175 Years of UK Telecommunications

Videos of all the seminar presentations are available to view on IET.tv via the links below.

The presentations cover selected landmarks and developments in UK telecommunications from those first steps in 1837 to the present. The programme also allowed time for audience contributions which were captured in the open forum segments.

2012 marks the 175th anniversary of the granting of the UK patent to Cooke and Wheatstone for the first commercially practical electric telegraph. In the same year (1837) Morse and Vail, working in America, filed a caveat with the US Patent Office in preparation for patenting their system. These were the first steps in the era of electrical telecommunications. There followed the development of the telephone, radio, sound and television broadcasting, advanced communications networks, satellites, personal mobile communications and today’s Internet; developments which have had a profound impact on society and the way we live.

2012 is also the centenary of the opening of Britain’s first automatic telephone exchange in Epsom, 75 years since the 999 emergencies telephone number was established in London and the 50th anniversary of the launch of TELSTAR, (the communications satellite which captured the world’s imagination). In addition 75 years ago Alec Reeves was developing his ideas for pulse code modulation (PCM) which he patented the following year. An idea before it’s time, PCM is today a foundation of the modern digital world.