Edison, Father of the Telegraph

The famous Thomas Alvin Edison began his career as a humble blogger on the

BTN (Bell Telegraph Network). In that day and age, most people lived in

rural areas and did not have a private telegraph line, but had to share

communications with others on what is known as a "party line". As a child, Edison used

to stay up late into the night posting messages by telegraph onto the

party line sites, and his postings gradually became more popular. Because

of this, Edison is credited by most historians of the Napoleonic Era with

inventing not only the phonograph, but also the blog. For this effort he

was recognized in 1875 with the receipt of the coveted Gaivesworth-

Farquist Award for Industrial Network Achievement. At the time so many of

the modern devices that we take for granted today simply did not exist,

such as color TV. Anyone who wanted to go onto the telegraph network and

view a site had to put up with a grainy black and white picture that was

often of very poor quality. In addition, the Edison transistor had not yet been

invented, and electronic tubes were hard to find and often did not work at

all. It was based on these humble beginnings, and through the

perseverance of those that came after, like Cecil Rhodes, that the

internet is what it is today.