Introduction

The 20th Century saw possibly the greatest advances in technology since records began. 

Not only were new and exciting technologies invented, but existing technologies were improved, and technological development happened much quicker than before.

Three main communication technologies were the radio, the television and the telephone. 

Each of these allowed for information to be transmitted into our homes and workplaces and the telephone allowed for two-way communication. The way these items are powered is the subject of microprocessors, computers and batteries which have also made dramatic leaps in technology during the century and continue to do so in the 21st Century.

All of these technologies are still with us today but have advanced dramatically through the last century, and the media associated with them has also changed. 

The various ways we communicate in the modern world may be very advanced but would possibly have never existed without these inventions.

We may use the internet today as our main means of communication but without the development of cabled electricity, urbanisation and the introduction of the microprocessor and other advances in technology throughout the last century, it is highly unlikely we would even have the internet today never mind one so fast and flexible.

The Radio

Although wireless communication was invented in the late 1800’s by Nikolas Tesla, it was the late 1920’s and the 30’s where it became commercially available. These early radios were often large wooden boxes full of valves, Copper wires and other technology we would consider ancient today.

They were expensive and unreliable, often needing specialist knowledge to be repaired.

Transistors

The 1940’s and 1950’s saw the introduction of transistors which replaced the large bulky valves used in earlier radios. These allowed radios to be smaller and more reliable.

Microprocessors, Integrated circuits, and surface mounted components

In the 1970’s the introduction of Microprocessors enabled even further miniaturisation of the radio.

Combined with Integrated Circuits (IC) and surface mounted components/technology (SMC), radios began to resemble the technologies we know today.

In fact, despite their retro styling, most modern radios are DAB (Digital Audio). However, portable radios rely very much on advancing battery technology which we will look at later.

Citizans Band (CB) Radios

The late 1970’s saw an interest in Citizens Band (CB) radios.

In many ways, the culture was similar to Facebook and other social networking sites. Users had a handle (nickname) that often reflected their personality (or ego) and they had their own method of speech. Today we have avatars, memoji's and web/text speak.

At the time, other users could simply ‘tune in’ to join the conversation much like the chat rooms of today. Little has changed other than the technology involved. People were still anonymous and as a result could be abusive and offensive ‘over the air’. Today it is all possible on our tablets and mobile phones.

Today's radio

Today the radio, where still used as a communication device, is two way often using an analogue signal such as a walkie talkie, but digital communication, as well as transmission of music and news, has moved to a digital format in the form of DAB radio and internet streaming.

Communication in particular is handled by Discord, Face time, WhatsApp, SMS or ‘good old fashioned’ phone calls but all now use a digital signal rather than analogue.

Conclusion

As for the future... radio remains popular (Fabulous 103!?) however even Apple and other music providers stream music digitally to devices through their own ‘radio’ stations online.

Will there still be a need for the dedicated radio in the future with so many apps and services offering streaming music?

What can radio offer that these services don’t?

The Television

Where would we be without the TV? 

It has become society’s baby-sitter, news source, teacher, entertainer, and story-teller. Still, even while we pretend we hate it, we can’t help but seeing what’s on tonight. Worse, most of us would have no idea what to do with our time without it, which is probably the saddest commentary of all.

The television was originally likened to a passage from the book ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’; 

‘In another moment Alice was through the glass and had jumped lightly down into the looking glass room. The very first thing she did was to look whether there was a fire in the fireplace, and she was quite pleased to find there was a real one, blazing away as brightly as the one she had left behind’.

Simply put, the TV is a window into another world; one capable of taking us to the far reaches of the earth and beyond. It can be used for good and bad and now sits on our walls like a monolithic slab of glass…but it wasn’t always like that…

What is the story...

The television has advanced more than most other technologies. While phones, computers and tablets have a wealth of different users, it is the TV (and in turn the computer screen) that sits in nearly every home in the developed world and we wouldn’t think anything of having 3 or more TV’s in our homes.

The first TV’s used a cathode ray tube to create the picture and continued to do so until the 1990’s. The large tube which was integrated into the vacuum sealed screen was large and heavy, made of glass, and very expensive to replace. In fact, if it was damaged in the 1980’s onwards it was often more economical to replace the whole set!

The first TV’s had tiny black and white screens, monophonic sound and just the one channel that was only on the air for a few hours each day!

