How many telegrams were sent and received during the voyage
Titanic, Marconi and the wireless telegraph
The dramatic rescue of over 700 survivors from the Titanic disaster in April 1912 was made possible thanks to new wireless telegraphy equipment.
More than 1500 of the 2224 passengers and crew on board were lost, but four days after the sinking, the Cunard liner Carpathia steamed into New York carrying over 700 survivors.
What were the technological advances that made this possible, and how did the new equipment work on ships miles out at sea?
Who was behind the wireless telegraph?
The Irish-Italian wireless pioneer Guglielmo Marconi had been the first to see the advantages—and the commercial possibilities—of equipping ships with wireless telegraph equipment. The technology was based on discoveries made by physicists in the latter half of the 19th century.
In December 1864, James Clerk Maxwell proposed a theory of electromagnetic radiation in a lecture to the Royal Society of London. More than 20 years later, in 1887, Heinrich Hertz in Germany confirmed Maxwell’s theories.
Oliver Lodge was the first to publicly demonstrate the transmission and detection of electromagnetic radiation, at London’s Royal Institution in 1894. But his equipment did not convey comprehensible messages.
Guglielmo Marconi, c.1902
Science Museum Group CollectionMarconi coherer and Admiralty pattern decoherer, 1900-1910
Science Museum Group CollectionJames Clerk Maxwell, c.1850s
Science Museum Group CollectionOliver Lodge, 1894
Science Museum Group CollectionModel of A S Popov's 1895 Lodge-type coherer receiver
Science Museum Group CollectionPhotogravure portrait of Heinrich Hertz
Science Museum Group CollectionModels of two parabolic zinc reflectors used by Heinrich Hertz
Science Museum Group CollectionModels of three wooden prisms used by Heinrich Hertz
Science Museum Group CollectionMarconi first heard of wireless telegraphy when he attended lectures by Augusto Righi in Italy in 1895.
He was fascinated.
An entrepreneur of great technical skill, he set out to exploit the discovery of radio waves by developing a working system of wireless transmission. He formed the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Co. Ltd in 1897, the first commercial development of this new technology in the world.
How did wireless work on ships?
The new mode of transmission had to compete with existing cable networks. Marconi sold his earliest systems to lighthouses and ships, which could not access the cable network and yet had most need of rapid communication.
By the time of Titanic’s maiden voyage in 1912, most passenger ships operating in the north Atlantic had a Marconi installation staffed by Marconi Company operators.
Communication between ship and shore was by Morse code, as it was for conventional telegraphy. The equipment only transmitted messages for about 300 miles in daylight, although that figure doubled or tripled after dark thanks to the refraction of long-wave radiation in the ionosphere.
1:144 scale cut-away model of Titanic's sister the ship, the passenger liner T.S. 'Olympic', showing the compartments. On both Titanic and Olympic, the radio cabin was located just below the main deck, to give the shortest distance between the equipment and the aerials.
Science Museum Group Collection More information about 1:144 scale cut-away model of Titanic's sister the ship, the passenger liner T.S. 'Olympic', showing the compartments. On both Titanic and Olympic, the radio cabin was located just below the main deck, to give the shortest distance between the equipment and the aerials.What did wireless telegraphy mean for the Titanic?
Science Museum Group Collection
Reconstruction of a ship's radio room from around 1910, showing telegraph equipmentAt this time, wireless operators worked for the Marconi company and as well as communicating with other ships, they also relayed passenger messages—the new technology was something of a fashionable novelty, and first-class passengers would have enjoyed being able to send messages ashore.
Titanic was fitted out with some of the best wireless equipment available. But there was not yet an established practice of keeping a clear channel for emergency communications.
This early wireless telegraphy wasn't like calling a telephone, with the ability to speak to one person directly—instead, the channels were open to everyone at the same time.
Since Titanic's wireless operators were transmitting over the same frequency as other ships, and the channels were jammed with passenger communications, several ice warnings from other vessels were either missed or ignored.
If this wasn't enough, on most ships there was only a single wireless operator, who worked a long shift and then closed down for the night.
But as Titanic collided with an iceberg in calm seas on the night of 14 April 1912, Harold Cottam, operator on nearby Cunard liner Carpathia, was still awake.
