The document discusses various ancient communication methods, including drums used by African tribes to transmit messages over long distances, fire beacons used by Greeks, and rumors of magnetic needles being used to communicate. It then covers the development of Morse code, including Samuel Morse's invention that used a series of dots and dashes to represent letters, numbers, and punctuation. Finally, it discusses concepts like redundancy and how measuring the symbols used in communication can impact the amount of information transmitted.

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

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
Used by the Greeks
Was able to transmit messages longer distances than drums
Other Methods

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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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Jon Eggers
Jee Kim
Taylor Seybold
Erich Marlowe
James Hopkins
Milton Ramer
Owen Steepy
Parisse Wood
Courtenay Cronin
Presenters:

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Danny Noyes
Taylor Rivera
Julian Brooks
Trevor Smith
Zach Bichard
Megan Hill