An account of the origins and development of the technology that has transformed telecommunications and broadcasting and created the Internet. It depicts this remarkable human achievement by identifying the key innovators whose ideas created today's world of communications, from the Victorian scientists and mathematicians to the engineers of the 21st century. It shows the impact of each innovation upon the modern world of communications technology, and looks to the future for innovations to come. The author was a principal player in the development of 20th-century telecommunications engineering.