He was in a position to receive the first distress signal from Titanic, sent by senior wireless operator Jack Phillips.
When Carpathia received the distress call, it immediately turned and steamed the 60 miles towards Titanic’s given position, a journey of almost four hours.
Was Titanic the first to use the SOS distress signal?
The International Radiotelegraphic Convention, signed in 1906, had agreed on SOS—three dots, three dashes, three dots in Morse code—as the international distress signal. The Convention had come into force in 1908, but 'CQD', the Marconi Company's distress signal, was still widely used at the time of Titanic's voyage, including by Jack Phillips.
For two hours on Titanic, Phillips and assistant operator Harold Bride continued to send out a stream of distress signals and messages that were picked up by other vessels. Not knowing that Carpathia was already on the way, at some point Bride turned to Phillips and said,
Send SOS. It’s the new call, and it may be your last chance to send it.
Science Museum Group Collection
Engraving of the sinking of the TitanicAs dawn broke Carpathia arrived at the grid reference transmitted by Phillips.
Two hours earlier Titanic had foundered and sunk.
Shocked passengers were adrift in lifeboats, while numerous others, killed by the icy water, floated in their life jackets. There had not been enough lifeboats for all the people on board, and those that were launched had not been filled.
Carpathia’s crew rescued all the survivors they could find, retrieved 300 bodies from the water, and set course for New York.
Without the wireless telegraph, there would likely have been no survivors at all.
Those who have been saved, have been saved through one man, Mr Marconi... and his marvellous invention.
Herbert Samuel, Postmaster General (April 1912)
What was the impact for radio communication?
Hard lessons were learned from the disaster.
Soon afterwards, the International Radiographic Conference in London passed new regulations for wireless communication on board ship.
Perhaps the most important of these were that first-class passenger ships had to set a permanent 24-hour radio watch, use the same wavelength to transmit signals and maintain radio silence at regular intervals to listen for distress calls.
Marconi was already established as a celebrity, synonymous with the wireless itself, but the rescue of passengers from Titanic conferred heroic status on him and his invention. The story garnered publicity for wireless technology that cemented the commercial success of his company.
Find out more
- BBC, Titanic: The final messages from a stricken ship
- The Atlantic, The technology that allowed the Titanic survivors to survive
- Roger Burns/Maritime Archaeology Trust, Maritime Wireless Telegraphy: Communications Beyond Visual Range
- Telecommunications objects in our collection
Milestones: 1866–1898 - Office of the Historian
Milestones: 1866–1898 - Office of the Historian- Home
- Milestones
- 1866-1898
- U.
S. Diplomacy and the Telegraph, 1866
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The development of the electric telegraph greatly changed the way diplomacy was conducted in the 19th century. Until that time information was exchanged at the speed of a sailing ship or a galloping horse. During the 1830s and 1840s, inventors working independently in several countries developed workable electric telegraphs, and these devices quickly superceded other technologies with the same name. By the mid-nineteenth century, telegraphy had acquired its present definition as a device for converting messages into electric impulses that traveled instantaneously by wire to distant receivers, where they were converted back into readable text.
European foreign ministries first used telegraphy during the early 1850s, but it did not become an important tool in the diplomacy of the United States until the completion of a successful transatlantic cable in 1866.
The first telegram sent across the Atlantic, reading “What hath God wrought.”
The most significant characteristic of the telegraph was its speed. Telegrams traveled like lightning across continents and oceans. Even with the additional time required for coding and handling, telegrams were typically available within a few hours of being sent. This speed brought many advantages to policymakers who found that they could respond rapidly to far off crises of whose very existence they would previously have remained ignorant for weeks. But the telegraph also brought disadvantages.
The ability to act quickly placed new time pressures upon political leaders, especially since telegraphy could inform newspapers and an expectant public just as swiftly. The acceleration of international disputes posed challenges to foreign ministries, which frequently used delay as a tool in resolving international crises. The long pauses caused by relatively slow communication had previously allowed tempers to cool, provided time for careful, methodical diplomacy, and offered harried political leaders an opportunity to conceive creative solutions to complex problems.
