The Dead Media Notebook (42 page)

“In 1856, the results were conclusive enough for the Grand Duke of Tuscany to take an interest in Caselli’s invention and, the following year, Caselli went to Paris where he was to be given decisive help by the famous inventor and mechanical engineer Paul Gustave Froment, to whom he had been recommended by Foucault, who had already entrusted Caselli with the task of making his pendulum.

“Once completed, the final device met with unequivocal enthusiasm from the Parisian scientific world and a Pantelegraph Society was created to prepare its exploitation.

“What is more, the Emperor Napoleon III himself, passionately interested in mechanics and modern inventions, visited Froment’s workshops on May 10
^th
1860 to watch a demonstration of the device. The enthusiastic Emperor gave Caselli access to the lines he needed in order to continue his experiments in Paris, from the

Froment workshops to the Observatory. Then, in November of the same year, a telegraphic line was also allocated to Caselli between Paris and Amiens to enable a real inter- city experiment, which was apparently a total success.

“Caselli had in fact managed to eliminate the last remaining fault in his machine by making the synchronization timers independent of the current relayed by the telegraphic line itself, which was too sensitive to atmospheric disturbances.

“The French press was brimming with laudatory articles on the pantelegraph, while the top brass from high society and the scientific and administrative worlds hurried along to Froment’s workshops to find out about the new process. In September 1861, King Victor-Emmanuel invited Caselli and his machines to a series of triumphant demonstrations at the Florence Exhibition.

“Finally, in 1863, the French Legislature and Council of State adopted texts authorizing the official exploitation of an initial line between Paris and Marseille, while across the Channel, Caselli obtained authorization for the experimental use of a line between London and Liverpool over a four-month period.”

“However, the Pantelegraph Society did not prove equal to the market which was apparently opening up and, failing to undertake any energetic promotion of the device, was content to wait passively for its capital to be remunerated via the flood of orders which were supposed to pour in from all over the world.

“In Italy, after an initially euphoric reception, the sluggishness of the administration and haughtiness of ministers led Caselli to give up any further development of his invention. In France, he clashed with the Telegraphs administration which, fearing competition with its ordinary telegraphic network, refused to lower the tariff for handwritten dispatches, which were nevertheless prohibitive, and even advised taxing such dispatches at a higher rate than ordinary ones.

“When the pantelegraph appeared, France was in fact in the process of setting up a complete telegraphic network, using the Hugues, Morse and then Baudot systems, replacing the former Chappe optical telegraph, which had been experimented since 1792. More than just a technical step forward, a qualitative transformation in the use of the telegraph system was underway.

“What had until then been an instrument of the governing powers and the stock exchange, was about to establish itself as a relatively commonplace means of communication, conveying a variety of urgent yet trivial pieces of news such as births, deaths, marriages or tourist hotel reservations. Because it had previously been limited to two powerful forces requiring extreme rapidity and perfect secrecy, the State and Finance, the Chappe telegraph had quickly become a myth within French society.

“What is more, popular literature glorified the telegraph’s somewhat worrying and imperial vocation in this respect as, for example, in Alexander Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, or in the chronicles of the would- be-poet Barthelemy. The myth of instantantaneousness at the exclusive service of the government or the banking sector was about to become outdated at the very time when Caselli thought he was reaching his goal.

“Designed to transmit images, the pantelegraph, like today’s fax, was perfectly able to transmit written texts correctly. However, whether conscious or not, there was a general refusal to allow it any other other role than the transmission of a banking signature or a trademark, since this was the only system capable of doing so, and the administration went on to ensure it was gently stifled out of existence.

“Any innovation strategy contains a great many traps, not the least of which is indeed to become fascinated to the extent of being hemmed in by the new technology contained within a given invention and which distinguishes it from all other existing processes, to the ultimate detriment of its flexibility of use and any real possibilities of development.

“In this respect, the pantelegraph adventure was all the more remarkable given that a tremendous short-cut was almost taken in the history of telecommunications at the time when its destiny was at stake in Paris. Indeed, in 1863, two top civil servants from the Chinese Empire requested a demonstration at the Froment workshops and could not hide their amazement and admiration in the face of an invention which, in one swoop, solved the tricky problem of the telegraphic transmission of ideograms.

“In 1884, fairly far-reaching negotiations appear to have taken place between China and Italy with the aim of carrying out experiments on the Caselli pantelegraph in Peking, but these were not followed up. However, this particular use of the telegraph, anticipated very early on by Caselli, was taken up much later by the Japanese, to whom we owe the massive diffusion of the fax.

“Today, pantelegraphs lie dormant in a few rare museums. Those kept at the Musee National des Techniques were given another chance to prove their reliability in 1961, between Paris and Marseille, during the commemoration of the first tests, and in 1982, at the Postal Museum in Riquewihr, where they operated faultlessly, six hours a day, for several months.”

Source: Caselli’s Pantelegraph by Julien Feydy.- Musee des arts et metiers La Revue, June 1995, n 11, p.50-57.

From Bruce Sterling

[This World Wide Web article was first published in CONNEXION, the quarterly trade magazine of Ericsson Corporation, a Swedish multinational telecommunications company]

“While Queen Victoria never actually said, ‘I’ll drop you a fax,’ she might well have done so if the history of telecommunications had taken a slightly different turn. The principle for facsimile transmission over wires was first patented as early as 1843, seven years after the invention of the electric telegraph, by Scottish psychologist Alexander Bain.

