The Dead Media Notebook (35 page)

Source The Female Thermometer: 18
^th
-Century Culture and the Invention of the Uncanny by Terry Castle Oxford University Press, 1995 ISBN 0-19-508097-1

From Bruce Sterling

“Paris’ Pre-Lachaise cemetery was designed as a ‘walk-about cemetery,’ a notion based on the English-style gardens which were so fashionable during the Romantic era. It was established in 1804 in a 17 hectare park, and its layout was conceived by the architect Brongniart.

“It is here that the tomb of Etienne-Gaspard Robertson can be found, built several months after his death in 1837 and designed by Girardin, the architect.

“Very early on, Robertson developed a form of stage- show based on known light projection systems, such as Kircher’s lantern. It was an impressive spectacle for its time, using sophisticated effects. The theme of death particularly fascinated the public. More than death and its skeletons, however, Robertson was adept at making the most of the ‘resurrection’ theme, through the projection of portraits of the deceased, some of them public figures, or specially requested projections for inconsolable families. He made such virtual reincarnations credible through procedures which bore witness to his talent as a technician.

“Able to combine his knowledge as a man of science with his artistic sensibility, he has often been considered as one of the forerunners of cinema, indeed of the audio-visual media as a whole. He was a true director who knew how to use constantly updated special effects: the diffusion of incense, mysterious sound effects, the importance of light in reproducing the climatic effects of daylight, contre-jour, etc, and above all, the beginnings of a sound-track. with the help of a ventriloquist “able to make the dead speak” and the use of a harmonica with a high-pitched sound resulting from the chiming of glass bells.

“Robertson’s monument looks like an invitation to an ‘imaginary voyage.’ Although it has no chapel, it is imposing in size, measuring four metres in height. Two bas reliefs, located on the sides of the monument, evoke the physicist’s tumultuous life.

“The first is a reminder of Robertson the aerostat specialist. It shows a small boy, leaning on a safety barrier, watching attentively before a crowd of people as an aerostat lifts up into the sky.

“The second is more curious. Guarded by two owls, it depicts two symmetrical groups which appear to be confronting one another: a group representing the dead and another representing the living move back to make way for a floating winged skeleton playing a trumpet. This bas relief is anecdotal, evoking a scene from a phantasmagorical show.

“Unlike the surrounding tombs, there is no trace of a portrait of the physicist and the theme of death is given a high profile. Above the two bas reliefs and at the base of the half-draped sarcophagus which tops the monument, a row of young girls’ heads alternate with winged skulls. These somewhat disconcerting figures are a reminder of those unfailingly successful phantasmagorical themes wherein woman is a character representative of Love and Death, holding the secret of the great mystery of our origins. This is no longer the standardized image of the neo-classical woman, but a virtual image.

“Could the winged skeleton playing a trumpet, hovering above the scene of the last judgement, be a reference to the trumpet-playing automaton which Robertson liked so much? Or does it, in a wider sense, evoke the phantasmagorist’s attraction to automatons? Robertson had bought from the famous musician J. Maelzel a trumpet- playing android which could play as well as a musician. On the monument, the automaton has disappeared: he is nothing more than a skeleton, proving that even a machine can die and that the instrument alone survives, thanks to the universal nature of music.”

Source Etienne Gaspard Robertson at Pre Lachaise Cemetery by David Liot Muse des arts et mtiers: La Revue, Sept. 1994, n 8, p.57-61. MUSEE DES ARTS ET METIERS - 292, rue Saint-Martin - 75003 PARIS - FRANCE

From Greg Riker

“Throughout its history, the Postal Service enthusiastically has explored faster, more efficient forms of mail transportation. Technologies now commonplace, railroads, automobiles, and airplanes, were embraced by the Post Office Department at their radical birth, when they were considered new-fangled, unworkable contraptions by many.

“One such technology, however, remains only a footnote in the history of mail delivery. On June 8, 1959, in a move a postal official heralded as ‘of historic significance to the peoples of the entire world,’ the Navy submarine U.S.S. Barbero fired a guided missile carrying 3,000 letters at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida.