Telegraphy increased the centralization of foreign ministries. When ambassadors were months away from their political superiors, they were often forced to take pressing and important decisions before they could receive their instructions.
In such circumstances, they exercised enormous power, sometimes even acting as policymakers in their own right. In contrast, telegraphy circumscribed the independence of diplomats. It reduced the pressure of difficult decisions, which diplomats had previously faced without ready access to advice from their superiors. Yet, it also diminished the prestige and the power of diplomatic representatives. Their function changed. Whereas diplomats had once received autonomy because the sending of instructions to respond to every eventuality was slow and cumbersome, they now, in the age of the telegraph, were prized in part for their inefficiency. They provided an extra layer of expertise and slowed the policymaking process, thereby reducing the chances of a catastrophic error.
The formation and implementation of foreign policy can be a high-risk endeavor.
In an environment in which miscalculation can lead to a disastrous war or diplomatic defeat, foreign ministries tend to be skeptical of radical changes and untried methods. Yet, foreign ministries did cautiously adapt to the telegraph. In 1859, Britain’s Foreign Office hired resident clerks to handle telegrams received after the close of business. The U.S. Department of State established a telegraph office in 1866, a few months after the permanent establishment of transatlantic telegraphy. Diplomats learned to write more concisely in order to reduce telegraph expenses, which typically increased with the length of messages. Foreign ministries made more frequent use of codes in an (often fruitless) effort to keep the contents of their telegrams secret from spies.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, new technologies of communication—especially networked computers and fiber optic cables (which carried light rather than electricity)—marked the end of diplomacy by telegraph.
Yet, the telegraph deserves to be remembered as the technology that brought diplomacy into the high-speed age of electricity.
Telegram received final warning - Vedomosti
Pavel Durov is in no hurry to respond to Roskomnadzor / Dmitry Goryachkin / Vedomosti
Time is running out: Telegram has only a few days left to contact Roskomnadzor. Otherwise, the service may be blocked. This was stated in an interview with NTV by the head of Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov. Last Friday, a lively public correspondence began between Zharov and Telegram founder Pavel Durov.
Zharov published an appeal to Durov, in which he asked Telegram to comply with Russian law. The regulator has one requirement: Telegram must fill out the sent questionnaire with information about the company in order to include the company in the list of organizers of information dissemination on the Internet. Almost every day, Roskomnadzor writes letters to all available Telegram addresses, Zharov assured.
If the messenger refuses to perform the duties of the organizer of the dissemination of information, it will be legally blocked. “I must state that at the moment all the available opportunities for official communication with the team of the Telegram messenger have been exhausted,” Zharov said in a letter. nine0003
I, as one of the active users of the messenger, believe that the parties should sit down at the negotiating table, and not ignore each other. I am ready to provide a meeting place in Grozny where representatives of Roskomnadzor and Telegram can discuss possible solutions to the problem.
Durov saw sabotage attempts in the possible blocking of Telegram in Russia. As soon as this happens, the correspondence of Russian officials, their communication with friends and relatives and other sensitive data “via WhatsApp / Viber will go to American-controlled Apple iCloud / Google Drive clouds,” the founder of Telegram retorted on his page on the VKontakte network. nine0003
Zharov also commented on the answer of the founder of Telegram: “Unfortunately, we did not hear an answer on the merits of the questions posed in my appeal to the Telegram team and Pavel Durov,” says Roskomnadzor’s official Facebook page.
Durov is neutral towards terrorists and criminals who use his messenger, “and absolutely ignores the security of ordinary Telegram users,” Zharov added. Durov denied this claim: in June, Telegram blocked more than 5,000 public channels and groups associated with terrorist propaganda, he claims. The founder of the service believes that the official "could not explain why he is conducting a campaign to transfer the data of Russian citizens to the servers of American services." nine0003
Durov's acquaintances in an interview with Vedomosti warned many times that he did not intend to fulfill the requests of Roskomnadzor.
Not only Telegram
Adopted in April 2014, the law on the organizers of the dissemination of information on the Internet obliges them to store data on the facts of receiving and transmitting user messages for six months. And according to the package of anti-terrorist amendments by Irina Yarovaya and Viktor Ozerov, which will come into force next year, these organizers will also have to store the content of messages: text, video, images, sound.
