II. TECHNOLOGY MILESTONES IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS

II. 1. Communications Advances The development of the telephone

Since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it has become a cornerstone of modern life by offering nearly instantaneous connections around the world.

The first two-way voice conversation was transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean in 1926, and commercial telephone service (using radio) began between New York and London in 1927. AT&T launched international telephone service in 1935. Transoceanic phone service was began to be handled by submarine cables in 1956, and since 1962, by communications satellites.

Today’s chemical engineers have brought us from copper wire to fiber optics, from switchboards to satellites, and from party lines to the Internet.

Switchboard

Wireless communications

Cellular phones and pagers depend on printed and integrated circuits, advanced materials, and miniaturization techniques enhanced by chemistry. AT&T Labs developed mobile car telephones in the 1940s, but they were unpopular due to a lack of communications channels. The 1980s brought a big breakthrough when wireless communications were divided into a series of cells that automatically switched callers as they moved so that each cell could be reused. Cellular phones quickly became popular.

Chemistry has also played a role in the development cellular phones.

of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for

Facsimile technology and xerography

Although the German inventor Arthur Korn transmitted the first pictures electronically in 1902, the first functioning fax machine debuted in 1924.

It adapted telephone circuits for picture transmission using telephotography: A photography transparency was scanned into electrical signals that indicated the shades of the image. This data was transmitted by telephone onto a receiving sheet of photographic negative film and then developed in a darkroom. In 1949, a xerographic copier was introduced that allowed an exact replica of an image to be made. Chemical innovations in facsimile technology, including new toners and inks, advanced paper technology, and organic photoreceptor technology, were introduced in the 1970s.

Telephotography

Laser and fiber optics

The pure glass fibers that now provide the infrastructure to carry information via laser-produced light is a revolutionary technical achievement. Chemical researchers invented the first optical fiber in 1970.

Fiber optics were soon fabricated and installed as integrated components. The first lightwave system to provide voice, data, and video service over a network was installed in 1977. Today, a single fiber-optic cable can transmit millions of phone calls, data files, and video images.

II. TECHNOLOGY MILESTONES IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS II.2. Computer Technology

Evolution of computers

Chemical engineering has fueled the computing revolution and continues to make computers faster, more powerful, and more affordable. In 1939, the first electronic computer is invented at Iowa State University. Programmable calculators with binary numbers and Boolean logic began to appear in the 1940s. In 1946, ENIAC, the first electronic digital computer, went into operation, and the first minicomputer debuted in 1962. In 1971, the Intel Company introduced its popular 4004 4-bit microprocessor for consumer use and the personal computer market exploded. Today, innovation continues in transistors, silicon chips, integrated components, data storage devices, and advanced materials.

John von Neumann and the ENIAC ENIAC A p-type semiconductor (lack of electrons) An n-type semiconductor (excess of electrons)

Semiconductor technology

Chemistry makes it possible to transform germanium into semiconductors to power silicon and today’s computers, appliances, and communication devices. Semiconductors, as opposed to metals, are a class of materials that increase their conductivity at elevated temperatures. These semiconductors are further treated to create an excess or lack of electrons.

Computer chips and integrated circuits are made from semiconducting materials. Semiconductors enable electronic components to be smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient.

Chemists in the semiconductor industry provide quality control of components, optimization processes, troubleshooting, and innovations in microelectronic devices.

Silicon chips and integrated circuits

In 1947, researchers John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain demonstrated that the flow of electricity through silicon could be selectively controlled.

The subsequent creation of silicon chips, integrated circuits, and microprocessors make possible today’s high-speed, efficient computers.

Silicon chips (1961) consist of transistors, resistors, capacitors, and memory chips built in layers on silicon wafers, then exposed to a multi-step chemical process. In 1967, the first hand-held calculator is built using an integrated circuit, a small electronic device which contains many transistors and other electronic components. In the 1980s, integrated circuits are applied to computers.

II. TECHNOLOGY MILESTONES IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS II.3. Computer Technology

Monitor and display technologies

Dramatic improvements have been made in computer display technology in recent years. High-resolution color graphics screens are mainly based on the television’s cathode ray tube. Alternate display technologies include flat-screen displays for laptop and notebook computers. Liquid crystals displays (LCD) based on organic chemicals were invented in 1969.

