Niall Ferguson - Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World - Heaven's Breed 1/5

[DrZenith]

An American, Joseph Henry first came up with a viable means of transmitting messages by wire. Samuel Morse is usually presented as the inventor of the telegraph but he used Henry's ideas and later took credit for them. He did though, invent the Morse code system of long/short signals, providing an easy method of encoding messages. But long distance transmission through undersea cables became a reality thanks to the work of the British physicist, William Thomson ( Lord Kelvin).

[panzercat1939]

@jrm21386 I do not think that he is saying the Brits invented the telegraph,just that they used it to best effect.

[jrm21386]

He makes it sound as if Britain developed the telegraph and other technologies, when in reality it was the Germans and Americans who developed the telegraph independently.

[RedTyphoon1]

@jrm21386 No, He was merely stating the British used Telegraphy and other technologies to strengthen their empire.

[TheLiberalKnight]

@jrm21386 I am tired of seeing Americans criticizing British inventions. Britons are the greatest inventors in the human race, Americans are simply inferior. You have not invented anything near as revolutionary as the railways or steam engine.

[jrm21386]

@TheLiberalKnight You are a complete f*cking moron if you think the US didn't invent anything. Go ahead and look up "List of American inventions" on Wikipedia and you will be absolutely surprised to find out how much of the modern world is due to American invention and ingenuity. By the way, have you ever heard of nuclear power or the microchip you ignoramus? Seriously, how can you be so ignorant coming from such a good education system???

[TheLiberalKnight]

@jrm21386 The US have invented a lot of good stuff, but nothing near as good as Britain. Railways and steam engines are the fundamentals of a modern economy... the US have invented nothing near as important as a train or electric lighting. America is still a superior inventing nation to most of the world, but you aren't nearly as good as Britain is. You may have bigger guns than us, but we have more creative minds.

[TheLiberalKnight]

@jrm21386 Another American idiot who thinks the Americans invented the internet. What a tool.

[jrm21386]

@TheLiberalKnight Well, the Americans, by and large, did invent the internet. Look up ARPANET - go ahead and try it. You might just learn something new.

[TheLiberalKnight]

@jrm21386 Tim Berners Lee.

[jrm21386]

@TheLiberalKnight Tim Berners Lee improved an already established/invented internet by making it more user-friendly with 'Hypertext protocol'. He, by no means, invented the internet. It is a widely accepted fact that Lawrence G. Roberts, Leonard Kleinrock, Robert Kahn, and Vinton Cerf (all American) are the fathers/inventors of the internet. And they received the Principe de Asturias Award in 2002 'for the development of the Internet'.

[TheLiberalKnight]

@jrm21386 I'm sure the yanks would love to believe that.

[jrm21386]

@TheLiberalKnight Seriously mate...look into it. You'll find I'm completely spot on.

[324wilson]

Thanks for posting this series. I am really enjoying waching this documentary!