How long have wireless, digital communications been around?

 

Do you mean smoke signals, light and flags?

 

Well for wireless since around the late 1800s using spark gap transmitters.

 

Well for wireless since around the late 1800s using spark gap transmitters.

And you could consider morse code as a form of digital communication.

 

Well for techy types, that was too easy.

 

Don't forget the abacus.

 

Don't forget the abacus.

Do you mean the abacus with bamboo rods instead of wires, or master and slave abaci that match each other over a distance?

 

Don't forget the abacus.

If you want to go that route then the drum could be considered digital communications too and predate the abacus by a large margin.

 

I can see the drum as wireless digital communication, but I'm having difficulty with the abacus communicating over a distance.

 

No distance was specified. Only digital communications.

I like the drum answer.

 

Pursuing the drum concept further, I wonder if creating diffuse smoke signals on a windy day, while drumming out a pre-agreed code in an open area devoid of distracting echoes, could be regarded as the first instance of combined digital and analog data transmission.

 

First digital communication: caveman uses index finger to point.

 

First digital communication: caveman uses index finger to point.

Most of the cavemen I know use their middle finger to point.

 

Most of the cavemen I know use their middle finger to point.

I'm glad you said that.

 

Ah, but long before the drum, you can bet that someone communicated something to someone else by clapping their hands.

 

First transmission of an electric signal - Stephen Gray (1720 - 1736 timeframe). Static electricity - made with a glass rod and silk cloth.

Not wireless but essentially digital. It was mostly a novelty. A Frenchman then had the idea to use 26 parallel wires to achieve communication. Not efficient and obviously pre-ASCII.

Not wireless but electric. I really liked the drum beat answer!

 

First digital communication: caveman uses index finger to point.

Tracecom stole this idea out of my head and presented it as his own.

 

Tracecom stole this idea out of my head and presented it as his own.

Yes, and I was amazed at what else I saw in there.

 

Tracecom stole this idea out of my head and presented it as his own.

So which finger did YOU use to communicate your response to him?

 

Yes, and I was amazed at what else I saw in there.

Are you certain you did not mean frightened?