Shrinking the world: Improvements in the speed of information transmission, c. 1820–1870
Shrinking the world: Improvements in the speed of information transmission, c. 1820–1870
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缩小世界：信息传输速度的提高，约 1820 年至 1870 年
DOI：
10.1017/s1361491601000016
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发表时间：
2001
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Y. Kaukiainen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Y. Kaukiainen
人们普遍认为，在电报出现之前，信息传输并没有发生太多变化。然而，本文认为事实并非如此，信息传输速度在这项技术突破之前的几十年就已经发生了相当大的改进。 1820 年至 1860 年间，全球调度时间显着缩短，平均缩短至 1820 年左右的三分之一左右。这意味着，在大多数路线上，这三十年中的改进相当于比引入电报后节省的天数更多。这种发展可以说是一种演变，始于1830年代的欧洲，并逐渐扩散到世界各地。最先受益的跨大陆通信是横跨北大西洋和远东的通信，南美、非洲和澳大利亚明显落后。 “起飞”最初与在沿海或短途海上航线上引入轮船以及随后越来越长的远洋航行有关。然而，直到 1830 年代末，即使是传统的陆路邮车连接也得到了改善，北大西洋上的帆船（“分组”）连接也得到了改善。直到 1840 年代末和 1850 年代，铁路才开始缩短欧洲大陆内部的距离。
It is commonly believed that not much happened in the transmission of information before the introduction of the electric telegraph. This article, however, argues that this was not the case, that quite a substantial improvement in the speed of information transmission had already taken place a few decades before this technical breakthrough. Between 1820 and 1860, global dispatch times diminished remarkably, on average to about a third of what they had been around 1820. This implies that on most routes the improvement during these three decades amounted to more saved days than was achieved after the introduction of the electric telegraph. The development can be described as an evolution which started in Europe in the 1830s and was diffused gradually all over the world. The first transcontinental communications to benefit were those across the North Atlantic and to the Far East, with South America, Africa and Australia clearly trailing behind. The ‘take-off’ was initially connected with the introduction of steamships on coastal or short sea routes and subsequently on increasingly long ocean voyages. However, even traditional overland mail-coach connections improved as also did sailing-ship (‘packet’) connections over the North Atlantic until the late 1830s. It was only in the late 1840s and 1850s that railways started to shrink distances within Continental Europe.