 Eventually TV’s got bigger, moved to a colour picture and 4 channels; BBC1 and 2, ITV and Channel 4. (UK based history)

Further channels were added, screens became colour, clearer and bigger until the advent of the TFT screen which allowed TV’s to become much thinner. Some are now less than 1cm thick yet the technology in them would have been mere science fiction even in the 1970’s and 80’s.

Curved screens seem to be the latest trend in TV’s and the LG set below has a carbon fibre frame supporting the thin screen which is 55 inches across the diagonal. However, this is not the biggest by a long way!

The Television Today

Today TV’s have abandoned the old analogue signals which came through Copper wires received from an ariel on our roof tops.

Modern day TV’s use a digital signal, often combined with the fibre optic broadband many homes have for their phone and internet. The web allows us to watch channels on demand, and there are thousands of them now!

A TV can be smart, responding to hand gestures, surfing the net, even recording TV or pausing live TV.

They can have 4K or 8K resolution, hang on our walls and are thinner than a photo frame, yet they remain the centre of our communal homes….but even the family get together around the TV, like the radio before it, is under threat from the internet powered laptops, tablets and even phones!!

The telephone

The telephone is a piece of technology that has developed in appearance and function possibly more than any other piece of consumer technology. 

A modern day handset like the iPhone 14 is only related to the first phone by its ability to make and receive a call.

In the beginning...

After the Bakelite models of the 1920’s, the telephone remained relatively unchanged in design (although there were more colours) until the ‘trim phones’ of the 1970’s. Thanks to the introduction of Integrated Circuits and the Microprocessor, phones were able to generate electronic ring tones rather than using metal bells and the rotary dial was eventually replaced by the push buttons we use today.

For decades, you could not make a telephone call without an operator physically putting the call through. Then it was only long distance calls that needed that familiar response “Operator, how can I help you …” to connect you to someone else. 

Eventually such service was only needed to make a collect call or to make sure a line was working. Since the 1960’s, technology has been replacing the operator until modern digital exchanges, which connect you automatically, made the telephone operator obsolete!

In the late 1980’s, wireless technologies advanced, and phones eventually became cordless so you could move around the home without trailing wires. Further advances allowed for the first truly mobile phones in the 1990’s; handsets that could be used anywhere, and are the template for phones we all use today although battery power was limited even in the 1990’s.

A time line of device handsets

• Handsets got faster and smaller.

• Battery life got better and better. 

• SMS texting was introduced as well as picture messaging, 

• colour screens, 

• music player, 

• cameras and more.

The telephone evolved rapidly in the space of just a few decades...

Today telephones are a result of ‘convergent’ technologies. That is several different dedicated devices have converged, or come together, to make one multi purpose device.

 A modern smartphone will have: 

• a large HD screen, 

• 5G capability, 

• a multi core processor with more Ram than supercomputer had 10 years ago. 

• It will have internet connectivity, 

• a digital camera, 

• music player and radio 

• as well as a 3D chip to play games. 

• Most will also have military grade biometric security on them as standard! 

Once we would have had to carry a telephone, PDA or organizer, Walkman, notebook, camera, possibly even a laptop, portable TV or movie player. Not to mention a portable games device such as the Game Boy and a trunk full of batteries to run them all. Now a device as small as the iPhone can do all of it, and often better than any individual device could do!

The phone has transcended its original purpose to allow two people to communicate without being in the same room or building. Today a phone is the fashion ‘must have’ that even children own. They can cost as little as £50, yet harness the power and potential of many devices that would have cost many thousands of pounds just a few decades ago.

Today, telecommunication (communicating at a distance via electrical impulse over wire or air) has advanced to levels we could never have predicted even mid 20th Century. Technology has dictated the function of modern devices but fashion and style has shaped their appearance through the decades. The plastic look of the 1960’s became the trim phone of the 1970’s, with today’s gadgets returning to Bauhaus principles of machine produced lines and simple uncluttered surfaces.

Can there be anything more simple and elegant in design than an Apple computer or phone?

Black plastic was once considered cutting edge, but Leather, Stainless steel, brushed Aluminium, Carbon Fibre and Gorilla glass are the premium materials of today and are evident in many of the high end products we buy.

What will the future of the mobile phone look like?