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Coax cables are capable of transmitting radio frequency (RF) signals and have served as the backbone of communications technology for decades. From radios to telephones to televisions to computers, coax cable has seen continued use even as the technology it supports continues to evolve. Stretching back over 100 years, the origins of coax cables begin towards the end of the 19th century.
Oliver Heaviside, the grandfather of modern coax cable
1880: The original coax cable was created by English inventor Oliver Heaviside. Heaviside studied telegraph lines and discovered wrapping the lines with insulation reduced signal loss and made cables more durable. With this discovery, he created and patented the world’s first coax cable.
1884: A second coax cable is patented in Germany by the electrical engineering company Siemens & Halske (later merged with the company Siemens).
1894: Nikola Tesla files the first American patent on electrical conductors, which later become a key component in the birth of the modern coax cable.
1916: Lloyd E
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Ethernet cables are used to connect everything with an Internet connection today. Even wireless devices like tablets and smartphones have to connect to other devices like routers that are themselves run off ethernet. While the world wide web did not start booming until the late 90s, ethernet’s origins can be traced back to the 1970s.
Robert Metcalfe, the engineer who laid the groundwork for the Internet by co-inventing ethernet.
1974: Xerox PARC finishes developing the first ethernet cable, pioneered by Robert Metcalfe.
1975: Xerox files a patent for the ethernet cable. Metcalfe is listed as the inventor along with his colleagues David Boggs, Chuck Thacker, and Butler Lampson.
1976: The first ethernet system is privately deployed. Upgrades to the system eventually result in 10 Mbit/s ethernet, the first cable released to the public market later on.
