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3500 BCE
Early communication
The Kish tablet, discovered in the ancient Sumerian city of Kish, has inscriptions considered by some experts to be the oldest form of known writing. -
600 BCE
Elsewhere
Elsewhere, written language appears to have come about around 1200 BC in China and around 600 BC in the Americas. -
14
Communication comes to the masses
In the year 14 AD, the Romans established the first postal service in the western world. -
Aug 21, 1041
Communication comes to masses (continued)
The Chinese followed that up sometime between 1041 and 1048 with the invention of the first moveable type for printing paper books. Han Chinese inventor Bi Sheng was credited with developing the porcelain device, which was described in statesman Shen Kuo’s book “Dream Pool Essays.” -
Dec 6, 1436
Germany
While the technology underwent other advancements, such as metal movable type, it wasn’t until a German smithy named Johannes Gutenberg built Europe’s first metal movable type system that mass printing would experience a revolution. -
The first photographic device
People wanted photographs, except they didn’t know it yet. That was until French inventor Joseph Nicephore Niepce captured the world’s first photographic image in 1822. The early process he pioneered, called heliography, used a combination of various substances and their reactions to sunlight to copy the image from an engraving. -
Period: to
Samuel Morse's Telegraph
Exact month and day is unknown -
The best device yet
Sure enough, right at the turn of the 20th century, a Danish inventor named Valdemar Poulsen set the tone for the answering machine with the invention of the telegraphone, the first device capable of recording and playing back the magnetic fields produced by sound. The magnetic recordings also became the foundation for mass data storage formats such as audio disc and tape.
