How the Sinking of the Titanic Sparked a Century of Radio Improvements

joshuarrrr writes "When the RMS Titanic scraped an iceberg on the night of 14 April 1912, its wireless operators began sending distress calls on one of the world's most advanced radios: a 5-kilowatt rotary spark transmitter that on a clear night could send signals from the middle of the Atlantic to New York City or London. What the radio operators lacked, however, were international protocols for wireless communications at sea. At the time, US law only required ships to have one operator on board, and he was usually employed by the wireless companies, not the ship itself. On the 100th anniversary of the Titanic, IEEE Spectrum looks at how the tragedy accelerated the improvement of communications at sea."

Thanks a lot Cameron

[Anonymous Coward]

If I see another story about the Titanic, I'm going to crack my skull open with the largest block of ice I can find.

I wonder how libertarians blame the regulations

[Anonymous Coward]

After all, if not for government regulations, the ship would naturally have had enough lifeboats and surely the others would have responded to radio and rockets on their own.

If only those mean governments had not interfered with the free market, then Astor would have saved us from the Great Depression.

And that would prevent World War 2. Or super-intelligent time-traveling cockroaches. One of the two.

I disagree....

[readandburn]

I still hear Nickelback and Katy Perry on the radio.

Ah, I may be young; but I know this one!!!

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

They improvements TFA describes are the technique of handling collisions by having both sides back off for a randomly chosen period of time, and then send another ship, right?

Re:I wonder how libertarians blame the regulations

[Anonymous Coward]

It's easy. The market is self-correcting. The passengers who drowned on the Titanic would naturally take their business elsewhere to another company who did provide enough lifeboats.