboard is invented by Christopher Sholes.

1876
March 10, 1876 &mdash; Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone (U.S. Patent No. 174,465; "Improvements in Transmitters and Receivers for Electric Telegraph").

1877
July 9, 1877 &mdash; Bell Telephone Company is organized in Boston, Massachusetts.

November 21, 1877	&mdash; Thomas Edison and announces the first phonograph capable of recording and replaying sounds.


 * The microphone is invented by Emile Berliner.

1880
April 1, 1880 &mdash; Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Charles Summer Tainter transmit the first wireless telephone message 213 meters on a beam of light.

1881

 * The first telephone Yellow Pages directory is published.

1882
February 1882 &mdash; Western Electric and American Bell enter an agreement where Western Electric becomes the exclusive supplier to American Bell.

1884

 * Hermann Hollerith files a patent application on electromechanical tabulation.

1885
April 3, 1885 &mdash; American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (AT&T) is established to create a commercially viable, nationwide long-distance network.

1886
September 9, 1886 &mdash; The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, an international copyright treaty is ratified in Berne, Switzerland.

1887

 * Heinrich Hertz discovers electromagnetic waves.

1889

 * Herman Hollerith is awarded three patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 395,781, 395,782, and 395,783) for an electromechanical machine for tabulating information stored on punched cards.

1890

 * Herman Hollerith uses an automated punch card machine, manufactured by the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation, for the U.S. census. Hollerith's firm merges with several other companies to become IBM in 1924.

1891

 * The first dial phone is installed.

1893

 * The original Bell telephone patent expires.

1895

 * Guglielmo Marconi makes the first wireless transmission.

1896
December 3, 1896 &mdash; Hermann Hollerith's business is incorporated as the Tabulating Machine Company (TMC). The company develops an automatic punch card sorter.

1897

 * A wireless telegraph system is developed by Eugène Ducretet.

1899

 * The Wireless Telegraph Company of America is created by Guglielmo Marconi.