‘Before man reaches the moon,’ the official was quoted as saying, ‘mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles.’

“History proved differently, but this experiment with missile mail exemplifies the pioneering spirit of the Post Office Department when it came to developing faster, better ways of moving the mail.”

Source: US Postal Service,

From Tom Howe

Recently, 700 of these Laserfilm VideoDisc players turned up at a surplus firm for $39 each, postpaid in the continental US. These are new-in-the-box units that this firm is planning on stripping down for parts, if the units don’t sell intact. The units don’t include any software (two empty caddies are included), and I don’
t know where to find even a single disc to use for playback demonstration; but these units may be of interest to collectors of dead VideoDisc formats. I purchased one and the following notes reflect my observations.

The McDonnell Douglas Laserfilm VideoDisc Player This was the last and shortest-lived of the competing VideoDisc formats that emerged in the 1980’s.

It had the distinction of using ordinary photographic film as the playback medium. The film was cut in the shape of a 12” disc which was loaded into the player with a caddy, much like the RCA CED System.

Data was recorded on the disc as a spiral track of dots, which interrupted the laser beam as it was projected through the disc. Thus Laserfilm is a transmissive system rather than reflective, which is characteristic of the popular LaserDisc format.

The first unit was available in 1984, and the last was made in 1986, as this format was apparently never marketed successfully outside of McDonnell Douglas.

All of the players were very well-constructed industrial units, and featured an RS-232 port for external computer control.

McDonnell Douglas used multiple units running in unison for flight simulation. The commercial failure of this format is somewhat surprising, since the use of photographic film, disc mastering and replication was supposed to be much simpler than competing VideoDisc formats.

Indeed, the duplicate discs were merely photographic inverses of the masters. The masters used dark dots on a transparent background, whereas the replicas used transparent dots on a black background. The players were unique in being able to play either a replica or the original master, although to play the master it had to be loaded in the caddy with the label side facing down.

The playback time was limited to 18 minutes of full motion video per disc, and perhaps this was its major downfall. Competing formats were capable of 60 minutes of video per side, or 120 minutes total per disc.

The discs were recorded in CAV format, and could produce 33,200 still frames, 42 hours of compressed audio, or 36 hours of Still-with-Sound (assuming 28.6 seconds of compressed sound per frame).

Source: LASERFILM VideoDisc Player LFS-4400 Operating Instructions, 1986 McDonnell Douglas Electronics Co., Box 426, St. Charles, Missouri 63301

From Robert Spaun

“In early 1967 the four-track cartridge was controlling the industry with Bill Lear and his 8-track format waiting in the wings to become the ‘format of choice’ for the next decade of pre-recorded taped music.

“Enter Frank Stanton, innovator of the 2-track PlayTape system. Stanton conceived the compact 2-track system in the 1940’s war years, when he served in the Navy. Sears and MGM records bought the first working model.

“The machine was unveiled to the general public at an MGM Records distributor meeting in New York in mid- 1966. It was almost instantly a success. PlayTape was touted as a replacement to the transistor radio with the disc jockey removed. It was a light little machine, playing whatever music you wanted to hear . The self- winding tapes played from eight to 24 minutes, and they played anywhere. Quite an accomplishment in 1967!

“Stanton felt that Playtape was a ‘standard system- not competitive with anybody. We have our own niche, from $1.00 - $3.00 retail cartridges, from mono to stereo, from the Beatles and Sinatra to Shakespeare and poetry.’ He would be proven wrong.

“The first two PlayTape units offered were a $19.95 unit sold by Sears exclusively, and an MGM model (retailing at $29.95) that had tone controls and a better speaker. Stanton had in mind over 15 different models to be available in 1967, home tabletop models featuring hi- fi speakers, an auto hang-on unit, a wide variety of portable units and special stereo models.

“Units were cheaply made, sounded like you would expect a 3” speaker to sound and were troubled with the same crosstalk, azimuth problems of the 8-track.

