Internet archive: a treasure trove of digital nostalgia

© Mark Ollig 

The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine is an incredible tool that many people, including me, rely on to explore past website content.

The archive, which has been storing data from 1996 to the present, is used by researchers, journalists, educators, and anyone curious about early website content.

Recently, while talking with my youngest son, Andrew, we reminisced about his time participating on the St. Cloud Technical College robotics team during the Feb. 9 and 10, 2008, Midwest Robotics Competition in Sears Court at the Mall of America.

Students honed their programming and robotics skills by designing, building, testing, repairing, and operating radio-controlled “battlebots” for arena competitions.

During the Midwest Robotics championship, two 15-pound radio-controlled motorized battlebots, “Humdinger 2” and “Chucker,” with aluminum frames and titanium hulls, competed.

The battlebots chased, circled, and repeatedly slammed into each other at high speeds within the specially constructed polycarbonate arena, causing showers of white sparks to fly from their titanium exteriors.

The championship match ended with the judges declaring Humdinger 2 the winner when Chucker stopped operating due to a broken drive belt.

After graduating from St. Cloud Technical College, Andrew served as a judge for the robotic battlebot competitions at the Mall of America for two years.

I attended that 2008 competition and also interviewed Deb Holmes, the director of the Midwest Robotics League, for a future column.

Unfortunately, after 16 years, that column is no longer archived on the newspaper’s website.

The Internet Archive, home of the Wayback Machine, is an online repository of internet and web content.

Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat co-founded it in 1996 as a digital “library of everything.”

They employed automated web crawlers to archive web pages, capturing snapshots at precise times, which are timestamped.

The Wayback Machine reflects past efforts to store and organize human knowledge.

In the early 20th century, Belgians Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine conceived a “world center of knowledge” in Brussels, which they called the Mundaneum.

The Mundaneum was a central repository for gathering and categorizing the world’s information, making it available to all.

Despite the loss of a sizable portion of the Mundaneum’s physical collection during World War II, its legacy lives on through the Wayback Machine’s efforts to preserve information digitally online.

The Wayback Machine has digitally archived 866 billion web pages, continuing the spirit of the Mundaneum by providing freely available online access to information.

The web has existed for just more than 31 years, and many early websites and webpage links have disappeared due to what is known as “digital decay” and “link rot.”

Many of us have encountered a “404 error,” meaning the requested webpage cannot be found due to reasons like content deletion, website closure, changes in the webpage’s address, or temporary technical issues.

A recent study by Pew Research found that 38% of web pages since 2013 are now unavailable.

Broken links are present on 23% of news web pages and 21% of government website pages.

Moreover, 54% of Wikipedia pages have at least one broken link in their “References” section.

Fortunately, the Wayback Machine archives content from many past websites.

The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine gets its name from the WABAC (Wavelength Acceleration Bidirectional Asynchronous Controller) machine featured in “Peabody’s Improbable History,” a segment from the animated cartoon series “Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” (1959 to 1964).

In the cartoon, Mr. Peabody, a brilliant beagle, and his young human companion, Sherman, travel through time using the WABAC machine.

Although the WABAC is a fictional invention, its design was inspired by early commercial computers of the 1950s, such as the Remington Rand Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC I).

Beyond archiving web pages, today’s Wayback Machine digitally houses books, music, films, videos, images, artwork, media news broadcasts, and television programs. It also stores vintage software and games.

In 2007, I obtained a VHS tape of a 1971 Eugene McCarthy speech at Mankato State College.

The speech featured a CBS News interview by reporter Jeff Williams with a student named Tom Ollig.

I uploaded this video to the Internet Archive, where it remains today.

The Wayback Machine includes early websites like Napster, Microsoft, Apple, CNN, MTV, Geocities, Netscape, and Friendster.

Within the Wayback Machine, one can interact with earlier website designs and many of their working hyperlinks.

