A review by leslie115
The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage

3.0

3.5 stars. Standage's solid ability to tell stories and provide the appropriate level of detail makes his book about the telegraph breezy but informative. I'm amazed how a short-lived (30 years) technology led to the use of abbreviations (e.g., "I I" = I am ready; "S F D" = Stop for dinner; "1" = Wait a moment), the creation of AP and Reuters news agencies, and the propagation of bad poetry, such as this one celebrating the laying of first transatlantic cable:

'Tis done! The angry sea consents,
the nations stand no more apart;
with clasped hands the continents,
feel the throbbing of each other's hearts.
Speed, speed the cable, let it run,
a loving girdle round the earth,
till all the nations neath the sun
shall be as brothers of one hearth.