Exotic technology in the service of international telecommunication

Abstract

Literally, the word ‘exotic’ means ‘coming from foreign or strange parts’, but in common usage it has come to mean something that is unusual or outside our day-to-day experience. When we examine Britain's communication with foreign or strange parts we see that every syllable of speech, every character in a telex message, every bit, baud or byte must somehow leap our boundaries with the sea. In seeking means to surmount this barrier, communication engineers find themselves depending on techniques that are unusual and outside their day-to-day experience: the study of the ocean bed; ship navigation to pin-point accuracy; highly specialised marine engineering; sea ploughs and submersibles; satellites and their launch vehicles; earth stations and large steerable aerials: in other words, exotic technology