The Wayback Machine has preserved more than 66,453 web pages from the Herald-Journal website, dating back to Dec. 22, 1997.

To access archived web pages from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, go to archive.org/web and enter the website name in the search bar. Then click “browse history” to choose the date and time stamp of the archived website you want to view.

A calendar view of the website’s history displays the dates on which web crawler snapshots were captured.

It is important to note that not all websites are archived, and the dates of snapshots will vary.

Click a date and timestamp to view the page as it appeared at that moment in time. The controls at the top allow you to navigate through different snapshots.

The “Robotics League competes at Mall of America” column from Feb. 18, 2008, can be read at tinyurl.com/robotics2008 via the Wayback Machine.

As of January of this year, the Wayback Machine is reported to have archived over 99,000 terabytes of data and continues to grow.

Discover a treasure trove of digital nostalgia by visiting the Wayback Machine and Internet Archive.

Neil Stocker, Jeff Hallerman,
Ted Xu (who is holding one of the robots),
Andrew Ollig, and Rocky Hunter
2008 Midwest Robotics Competition
at the Mall of America.

Feb. 9, 2008
Midwest Robotics Competition
at the Mall of America.

Will the US electric grid handle AI’s growth?

© Mark Ollig 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming industries, yet the energy required to fuel it is often overlooked.

The electrical energy consumed in data centers powering AI platforms is enormous, pushing the limits of the nation’s energy infrastructure.

Data centers are needed to house the expansion of the digital network, which includes cloud computing platforms, data storage and processing, online content delivery, e-commerce, the Internet of Things (IoT), and the expanding use of AI applications.

The building of data centers is only going to increase. Data center energy consumption is on the rise due to AI-powered services from major tech companies like OpenAI (ChatGPT), Meta (Meta AI), Microsoft (Azure & Copilot), Google (Gemini), and Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is raising alarms about the stability of the nation’s electrical grid.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 70% of the nation’s transmission lines are over 25 years old, and the average age of large power transformers is over 40 years old. 

This growing demand underscores the urgent need for modernization of our aging grid infrastructure and expanded renewable energy use.

AI platforms housed in hyperscale data centers require substantial computational resources and energy, even when in an idle state and not actively processing tasks. 

Data centers need to operate continuously to support digital services’ always-on nature, which further increases their energy demands.

AI models generally consume more energy than data retrieval, streaming, and communication applications, which have been the mainstay of data center expansion in the last twenty years. 

For example, one Google search consumes an estimated 0.0003 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy, while one ChatGPT AI query reportedly uses 10 to 50 times more energy.

As of March, ChatGPT’s user base has surpassed 180.5 million, with an estimated 600 million monthly visits to use its services.

The Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) 2024 report predicts that integrating the large AI language models that Google plans to incorporate into its search engine could increase annual electricity consumption by 22.8 to 29.2 terawatt-hours (TWh).

EPRI estimates that by 2030, data centers could consume up to 9.1% of total U.S. electricity generation due to increasing AI demand.

“Today, fifteen states account for 80% of the national data center load, with data centers estimated to comprise a quarter of Virginia’s electric load in 2023,” states the 2023 U.S. Department of Energy report, “Powering Intelligence: Analyzing Artificial Intelligence and Data Center Energy Consumption.”

According to Statista, a leading provider of market and consumer data, as of March 2024, the U.S. led the world with 5,381 data centers, followed by Germany (521) and the United Kingdom (514).

In 2023, Minnesota had 45 data centers, 37 in the Twin Cities metro area, consuming an estimated 824,316 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity, about 1.24% of our state’s total energy consumption. 

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, recently announced plans to build an $800 million, 715,000-square-foot data center in Rosemount, Minnesota.

The AI-focused data center will occupy 280 acres of land at UMore Park, purchased from the University of Minnesota.

This data center, Meta’s 19th in the U.S., is planned to open in late summer 2025 and will support platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp.

