To Wire the World: Perry M. Collins and the North Pacific Telegraph Expedition

by John B. Dwyer

Release Date: 30 October, 2000

Edition: Hardcover

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LESSONS FOR THE UNWIRED FUTURE...FROM THE WIRED PAST

We've come a long, long way since an American by the name of Perry M. Collins first envisioned a world interconnected by an overland telegraph line. That was back in the 1850s, and despite the efforts of over a decade - as well as the commercial might of Western Union - the efforts to make Perry's vision a reality were rendered obsolete by the completion of the Atlantic cable in 1866.

If the nineteenth-century transition from unwired to wired was spectacular in its social, political, and economic consequences, the twentieth-century move from wired back to unwired is proving even more remarkable. Just as a "telegraph army" was deployed by Western Union to take the overland telegraph line up to British Columbia, through modern-day Alaska, and so toward Siberia in order to connect America with Europe via Asiatic Russia, so today a wireless horde is spreading its unplugged message like wildfire in ever-decreasing circles of influence.

John Dwyer's meticulously researched book serves as a trumpet-blast for modern society's undying technical ingenuity and sheer passion for "connexity"... No one who operates in today's digital environment can fail to be fascinated by his tale of how these men surveyed, explored, and operated in dangerous - sometimes even life-threatening -environments to build the line from 1865 to 1867, only to find those risks made unnecessary by history.

Maybe those risking their capital and reputation on wireless technologies du jour like Bluetooth and WAP would do well to heed the lesson in TO WIRE THE WORLD, which is that technical vision alone isn't enough: the history of technology has also to be on your side!