Without a doubt the fact that this is the third February 28 in a row (taking into account one missed year) for which
I've tried to find some sort of date tie-in is related to the fact that it's
only toward the end of the month that I succeed in getting around to finishing
these columns. And since this is the fourth time I've posted a column on February
28, it should be rather difficult already to find something worth mentioning.
Which is almost the case.
It turns out that an interesting communications-related event, not overly significant,
but nonetheless noteworthy, took place 160 years ago, and demonstrates, perhaps,
how much our world as changed. It was on this date, in 1849, that (as Wikipedia
tells us):
Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay, 4 months 21 days after leaving New York Harbor.By this time the telegraph had been invented, and even used, though the first transatlantic telegraph cables had yet to be been lain. It would thus appear that anyone in New York intending to speak more or less in real time with someone in San Francisco would have to do this face to face, which meant almost half a year of travel by sea. By the time I'd have reached whoever it was with whom I wanted to speak I'd have forgotten what it was I'd intended to say.