A Nervous System for the Earth

As we can imagine, the discovery of electricity was as momentous as the invention of the wheel and electricity alone expanded, yet refined, protocol into a more technical term. In the opening pages in chapter 5, Gleick explains the creation of the telegraph and how the responsibilities for which are relatively low since, at least in this instance, the clerks in the Ferry House of Jersey city only managed one “end” of a pair of wires leading from Baltimore to Washington D.C. Around the same time, the Electric Telegraph Company installed an electric clock in their rented Founders’ Hall building, where they referred to its inner workings similar to the workings (or protocols) of the brain. The current definition of protocol is as follows: a protocol is a method for accomplishing something. In practice, protocols typically refer to a standard form of conduct or etiquette: or simply, a set of specific rules. The purpose of these rules is to ensure the effective communication between parties without conflict or misinterpretation.

Another historical example that embodies the definition of protocol is the railroad system, even though it was only briefly mentioned in the section on chapter 5.  Here we have a huge system that survived entirely on protocol because the logistics of the train system must adhere to strict rules of timing and communication or the system will crash, literally. Looking closer, the railroad system behaved fundamentally similar to how email works. You have information, or cargo, being sent to and from locations and each location must communicate based on time, language, and destination.

Gleick describes trials the Chappe brothers went through to establish the first instance of the telegraph, before it went electric. Their process of building towers, using line of sight, and synchronizing pendulum clocks all went into the process of creating the first telegraph. The way it would work was the towers had to be connected through sight and sound so that the “sender” and “receiver” would be able to document the timing on the pendulum clock of when the signal was sent and received. Even though this system eventually failed, it can be considered a form of protocol since there were rules to accomplish communication.