1. +
The Information: A History,
A Theory, A Flood
Chapter 1:
Drums That Talk
(When a Code Is Not a Code)

2. +
Communication Methods in Ancient
Times

Drummers in sub-Saharan Africa used drums as a means to
communicate to villages

Drums, along with bugles and bells could transmit signals such as:
Attack, retreat, or come to church

In special cases, drums could also be used to summon help from
neighboring towns

Captain William Allen noted that the sound of military trumpets
could not carry messages long distances, but the thump of a drum
could carry six or seven miles.

Relayed village to village messages could rumble 100+ miles in an
hour

3. +
Communication Methods in Ancient
Times

Drums


Fire Beacons



Used by the Greeks
Was able to transmit messages longer distances than drums
Other Methods




Almost anyone could understand the message in the drumbeats, but
only a few of them learned how to communicate by drum
Flags
Intermittent smoke
Flashing mirrors
Discovery of Magnetism

Rumors of magnetic needles

4. +
The Idea of “Sympathetic” Needles

Method of communication

The idea was that if a pair of needles were magnetized
together, they would remain in sympathy from then on, even
when separated

Browne tried the experiment, but unfortunately it did not work

Browne still believes that this mysterious force could someday
be used for communication

5. +
Morse Code

At first it was a system of signs for letters, marked by a quick
succession of strokes

Samuel F. B. Morse claimed the idea of his first telegraph patent in
1840

Vail, Morse’s protégé, and Morse turned the idea from a coded
alphabet to the system of two elements, one of clicks (now dots) and
spaces in between. They added a third sign, the dash.

He wanted to be efficient in speed so Morse and Vail reserved short
sequences of dots and dashes for common letters

Vail went to a newspaper stand and found that E and T were very
common letters. So they changed T to a single dash saving the
telegraph operators billions of key taps in the future.

6. +
Morse Principle

7. +
Mapping the Spoken Language

8. +
Redundancy

Inefficient by definition

Every natural
language has
redundancy

Redundancy in
English allows us to
read this sentence

The phrase was used
to advertise shorthand
writing
Created by James Merrill

9. +
Measurement of Redundancy

Mathematical formula for understanding the measurement of
redundancy: H = nlogs

Symbols used to measure the redundancy in language:

Words

Phonemes

Dots / dashes

The less symbols available -> increased the amount
transmitted to relay information

Hartley believed sound was the more important way for
communication

10. +
Participants

Slide Makers:

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
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





Jon Eggers
Jee Kim
Taylor Seybold
Erich Marlowe
James Hopkins
Milton Ramer
Owen Steepy
Parisse Wood
Courtenay Cronin
Presenters:






Danny Noyes
Taylor Rivera
Julian Brooks
Trevor Smith
Zach Bichard
Megan Hill