Meta said it is committed to powering the data center with 100% renewable energy.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy reported in 2023 that Minnesota is among the top 10 states for data center growth.

The 2023 Minnesota Energy Factsheet reported a 33% increase in energy productivity from 2001 to 2023.

In 2023, renewable energy sources made up 33% of Minnesota’s electricity generation, with the total installed capacity reaching 6.8 GW.

Our state consumed 66 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2022.

Increased data center construction across the country will establish energy demands that some fear could overload local power grids, especially in densely populated areas. 

A 2023 McKinsey & Company report projects total U.S. data center power consumption in 2022 was 17.5 GW and could reach 35 GW by 2030.

On April 28, 2024, Goldman Sachs projected that the growing presence of AI models is expected to boost global data center power demand by 160% by the year 2030. The U.S. EIA’s 2023 Annual Energy Outlook report projected the following U.S. energy sources being used in 2024:

Natural gas: 37%

Nuclear: 18%

Coal: 17%

Wind: 12%

Solar: 9%

Hydropower: 3%

Biomass: 1%

Other: 3%

Although renewable energy usage is rising, coal and natural gas still account for 54% of U.S. electricity generation.

Some may remember when Northern States Power’s (NSP) Reddy Kilowatt told us electricity was “penny-cheap.”

In 2022, the national average residential electricity cost was 14.57 cents per kWh, with commercial businesses paying 12.55 cents and industries 11.66 cents.

In 2022, Minnesota’s average consumer electric rate was 11.98 cents/kWh.

A 2023 Datacenter Dynamics article stated that by 2027, AI-dedicated data centers could consume as much electricity as the Netherlands.

“Advances in energy-efficient computing will be critical… The energy demand of training increasingly large foundation [AI] models is not sustainable,” said the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2023 report, “Advanced Research Directions on AI for Energy,”

Will the US electric grid handle AI’s growth?

Stay tuned.

Future $800M data center which will open in Rosemount, MN 
Photo courtesy by META

A collaborative telegraph network

© Mark Ollig 

In 1832, Samuel Morse considered the making of an electric telegraph while on board a ship returning to New York City from Europe.

Despite lacking formal electrical training, from 1835 to 1836, Morse developed a working telegraph model that transmitted information via electrical pulses over a pair of wires, as using a single wire with an earth-ground return path was yet to be widely understood.

Early telegraphs used two wires to form a circuit: one to carry the electrical signal generated by the telegraph key and the other to provide a return path for the electrical current back to the battery, completing the circuit and allowing the signal to be transmitted.

Morse’s early model telegraphs used galvanic (or voltaic) cell batteries, which Alessandro Volta invented in 1800.

Each cell produced roughly one volt, but multiple cells were connected in series to achieve the higher voltage required for longer transmission distances.

In 1837, he collaborated with Alfred Vail to improve his telegraph for sending and receiving coded messages.

In addition, Vail’s family business, the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, NJ, was used to build improved telegraph models.

Morse collaborated with Leonard Gale, a science professor at New York University, whose expertise in electromagnetism helped overcome technical hurdles.

Gale’s suggestion to use an electromagnet at the receiving end significantly improved the telegraph’s ability to transmit signals over long distances.

Morse, Vail, and Gale demonstrated a working electromagnetic telegraph model at the Speedwell Iron Works Jan. 6, 1838, successfully transmitting coded signals over a distance of two miles.

Briefly pressing the steel telegraph key closes an electrical circuit, sending a pulse of current to the receiving telegraph.

A quick tap produces a short pulse (a dot), while a longer press generates a longer pulse (a dash).

These coded signals traveled through the telegraph wire to the receiver, also known as a register, where an electromagnet moved a stylus, marking the dots and dashes as indentations on a moving strip of paper.

This 1838 code, developed primarily by Vail, was a numerical code where each word was assigned a number, and the corresponding number was then transmitted using dots and dashes.

