Speed and Communication

It All Started with the Pony Express

Everything got started in April of 1860, at least that’s the way I see it. What am I talking about? Speed, of course. We know it as our ever increasing need for instant communication. At one time the U.S. Mail was the only way to go. Then, it was not fast enough, at least not for the forward thinking businessmen in the middle of the nineteenth century. Not until the Pony Express that is. It may have been a financial failure, but the Express did show America how important fast communication was. We had reached a time when speed was not only necessary but with the Express it was possible. They moved the mail with 500 great horses and 200 terrific riders.

Good Horses and Good Men = The Pony Express

Marking Time

The Pony Express was only marking time, getting ready for the telegraph, which would give way to the telephone. When I grew up we had a black phone that we picked up and an operator said, “Your number please.” That soon gave way to the newfangled rotary dial, and then, of all things, the all new, push-button phone. Several years later we had a phone with an antenna and no cord, we could walk outside and still talk, amazing. Then came our first, phone in a bag, they called it a cellular, I believe our first was sometime in the early 90s. Today my wife and I both carry phones, and keep up, instantly, with everything. Or, at least we keep up with what we want to keep up with.

Pony Express Stopped Here - Nebraska's Rock Creek Station

A Need for Speed

Of course today, we want more and more speed, better telephones and better and faster internet service. We text, tweet, and Instagram, and I am not sure that we will ever have enough. The need for speed has been around since the Pony Express and today we just keep going faster and faster.