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Who is Durov
In 2007, Pavel Durov founded Vkontakte, Russia's largest social network. But after a shareholder conflict with the UCP fund, which then owned 48% of VKontakte, in early 2014 Durov sold his 12% stake in the social network to the then CEO of Megafon, Ivan Tavrin (the amount of the transaction is not known). In April, he left the post of CEO of the company, and then the country. While still working at Vkontakte, Durov began to develop the Telegram messenger - this became the reason for a joint-stock conflict, which resulted in Durov's departure from Vkontakte. UCP accused the founder of the social network of developing his own project while remaining the head of VKontakte. The parties even exchanged lawsuits, but eventually entered into a settlement agreement. nine0003
Agent Mail.ru instant messengers, Chinese WeChat, Swiss Threema instant messenger, VKontakte and Odnoklassniki social networks and, since last week, IMO messenger have already been registered in the register of information dissemination organizers.
The e-mail services of Yandex, Rambler and Mail.ru Group, the Habrahabr IT community are also registered. It is noteworthy that both IMO and WeChat were temporarily blocked due to the fact that they did not contact the department.
Roskomnadzor representative Vadim Ampelonsky declined to answer Vedomosti's question about whether the agency had requested similar documents from Facebook and Viber. “If we have a critical situation with some other services, we will also make this situation public,” he added. nine0003
A Viber representative assured that the company had not contacted Roskomnadzor on this issue. The agency representing Facebook (Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp messengers) did not respond to Vedomosti's request. A spokesman for Microsoft (who owns the Skype messenger) declined to comment.
At the beginning of May, Roskomnadzor entered BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), Line instant messengers into the register of banned sites because of the refusal to contact them.
It is known that the Telegram letter was sent back in May. Vedomosti got acquainted with its copy. It says that a response must be provided within five business days. nine0003
Blocking or control
The state is clearly interested in controlling messengers, says Artem Kozlyuk, head of the Roskomsvoboda project. In his opinion, Roskomnadzor does not want to block Telegram, its true goal is to gain state control over correspondence.
Telegram audience
15 million installations in Russia
6.5-7 million active users in Russia
300 million installations in the world
110-115 million active users in the world
Roskomnadzor’s close attention to Telegram is due to several reasons, believes owner of OMMG Technology (cloud messenger platform developer) Sergey Kravtsov. First, although Telegram is not the most widespread messenger in Russia, the entire state apparatus uses it, he says. The second reason he calls the defiant behavior of Durov himself.
He openly refuses contact in order to keep his promise to his users not to cooperate with government agencies, while making himself a good advertisement, Kravtsov believes. nine0003
Durov will have to choose between blocking, which is fraught with the loss of some Russian users, and entering the register of information dissemination organizers, which can result in much greater reputational losses, Kozlyuk points out. But if Telegram is blocked, the technical savvy of the audience will play in its favor, Kravtsov argues. According to him, when Durov proposes a way to bypass the blocking (and he will certainly do it), users will use it. Durov, who did not obey the state, will receive a super-loyal audience, Kravtsov is sure. nine0003
Access for the elite
Telegram is really preparing for a possible blocking. In particular, its Android users will be able to connect to the service through a proxy server by default. Presumably the same update is being prepared for iOS.
This method of bypassing blocking has long existed in the version of Telegram for desktop computers, Combot founder Fyodor Skuratov told Vedomosti.
But keep in mind that it does not take into account new users. In the event of blocking, the problem of app stores will remain - the service may most likely disappear from them. Of those who are connected to Telegram, only advanced ones will use the function, Skuratov believes. According to his estimates, this is 10-15% of the total. About 20-30% more will, according to him, use third-party services. nine0003
History of Telegram
The creators of Telegram are brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov. Pavel supports Telegram financially and ideologically, while Nikolai is engaged in technology. Although the brothers, like some of the key developers, were born in Russia, Telegram is not connected to Russia in any way - either legally or physically, the founders said. The company headquarters is located in Berlin. The first version of the messenger appeared for Apple devices in August 2013, and for Android in October 2013. Then versions for other operating systems and devices followed.
