News

Until the era of electronic communication, getting word of happenings in other places (to say nothing of instantaneous moving pictures in color) used to be a long, slow process. News could travel on land only as fast as the fastest runner or rider. A man living in California might get a letter from his brother, prospering and healthy in Europe – only to find out a year later that his brother had died many months earlier.

There was one exception to this limitation – and that was communicating by line of sight. With telescopes, two people on mountain tops, miles distant from each other, might send messages by agreed signals. Ships at sea could, to a limited extent, keep in touch by means of flags strung along a rope. There is a story concerning the famous last message to his fleet from the British Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson in 1805, just before the crucial Battle of Trafalgar. What Nelson wanted to say was “ENGLAND CONFIDES [i.e. has confidence] THAT EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY.” But his Signal Officer suggested “EXPECTS” which would be easier to send, because “confides” was not in his signal book. So, the “England Expects” version was used, and it became one of the most famous messages in English History.

Sadly – or gloriously – Nelson himself did not survive the battle. He had already lost an arm and an eye in previous engagements. But the average English schoolchild today, if they know little else of their country’s history, is probably familiar with the words that follow “England Expects.” In London, a road junction in the heart of the City is called Trafalgar Square, after that Battle – and at its center is a single tall column, so tall that the statue of Nelson on top of it is hard to see.

Incidentally, that Battle in 1805 was just part of a whole series of conflicts lasting for decades and known as the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon Bonaparte not only ruled France, but, either directly or indirectly, he controlled the entire “Continent” of Western Europe. Despite the crushing British defeat at Cape Trafalgar of Napoleon’s combined force of French and Spanish ships in 1805 – an astounding victory of which the British are still so proud – it took another ten years before Napoleon was finally and permanently defeated, at Waterloo, in 1815.

I will leave it to you to guess how long it took for news of that Battle to reach various parts of the world.

But France now, in a different way, comes into our story of the development of communications. France was a leader in the development of what are called semaphore systems, which involve visible signals, sometimes made from specially constructed towers, with movable “arms.” This made it possible to send news, emanating from Paris, all over the country very speedily. But the system had its limitations. It depended on human “watchers” stationed at fixed points being ready at agreed times to receive and transmit messages. And at night, only fire could be seen.

The big breakthrough came with the discovery that messages could be sent along wires. Hence came the electric telegraph. But, like the subsequent computer, it could function only with a transmitted language comprised of a series of “ons” and “offs.” To turn this into meaningful messages was the achievement of a man named Samuel Morse, who was, of course, the inventor of the Code named after him. You probably know that the first telegraphed message using that code was a quote from the Bible: “WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT.”

Long before then, however – in fact, as long ago as 490 BC – the first great news story took place in Ancient Greece. Greece was at war with the mighty Persian Empire, which then included what we now call Turkey. From there a Persian army crossed the Aegean Sea and landed on the Greek coast near a place called Marathon, where they were confronted and soundly defeated by an army from Athens.

According to legend, news of this glorious and crucial victory was brought to the Athenian Acropolis by a runner named Pheidippides. But the legend also tells us that, having covered a distance of about 26 miles – which, of course, is the length of most “Marathon” races today – this heroic runner delivered his message, then collapsed and died.

The idea of reviving the whole concept of an Olympic Games to be held every four years – as they were in Ancient Greece – took shape in Athens, in 1896. And, thanks to modern communications, they were open to competitors from around the world.