Subsequent developments include thin-film transistors liquid crystal displays in which each picture elements is driven by its own individual transistors. Chemists have developed liquid crystal materials, color filters, polymer alignment layers, molded-plastic light distribution sheets, and plasma display technology.

Information storage

Information must be recorded so that it can be retrieved at a later time if it is to be used and manipulated fully. Chemical innovations ensure that recording media is high-quality, easy-to-use, and inexpensive. Breakthroughs in recording capabilities (higher resolution, faster speed, and color), photographic films, magnetic audio recordings, and digital imaging have also brought advances in recording devices. In 1955, Reynold Johnson, an American inventor and computer pioneer, developed the first disk drive to store computerized data. Many subsequent advances have been made, especially with computer disks, magnetic tapes, and CD ROMs (1984).

GPS satellites on orbit Manufacturing of GPS satellites Communications satellites Until the 1960s, voice communications between North America and other continents were very expensive. In 1962, Telstar, the world’s first active communications satellite, was sent into orbit.

Chemistry provided the structural materials (metal alloys, plastic, and other advanced materials), computer and electronic components, and the fuel technology necessary to launch these satellites.

Communications satellites played a major role in expanding both international and domestic long distance calling and television transmission until the 1990s. Today, communications satellites play an increasing role in television transmission, including direct broadcasts to home satellite dishes with digital television.

II. TECHNOLOGY MILESTONES IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS II. 4. Entertainment Developments

Movies

In 1927,

The Jazz Singer

became the first feature-length movie with synchronized singing and dialogue. By the late 1930s, the firm Technicolor had refined its processes and the first color features became a big draw. The chemistry of film required a series of breakthroughs involving basic materials, chemical solutions, and exposure to light.

The Nipkow disc and its inventor Paul Nipkow in the year of patenting

Television

In 1926, the Scotsman John Logie Baird displayed television publicly for the first time using a mechanical television system, the Nipkow disc, patented in 1883. By 1927, Philo T.

Farnsworth had transmitted the first television image using a cathode ray tube (invented in 1897). The next twenty years was the era of the vacuum tube in electronics, and chemistry contributed the unique materials for electrodes and control elements within the tube. By the 1950s, many innovations were made, including the integrated circuit (1958). The following decades brought solid-state imaging devices, miniaturization, and various electronic improvements.

Photography

Photography and film technology enable us to record the most important experiences and people in our lives. Chemistry developed the film for all types of cameras with breakthroughs involving basic materials, different chemical solutions, and exposure to light. Battery improvements have also contributed to the popularity of the camera, including the 1950s alkaline manganese batteries for small cameras with built-in flash unit.

Being able to manipulate film, electronics, and batteries led to the 1963 introduction of Eastman Kodak’s popular Instamatic camera with film cartridge, which sold over 50 million by 1970.

II. TECHNOLOGY MILESTONES IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION

II. 5. Innovations in Electronics Evolution of consumer electronics

Electronic materials and microelectronic devices are the heart of countless modern products, such as CD players, televisions, computers, digital cameras and wireless devices. From vacuum tubes to transistors to integrated circuits, chemical engineers have made electronics smaller, more powerful, energy-efficient, and cheaper. New materials, processes for producing highly purified materials, and processes for building semiconductors have resulted in components, such as transistors and integrated circuits, which can be assembled into complex electronic circuitry to provide new capabilities for a wide range of electronic devices.

Advanced synthetic materials

Consumer electronics, cellular phones, and personal computers rely on tough, durable, non-conducting plastics to protect sensitive electronic components.

Plastics are essential in electronic applications because of their insulating properties; the flow of electrons that make up electrical currents cannot readily penetrate plastics’ molecular structures. By manipulating the structures of molecules and creating new ones, chemists and engineers produce new materials that are both strong and flexible. These advances have improved impact resistance, reduced the total weight of equipment, and reduced the cost of consumer goods.

The inventors of transistor

Transistors

It was the tiny, reliable electronic component called a transistor that enabled the marriage of computers and communication more than any other single development.

In 1947, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley invented the transistor, and it gradually replaced the bulky, fragile vacuum tubes that had been used to amplify and switch signals. The transistor and the subsequent integrated circuits (that contain millions of transistors) served as the foundation for the development of modern electronics. By 1954, the wildly popular transistor radio was introduced, and by 1958, an American electrical engineer, Seymour developed a transistorized computer.

Cray, had