1700 - 1800 A.D.

1713
First typewriter patent filed

In 1714 Henry Mill got granted a patent for his idea of an "artificial machine or method" for forgery-proof writing. Still it was not before 1808 that the first typewriter proven to have worked was built by Pellegrino Turri for his visually impaired friend, the Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzono. The commercial production of typewriters began in 1873.

For a brief history of typewriters see Richard Polt, The Classic Typewriter Page, http://xavier.xu.edu/~polt/typewriters.html

1727
First photocopies

Searching for the Balduinist fluorescenting phosphor (Balduinischer Leuchtphosphor), an artificial fluorescent, Johann Heinrich Schulze realized the first photocopies, but did not put them into practical use.

The first optical photocopier was not patented before 1843, when William Henry Fox Talbot got granted a patent for his magnifying apparatus.

In 1847 Frederick Collier Bakewell developed a procedure for telecopying, a forerunner of the fax machine. Yet it was not before 1902 that images could be transmitted. Almost 200 years after Schulze's discovery, for the first time photo telegraphy was offered as a telecommunication service in Germany in 1922.

1794
Fixed optical network between Paris and Lille

Claude Chappe built a fixed optical network between Paris and Lille. Covering a distance of about 240kms, it consisted of fifteen towers with semaphores.
Because the communication system was designed for practical military use, the transmitted messages were encoded. The messages were kept such a secret that even those who transmit them from tower to tower did not capture their meaning; they transmitted codes they did not understand. Depending on weather conditions, messages could be sent at a speed of 2880 kms/hr at best.

Forerunners of Chappe's optical network are the Roman smoke signals network and Aeneas Tacitus' optical communication system.

For more information on early communication networks see Gerard J. Holzmann and Bjoern Pehrson, The Early History of Data Networks.

TEXTBLOCK 1/2 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611796/100438659771
 
So what does cryptography mean?

cryptography:
It is the study of encryption, the art/science to create and use codes and/or ciphers with the purpose of enciphering as well as deciphering.
After a relatively vivid but slow development of cryptography for nearly 4.000 years the inventions of the telegraph, radio and computer had a high impact on the velocity of further inventions concerning encryption.
Most of the time economic, political or military reasons lie behind the necessity of encryption. As visible from the timetable cryptography it is also done for private and individual interests. An extraordinary example for this is the Braille Code, developed as a possibility for blind people to read and write.
A lot of very interesting and intelligent websites about cryptography can be found in the Internet.Some websites offering links to various cryptography-websites are:
http://www.ciia.org/links.htm
http://www.isse.gmu.edu/~njohnson/Security/stegres.htm
http://www.hack.gr/users/dij/crypto/links.html
http://www.achiever.com/freehmpg/cryptology/lessons.html
http://www.iks-jena.de/mitarb/lutz/security/links.html
http://world.std.com/~franl/crypto/
http://home.tu-clausthal.de/~inas/Links.html
http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/crypto-security.html
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/xref/0,5716,5453,00.html
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rak/web_sites.html

Further there exists a wide range of web-magazines/newsletters/mailing lists on cryptography, e.g.:
Crypto-Gram Newsletter: http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram.html
Journal of Computer Security: http://www.gocsi.com/m_form.htm
Cypherpunks: http://www.inet-one.com/cypherpunks/
Stegano-L: http://www.thur.de/ulf/stegano/sub.html
ZD Internet Magazine: http://www.zdnet.com/

TEXTBLOCK 2/2 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611776/100438659057
 
Charles Babbage

b. December 26, 1791, London, England
d. October 18, 1871, London, England

English mathematician and inventor who is credited with having conceived the first automatic digital computer. The idea of mechanically calculating mathematical tables first came to Babbage in 1812 or 1813. Later he made a small calculator that could perform certain mathematical computations to eight decimals. During the mid-1830s Babbage developed plans for the so-called analytical engine, the forerunner of the modern digital computer. In this device he envisioned the capability of performing any arithmetical operation on the basis of instructions from punched cards, a memory unit in which to store numbers, sequential control, and most of the other basic elements of the present-day computer.

INDEXCARD, 1/2
 
PGP

A cryptographic software application that was developed by Phil Zimmerman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is a cryptographic product family that enables people to securely exchange messages, and to secure files, disk volumes and network connections with both privacy and strong authentication.

INDEXCARD, 2/2