However, Vail would go on to refine this coded version into what became known as Morse code, the universal language of telegraphy.

Morse was granted US Patent No. 1,647 for the telegraph June 20, 1840.

In 1843, he secured $30,000 from the federal government to construct an experimental telegraph line between Washington DC and Baltimore, MD, a distance of nearly 40 miles.

Morse sought to demonstrate the viability of long-distance telegraphic communication.

The construction of the telegraph line began April 1, 1844.

The initial nine miles of wire, buried in lead pipes, quickly proved unsuitable as moisture seeped in, corroding the copper and disrupting the signal.

Underground wires were abandoned for overhead lines attached to some 700 chestnut poles spaced 300 feet apart along the B&O Railroad route.

Each pole supported two 16-gauge copper wires insulated with layers of cotton thread and shellac, with a beeswax and resin mixture in some sections providing additional protection.

Samuel Morse sent the first long-distance telegraph message, “What hath God wrought?” (Numbers 23:23), from the Supreme Court chamber in the US Capitol to Alfred Vail at the newly-established telegraph office within the B&O Railroad’s Mount Clare terminal station in Baltimore May 24, 1844.

Vail interpreted the indentations on the paper strip, translating Morse’s dots and dashes into the words they represented.

The 1844 Washington-Baltimore telegraph line relied on batteries comprised of multiple galvanic cells to power it.

While the specific battery type used in the line remains uncertain, Morse likely employed the Daniell cell (available since 1836) due to its stability and practicality.

Regardless of the specific type, dozens of cells connected in series would have been necessary to achieve the higher voltage required for the nearly 40-mile long-distance.

Early telegraph systems used two wires to complete the electrical circuit, one to carry the signal and another to return the current to the battery.

As the understanding of electrical principles evolved, including the realization that the earth itself could serve as a conductor, single-wire telegraph systems emerged later in the 19th century.

These single-wire systems, using the earth as an electrical return path, reduced the costs of installing and maintaining telegraph lines and expanded long-distance communication.

An improved telegraph with an electromagnet-activated armature “sounder” converted coded signals into audible clicks, enabling faster decoding and message transcription by the operator.

In June 1860, the US Congress passed the Pacific Telegraph Act, authorizing funding for a transcontinental telegraph line.

In August of that year, the Minnesota State Telegraph Co. connected St. Paul to Winona, expanding the telegraph network westward.

In November, the line reached Minneapolis.

The St. Paul Weekly Pioneer and Democrat newspaper published the “Latest News by Telegraph to St. Paul” column Dec. 28, 1860.

The Western Union Telegraph Company completed the transcontinental telegraph line Oct. 24, 1861, connecting the east and west coasts.

Leonard Dunnell Gale (1800 to 1883), Alfred Lewis Vail (1807 to 1859), and Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791 to 1872) collaborated on the development and successful deployment of the 19th-century telegraph network.

1837 Morse telegraph

Alexander Bain, the clockmaker who electrified time

© Mark Ollig 

Alexander Bain was born Oct. 12, 1810, in Wick, Scotland, and was known for his contributions to telegraphy technology.

He also invented the electric magnet clock, the focus of today’s column.

Bain, a self-taught engineer with limited formal education, started working as a clockmaker in London in 1837.

He furthered his knowledge of electricity and electromagnetism at the Polytechnic Institution for Science and Technology.

Bain regularly visited the London Adelaide Gallery, which displayed modern inventions.

“It was in the year 1837 that it occurred to me (while viewing the beautiful electromagnetic apparatus in motion at the Adelaide Gallery) that the same power might be used, with advantage, in working clocks,” Bain wrote in his 1852 book, “A Short History of the Electric Clocks.”

In 1840, Bain’s interest in merging horology, the art and science of timekeeping, with electromagnetism led him to develop the first clock using electric magnets.

Bain replaced the traditional weights and springs of a clock with an electromagnet to power the pendulum.

