This article is about British mathematician Donald Davies who conceived of the idea of network "Packet Switching".
"The insight of Dr Davies and his team was to slice data, be that a chat on the phone, an e-mail or a picture, into separate pieces or packets. These are then put on the network and rely on the intelligence of nodes in the network to help them wend their way to their destination. Once there they are re-assembled into the right order."
I first read about Davies in the book "Where Wizards Stay Up Late" which tells the story of the pioneers behind the creation of Arpanet, the precursor to the internet. It's a great read. I highly recommend it.
