WiFi/Bluetooth/Web

 The Internet is “an electronic communications network that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities around the world”. It is impossible to give credit to the invention of the Internet to one person. It was done by dozens of scientists, engineers and programmers. They each developed technologies and features that merged into the “information superhighway” that we know it as today. Nikola Tesla toyed with the idea of a “world wireless system” in the early 1900’s. Vannevar Bush and Paul Otlet “conceived of mechanized searchable systems of media and book in the 1930’s and 1940’s.”  The first working prototype came in the late 1960’s. After computer scientists developed “packet switching” concept, a method that was used effectively transmitting electronic data. This later became one of the major building blocks for the Internet. The first working prototype came in the late 1960’s with the invention of ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). ARPANET uses packet switching which allows multiple computers to communicate to another. In 1969, ARPANET delivered its first message: a “node-to-node” communication from one computer to another. In 1983 researchers began to assemble the “network of networks” which became the modern Internet. 

The World Wide Web is the leading information retrieval service of the Internet. It gives access to many documents which are connected by hypermedia, hyperlinks, and hypertext. The Web works within the Internet’s server format. The development began in 1989 by Time Berners-Lee and his colleagues. They created the protocol which standardized communication between servers and clients. It became available to the general population in 1992. The Web gained fast popularity with the creation of Mosaic. It was developed in the United State by Marc Andreessen and others and released in 1993. Mosaic allowed people to use the Web using the same “point-and-click” graphical manipulations that had been on personal computers for some years at this point. In 1994, Andreessen founded Netscape Communications Corporation and their Netscape Navigator became the main web browser after its release. 

The Web and the Internet are often confused. The Internet is a global network versus the Web is a collection of information that you can access via the Internet. An example of this is the Internet can be seen as a big bookstore and the Web can be viewed as a collection of books in that store. The first website was created on August 6^th, 1991 by Tim-Berners-Lee and Robert Caillau.  http://info.cern.ch

Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian American investor and actress who pioneered the basis for Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS. She met George Antheil at a dinner party and the two of them created “an extraordinary new communication system used with the intention of guiding torpedoes to their targets in war”. The system uses “frequency hopping” amongst radio waves and both receiver and transmitter hop to new frequencies together. This prevented the interception of radio waves which allowed the torpedo to find its intended target. After they created it, they sought out to get a patent and support from the military for their invention. They got the patent in 1942, but the Navy decided against using it. Her achievement of being inducted in the National Inventors Hall of Fame for developing her frequency hopping technology in 2014 let her to being known as “the mother of WiFi” and other communication such as GPS and Bluetooth. 

Bluetooth was created by Jaap Haartsen. In 1993, in Sweden, Haartsen started working on indoor wireless communication systems. He was tasked with finding a solution for short-range radio connections that would add functionality to phones. Between 1998 and 200 he played a large role in getting worldwide regulatory approval for this technology. When Bluetooth was being developed, he was reading The Long Ships, a novel about Vikings that features King Harald Bluetooth. It was named Bluetooth because the technology and the king has the same purpose of communication and unity among different groups. The logo of Bluetooth is a combination of an “H” and a “B” which are the initials of King Harald Bluetooth. 

WiFi was created by NCR Corporation with AT&T and it was intended to for use in cashier systems. The original name of WiFi was WaveLAN. When Wifi was being name they wanted something a little catchier than IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence so the name WiFi was suggested.

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

2018, Colleen Cheslak |. “Hedy Lamarr.” National Women's History Museum, https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/hedy-lamarr. 

Admin. “The History of WIFI: 1971 to Today.” CableFree, 18 May 2017, https://www.cablefree.net/wireless-technology/history-of-wifi-technology/. 

Admin. “The History of WIFI: 1971 to Today.” CableFree, 18 May 2017, https://www.cablefree.net/wireless-technology/history-of-wifi-technology/. 

Andrews, Evan. “Who Invented the Internet?” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 18 Dec. 2013, https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-the-internet. 

“Internet Definition & Meaning.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Internet. 

“NIHF Inductee Jaap C. Haartsen Invented Bluetooth Wireless Technology.” NIHF Inductee Jaap C. Haartsen Invented Bluetooth Wireless Technology, https://www.invent.org/inductees/jaap-c-haartsen. 

read, Branding·15 min, et al. “Feeling Blue: A History of Bluetooth & the Story behind the Bluetooth Logo.” Fabrik Brands, 30 June 2020, https://fabrikbrands.com/bluetooth-history-and-the-bluetooth-logo/. 

Westologist, The. “Bluetooth Symbol Origin and Meaning.” The Westologist, http://www.thewestologist.com/symbols/bluetooth-symbol-origin-and-meaning. 

“What's Difference between the Internet and the Web ?” GeeksforGeeks, 3 Nov. 2021, https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/whats-difference-internet-web/. 

“World Wide Web.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/World-Wide-Web.