Collapse of space and time

The Historical functions and impact of speed and transport in communication

The railway developed and used worldwide was the urban underground. This was followed by the first passenger-carrying underground railway that was opened in London between Paddington and Farringdon on 10 January 1863.Steam-hauled and built on the cut-and-cover principle beneath the streets, this was the start of a rapidly expanding network which, by the 1880s, served much of central London and its financial heartland in the City, connected most of the major railway termini and was increasingly serving the expanding suburbs via conventional overground connections.

The cut and cover technique was fast becoming a main use trend by other underground networks cities such as Paris and New York. The deep-bored tunnel railways was becoming a much more demanding technically, following the examples of which were the steam-powered Mersey Railway of 1886 and the cable-hauled Glasgow Subway of 1896. However, the most revolutionary was the City and South London Railway, now part of London Underground's Northern Line, whose first section was opened in 1890. From the start this was wholly electric, with hydraulic lifts linking the surface stations to the platforms, a pattern rapidly followed by other early tube lines, for example the Waterloo and City Railway of 1898 and the Central London Railway of 1900.

Although the public railway and the application of steam power to transport were pre-Victorian concepts, the widespread development of local, national and international railway networks was a Victorian phenomenon. The combination of great public enthusiasm, massive investment, highly skilled engineering and the application of modern technology ensured the rapid growth of railways in Britain and abroad. By 1850, 6000 miles of railway were in use, and throughout Victoria's reign British engineers were involved in railway construction and operation in many parts of the world, which in turn created new export markets for British locomotive and vehicle builders.

Nowadays, many forms of transportations, such as airplanes, bicycles and automobiles, have been introduced into the society. Though people’s views vary from each other, I believe that it is the
automobiles that changed people’s lives. Because automobiles could give people more convenience, save everyone’s time, improved communication and increase the efficiency of the world. 

Automobiles have given many freedoms to ordinary people. For the working people, the car enabled them to work in the city and live in suburban areas many miles away. The more transport was developed more people could travel at the same time. They used to travel per horsesand baggage was limited

Contemporary Cultural influence

Imagine waking up in the 17^th century with no cell phone, computer or a car to transport you around, for us people living in the 21^st century it would be difficult to cope with the surroundings of that era. The reason I say that is because somehow our lives are dependent on those three objects and we see them as necessities for communication. Nowadays I doubt there is someone who would want to write a letter, send it to another town and wait for days to get a reply whereby he or she could send an E-mail or phone the person and get an instant reply.

 Communication is in our everyday lives and due to our lifestyle it puts us in different situations that people in the 17^th century never got to experience, situations such as exchanging money for petrol and complaining to the petrol attended about the petrol price. The way communication is so advance these days. We can know what is happening in other countries or continents in a matter of minutes or hours whereby back in the other passed centuries they had to send sailors for months on end to find out what is happening in other countries and only then the rest of the community would know the news.

The historical form of communication took place rather slow, for there was no necessary tools that could help the inventions to take place faster, for example; what is known today as printed books, was written with hand at first, therefore the process of producing information took place slow because paper also took long to produce. As time went by, printing was invented, it made it easier for more information to be distributed, but the information was still limited for the printing was made of carving out characters on the woodblock and pressing them on paper after inking the carved out part.

Gutenburg then invented a printing machine with movable/replaceable letters, and this made it easier for information to be distributed to rather more people than what was used at first. This shows that everything that is invented will keep on being improved and made better to accommodate and be user friendly to even more people.  

Nowadays, many forms of transportations, such as airplanes, bicycles and automobiles, have been introduced into the society. Though people’s views vary from each other, I believe that it is the
automobiles that changed people’s lives. Because automobiles could give people more convenience, save everyone’s time, improved communication and increase the efficiency of the world.
Automobiles have given many freedoms to ordinary people. For the working people, the car enabled them to work in the city and live in suburban areas many miles away. The more transport was developed more people could travel at the same time. They used to travel per horses and baggage was limited.