Getting the Message

Getting the Message is a unique and engaging exploration of the fascinating history of communications, starting with ancient civilisations, the Greeks and Romans, then leading through the development of the electric telegraph, and up to the present day with email and smartphones. The technology is explained in a particularly simple and accessible way, and themes from politics, economics, and society weave in and out of the scientific ideas. The book concludes with a look at the possible future of communications, the new developments to come, and the implications these will have for our everyday lives. Lavishly illustrated, and including many original illustrations that show just how these new developments were received in their time, the book presents an informative and highly entertaining introduction to the field of communications. This revised second edition looks at the new developments in communications over the two decades since the first edition's release.

Laszlo Solymar has been at the University of Oxford since 1966. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor. He has held visiting professorships at the Universities of Paris, Copenhagen, Osnabrück, Berlin, Madrid and Budapest. He published 8 books and over 250 papers. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society since 1995, and received the Faraday Medal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1992. During his career, Solymar has conducted research on antennas, microwaves, superconductivity, photorefractive materials, holography, metamaterials.

- 1: Introduction - 2: The beginning of communications - 3: The mechamical telegraph - 4: The electric telegraph - 5: The telephone - 6: Wireless telegraphy - 7: The Telephone Revisited - 8: The Communications Revolution - 9: Microwaves - 10: The solid state revolution - 11: Digitalisation - 12: Optical Communications - 13: Deregulation and Privatisation - 14: Mobile Communications - 15: The Fax Machine - 16: The communications-computing symbiosis - 17: Satellites again - 18: Optical fibers revisited - 19: The Mature Internet - 20: Mobile phones, smartphones - 21: Artificial Intelligence - The Future