Adapted from "A Brief History of Technical Communication"
by Frederick M. O'Hara, Jr.

Ancient Times
Scientific observations and technological developments were recorded in early writings and transmitted orally and through example (as in apprenticeships).  These writings were numerous among scientific records of many ancient societies such as the Aztecs, Chinese, Egyptians, and Babylonians.

12th Century
A case can be made that the first software documentation writer was Muhammad idn Musa Al'Khowarizmi, a 12th century Tashkent cleric who developed the concept of writing a detailed process to be followed to achieve a goal: a manual, which is widely used in virtually all computer programming languages today.

14th Century
During the Renaissance, there was an explosion of inquiry and inventiveness in the fields of medicine, science, religion, mechanical arts, graphic arts, and literature.  Private funds underwrote scientific inquiry, with the payback for the patron's invenstment being the association of his (or her) name with the advance discovered.  Thus, written tracts and books—though difficult to prove—were vital to the commerce of ideas and led to the establishment of a series of universities.

15th Century
Midway in the 15th century, technology made a significant impact on the field of technical communication with the advent of the movable type printing press.  Books were now mass produced, and five new trades were established almost simultaneously: typefounding, printing, publishing, editing and bookselling. 

18th and 19th Century
In the 18th century, a major inpact was produced not by technology but by the introduction of the idea of the social system of science—the scientific journal.  The resulting increase in inventive activity was reflected by the continued growth of technical literature.  By the mid 19th century, the number of scientific journals exceeded 500 worldwide, and another genre was seen necessary to manage and delve into the literature.  Abstract journals, which consisted of indexes to the journal articles based on subject, author, chemical formula and another of other indicators, were needed to keep track of the advances.

In order to standardise the conduct of research, the scientific method was developed, which basically requires the researcher to:

1. state the problem
2. form a possible explanation/hypothesis
3. observe, experiment and record data
4. interpret the data
5. draw conclusions

Additionally, a technology was being developed that would revoluationize technical communication a century later: the electricfication of communication by researcher/inventors such as Helmholtz, Bell and Edision.

20th Century & beyond
Most advances in technology during the 20th century were products of the various wars.  Technical writing became recognized as a job title, if not a profession, during WWII as the techology and logistics of battle became complicated and required standardized procedures, definitions, descriptions, instructions, and training.  After the war, military (or "defense") support for science/technology continued to be strong and undergirded new connections and interdependencies among the government, industries and universities.

New goods entered the marketplace, based on the 1947 discovery by William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain of the transfer-resistance device—the transistor.  With these goods (both commercial and consumer oriented), came the need for documentation on their use, installation, maintenance, and integration.  This need opened up several new genres of technical communication: user manuals, quick reference guides, hardware installation manuals, and cheat sheets, to name a few.

More important for technical communicators, however, has been the effect on work practices that the electronic revolution has had.  Successively more powerful computers and more sophisticated software have increased the possibilities in the production of technical communications: computers allowed for quick correction to text, word-processing allowed the manipulation of the same, graphics packages prepared and altered illustrations, page-layout software produced camera-ready copy, and so on.