As the pendulum swung, it completed an electrical circuit, powering the electromagnet and establishing a continuous cycle that enhanced the clock’s time accuracy by eliminating the necessity for winding.

The elimination of weights and springs also lessened friction and wear, thereby extending the clock’s lifespan.

Bain’s electric magnet clock was powered by wet-cell batteries, a common type of battery in the 19th century that used liquid electrolytes (typically solutions of acids or salts) to enable the chemical reactions that produce electricity.

One example of a wet-cell battery is the Daniell cell, invented by British chemist John Frederic Daniell in 1836.

Daniell cells consisted of a copper container (cathode) with a copper sulfate solution and a porous pot containing a zinc rod (anode) in sulfuric acid or zinc sulfate solution.

The porous pot, a key component, allows ions to pass between the two half-cells, maintaining electrical neutrality and enabling a continuous flow of current.

The chemical reaction within the Daniell battery, housed in glass or ceramic cells, produced a stable 1.1-volt direct current, generating electromagnetic pulses that drove the pendulum’s swinging motion and regulated the clock’s timekeeping.

This battery technology was a significant advancement, demonstrating the potential of electricity to power a wide range of 19th-century devices, including Bain’s clock and telegraphs.

Bain initially favored wet-cell batteries for their power, but the high current they produced could corrode the metallic contact points in his clock, leading to interruptions in the electrical circuit.

To reduce corrosion and extend battery life, Bain augmented his clock with permanent magnets and coils, significantly reducing the required current and minimizing interruptions caused by damaged contact points.

Having overcome the battery challenge, Bain focused his efforts on further refining and developing his electric clock.

By July 1840, Bain had created preliminary models of electric magnet clocks and was actively seeking guidance on how to proceed forward with them.

After contacting William Baddeley, assistant editor of the Mechanics’ Magazine, a journal reporting on inventions and technical advances, Bain was advised to meet with Charles Wheatstone, a physics professor at King’s College, London.

They were introduced at the college Aug. 1, 1840, and met again Aug. 18 at Wheatstone’s home, where Bain brought his clock models.

When Bain demonstrated his electric magnet clock models, Wheatstone reportedly dismissed their potential.

In November 1840, Wheatstone exhibited a model of an electric clock before the Royal Society of London, claiming it was his invention – when it was actually Bain’s.

However, unbeknownst to Wheatstone, on Oct. 10, 1840, Bain had already applied for the first United Kingdom patent for an electric clock.

Alexander Bain received British Patent No. 8783 Jan. 11, 1841, for his innovative electric clock, which used electromagnetic impulses to power a pendulum.

The patent also noted collaborator John Barwise, a chronometer maker, who reportedly provided financial support for the invention.

To further improve his clock design, Bain proposed an “earth battery” that utilized the earth’s natural electrical potential by burying zinc and copper plates to produce a small electric current.

“I discovered that consistent currents could be drawn from the earth, eliminating the need for batteries entirely. This method has since been my preferred solution in all accessible locations,” Bain wrote in 1852.

He used the term “consistent currents” to describe the steady flow of electricity generated by running wires from the buried plates into his clocks, tapping into the earth’s natural power source.

“Telluric current” is the earth’s natural electrical flow, which Bain hoped to tap into.

He felt outdoor electric clocks were particularly well-suited for being powered by wires, zinc, and copper plates in the ground.

However, its usage was limited due to the soil’s unreliable electrical potential and geographical constraints, making widespread earth-battery use impractical.

Alexander Bain, the clockmaker who electrified time, died Jan. 2, 1877, and is buried in the Auld Aisle Cemetery in Kirkintilloch, Scotland.

The municipal council of Kirkintilloch added the following epitaph to his tombstone April 10, 1959: “He thought above himself and also helped to secure a great and better world.”

An 1845 model of Alexander Bain’s electric magnet clock.
This clock used electromagnets to power the pendulum.