“In addition to musical entertainment, Stanton had the business market in mind for the PlayTape system as well. He introduced a special dictating device for the business market which he envisioned as a replacement for written memos and letters. His idea was marketed to the Smith Corona Corporation and called the Mail Call Letter Pack.

“The units that recorded the messages were advertised at ‘less than $70.00 a pair.’ Letter Pack cartridges were offered in 3, 6, or 10 minute lengths and were reusable. Even though the idea was a forerunner of the IBM dictating machine and to some extent the Internet and E-mail, the concept did not take off and music is still the medium for which PlayTape is remembered.

“
In September of 1967, PlayTapes were distributed in five distinctive color cartridges in the following categories:

Black cartridge = equivalent to a 4-song EP, $1.49
Blue cartridge = children’s albums = $1.00-$1.50
White cartridge = 8 songs like an LP, $2.98
Gray cartridge = talk and educational = $1.00-$1.50

“In its heyday of 1967 and 1968, the personalities in the PlayTape inventory reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ in the entertainment world. In the popular music category were such greats as Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Connie Stevens, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Wayne Newton, Judy Garland, Nancy Wilson, Petula Clark, Connie Francis, Ella Fitzgerald, Edie Gorme, Steve Lawrence and hundreds of others.

“The rock n roll category includes such names as the Beatles, the Animals, the Supremes, the Lovin’ Spoonful, the Grateful Dead, the Mamas and Papas, the Righteous Brothers, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder.

“Also in the PlayTape inventory were the standards - Herb Alpert, Sergio Mendes and an assortment of current Country music hit artists. The total number of artists available on PlayTape at the beginning of 1968 was over 3,000!

“A big boost to the PlayTape format was a contract in April of 1967 to license the entire Motown catalog. Previously, Motown had only once licensed their entire catalog, to Ampex in the open-reel format. Another boost was a contract with Pepsi to promote the youth market. Pepsi offered a PlayTape unit for $12.95 plus 6 cork liners from Pepsi cans. Pepsi promotion increased the sale of PlayTape cartridges almost twofold.

“The PlayTape format targeted two distinct markets = the youth music market and the business market. For whatever reasons, the business market never took hold. The music market enjoyed a limited success. The PlayTape was limited to two tracks, and even though there were several car units, they never really targeted the car audio market as did Mr. Muntz and Mr. Lear.

“Both of these factors helped lead to Playtape’s of educational and business fields, rather than entertainment. LearJet and Muntz both introduced portable players for their formats in the late 1960’s, which stripped PlayTape of its unique portability selling point. Consumers had to commit to a uniform format, and PlayTape was not to be the choice.

“PlayTape did however enjoy several more years in the limelight in Europe, most notably Germany.

Source: Web article by Lynn Fuller

From George H. Brett II

“Three-dimensional maps of coastlines were carved of wood as long as three hundred years ago. These Inuit charts were usually carved from driftwood and are made to be felt rather than looked at.

“Usually the actual landmass has been highly abstracted, it is the edges that can be ‘fingered’ on a dark night in a kayak. Since they are made of wood rather than paper, they are impervious to the weather, and will float if they are accidentally dropped overboard; being three-dimensional they are more functional in terms of accurately rendering shorelines to people in boats or kayaks.”

There is an illustration of two of the wood maps on page 231. This section has an interesting preamble about Inuit spatial sensibilities and how they relate to their sense of direction.

As Papanek says: “This radically different orientation system has been cited by both Marshall McLuhan and Edmund Carpenter as a result of Inuit living in an aural, acoustic, non-linear bubble of space, in a society that is moving directly from a pre-literate to a post-literate (electronic) mode, and has not be moulded by linear thinking.

Source: Papanek, Victor. The Green Imperative: natural design for the real world. Thames and Hudson, 1995. ISBN 0-500-27846-6.

From Stefan Jones

Thomas Alva Edison was indisputably the inventor of the phonograph, and the first major manufacturer of these machines.