The messenger called safe communication its mission. Telegram also opens up its interfaces for developers to build their own applications. Telegram has a platform for publishing Telegraph texts, there are public channels that you can subscribe to, and you can also call your interlocutor. In chats, in addition to correspondence, they play games, communicate with chat bots (for example, a bot of German Gref, president of Sberbank, was available some time ago). With the help of bots, it is also already possible to make payments. nine0003
The blocking of RuTracker, a torrent tracker comparable in popularity, has reduced its audience by about 13%, Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at Otkritie Broker, recalls. Telegram has had enough time to prepare for such a scenario, and the popularity of the block bypass service has grown over the past year, he points out.
They remembered ICQ
RAEC believes that the conflict between Roskomnadzor and Telegram is connected with prohibitive and imperfect regulation of the industry. “There is no way we can reduce the impact of the paradigm of regulation of the online industry, which we call “protective-prohibitive”, and move on to discussing the paradigm of “stimulating” <...>. This problem is much broader than the contradictions currently being discussed between the Telegram administration and Roskomnadzor,” the RAEC concluded. nine0003
Advisor to the President of Russia on the development of the Internet German Klimenko does not see a big problem in the possible blocking of Telegram, since more than 30 similar messengers operate in the country. “Hopefully there won’t be [a big problem]. At least I know for sure that in psychiatry there is no such disease as “an incurable dependence on Telegram,” Klimenko told RIA Novosti. “As for replacing Telegram with something else, there are more than 30 of them [messengers] in Russia alone. The most famous of them is ICQ. I used Facebook and quite now I use Vkontakte, ICQ,” he said. nine0003
Media news2
Is advertising distracting? Subscribe to hide itTelegram added the ability to delete correspondence without time limits and anonymous forwarding of messages - Services on vc.
ru ,"title":"\u041e\u0431\u0437\u043e\u0440 \u0442\u0440\u0435\u043d\u0430\u0436\u0451\u0440\u0430 \u0434\u043b\u044f \u0438\u043d\u0432 \u0442\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0432 ","buttonText":"\u041a\u0430\u043a \u044d\u0442\u043e?","imageUuid":"194bf0fe-adee-50d0-9bd6-cdfdce1789a1","isPaidAndBannersEnabled":false} Also in the mobile version of the messenger, a search for settings has been added, as well as improved work with emoji and GIF.
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Telegram has introduced an update to the messenger with new settings for managing personal correspondence and improved search.
In Telegram 5.5, users have received new opportunities to control personal correspondence. Previously, the Delete Message feature only deleted your own messages sent within 48 hours, but now you can delete any received or sent message without time limits. In this case, the message will also disappear from the interlocutor. nine0003
For greater privacy, the developers have added the ability to restrict user data in the forwarded message. If you activate this feature, the author's name in the forwarded message will be unclickable. There is also an option to turn off profile picture viewing.
The "Settings" section has been updated: a new search bar will allow you to quickly find the necessary functions of the messenger.
The search bar now displays answers to frequently asked questions found in the FAQ section. nine0003
Search by emoji, GIF, and stickers has been added to the Telegram mobile client. After typing the first word in a message, the application will suggest suitable emojis, a search for individual stickers by keywords has been added.
Video messages and large GIFs now work in streaming mode - you can start watching without waiting for the file to finish downloading. The messenger also added support for technologies that voice what is happening on the smartphone screen - VoiceOver on iOS and TalkBack on Android. nine0003
According to Pavel Durov, the amount of personal data that is stored in personal correspondence is constantly growing, and will increase several times in the coming decades. He believes that despite all the progress in encryption and privacy, people have very little control over their own data and this needs to be fixed.
Over the past 10-20 years each of us has exchanged millions of messages with thousands of people. Most chat logs are stored somewhere in other people's inboxes, out of our reach. Relationships begin and end, but correspondence with former friends and colleagues remains available forever. nine0003
An old message you've already forgotten about can be taken out of context and used against you decades later. A hasty message sent to a friend at school could catch up with you in 2030 when you decide to run for mayor. We cannot go back in time and delete other people's data. Could not. Up to this day.
Pavel Durov
Durov's team understands that the function of deleting messages can be used to harm, but in their opinion, "the benefit of controlling the digital fingerprint is more important.