“Bain himself never performed a fax transmission, but it is clear from his patent application for ‘improvements in producing and regulating electric currents and improvements in timepieces and in electric printing and signal telegraphs,’ that his invention made facsimile transmission entirely feasible.

“Bain’s invention used two electric pendulums, one at each end of the wire. Each of the pendulums was made to oscillate synchronously over a rotating roll. The sender wrote the text of his message using an electrically conductive material, then wrapped the message round the roll. As the pendulum swung over the paper, the transmitting needle picked up impulses where there was text, but no impulse where there was a gap in the text. At the other end of the line, the receiving needle made marks on photosensitive paper corresponding to the signals from the sending needle, thus reproducing the text being transmitted.

“Proof that Bain’s principle was sound was eventually provided by Frederick Blakewell, an English physicist, who demonstrated a working facsimile machine at the World Exhibition of 1851, the largest exhibition of new technology ever held. His device was based on the same principle as Bain’s design, also using rotating cylinders and styluses for recording and writing. So Queen Victoria could indeed have sent a fax, had she been so inclined, when she visited the exhibition in the huge Crystal Palace!”

Source: The fax boom that came a century late by by Lars Fimmerstad, ERICSSON CONNEXION

From Richard Kadrey

[Note how much of the hype in this 1938 article mirrors what we hear today about the Web]

“Your Newspaper By Radio!

“A private newspaper with any spot in your home as the press room, the world’s best editors and reporters on your staff, and the radio as your copy boy, this is not the dream of Jules Verne, but an actual accomplishment, available today to anyone in the United States owning an ordinary radio receiver.

“No thundering press will deafen you when your paper is printed, but instead, equipment contained in a small attractive box, will silently print your ‘latest edition’ while you sleep, completing it in time for breakfast.

“Facsimile transmitters have been announced by two manufacturers, Finch Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., of New York City, and RCA Victor, of Camden, N.J.

“Predicted to be in wide-spread use within the year, many large broadcast stations have started tests with the system, and actual broadcasts on a definite schedule will be an accomplished fact as soon as these test are completed. Of great significance is the fact that the Federal Communications Commission has granted broadcasters permission to operate the facsimile equipment on the regular broadcast frequencies.

“Translated into actual use, this means that when the householder is through listening to his favorite station, he merely turns a switch which will, at the correct time, again turn on the radio for reception of the same station, but this time instead of sounds emitting from the loudspeaker, an up-to-the-minute newspaper will unfold.

“At present one of the largest eastern broadcast stations, WOR, is supplying this type of transmission, though not yet on a regular schedule. It is being done both on the regular broadcast channels as well as on the ultra-short waves. Plans are underway for regular service of facsimile transmissions early this spring.

“Along other stations that have received FCC permission to make facsimile broadcasts are WGN, Chicago; KSD, St. Louis; WHO, Des Moines; WGH, Norfolk, VA; WHK, Cleveland; KSTP, St. Paul; KMJ, Fresno, and KFPK, Sacramento.

“The facsimile recorder will be sold at a price no higher than the average good broadcast receiver. When production is increased the price is expected to be reduced to that of the average medium priced midget receiver. With the exception of the recorder, no special equipment is required except the broadcast receiver itself.

“This new medium of entertainment and education is not to be confused with television, differing most widely from it in that its operation produces tangible newspaper on which appears the printed word, photographs, drawings, sketches and even advertisement. As the newspaper is produced, it can be removed from the machine and preserved if desired, differing from the conventional type only in size.

“Briefly, the operation of the transmitter and recorder is as follows:

“The copy to be transmitted, whether it is pictures, news flashes, line drawings or comic strips, involves no special printing or preparation because the material itself can be inserted directly into the transmitter. An electric bulb, throwing a spot of light, moves back and forth across the copy top be transmitted. This action is similar to that of the human eye as it sweeps from left to right across a line of type.

“In its movement across the copy, the spot of light is reflected back into a light-sensitive photo-electric cell. When the scanning light strikes the white portions of the copy, it returns a full reflection to the light- sensitive cell. When it strikes a black area, no light is reflected, while for the shaded areas, a corresponding reflection is obtained.

“Because of the action of intermittent light at the cell, these reflections are changed into electrical energy or impulses. At the receiver or recorder, these impulses operate a stylus sweeping in synchronism with the scanning of the transmitter.”

Source: Tim Onosko, Wasn’t the Future Wonderful?, Dutton (pp. 92-93); reprint of article from Modern Mechanix, May 1938

From Richard Kadrey

[The articles in the book were taken from Modern Mechanics magazine articles published between 1930-37. Unfortunately, few of the individual articles carry a date, so it’s hard to pinpoint the exact year —RK]

“Television Shown In Theaters

“Television in theaters, already a success in England, may soon entertain American audiences. Just opened in a New York office building, a demonstration ‘theater’ exhibits the Baird system used abroad, which throws brilliant images as large as fifteen by twenty feet upon the screen. Installed in a number of British theaters, it offers televised news scenes to supplement regular movie shows, and all-television shows of major sporting events.

“Occupying the center of the theater, the projection booth contains all the essential apparatus and controls, except for a special receiving aerial on the roof and high-tension power supply from a 50,000 volt rectifier. One of its two receiver-projectors serves as a stand-by, in case of tube failure, while the other is in operation. Each set employs twenty-seven tubes, including a cathode- ray tube of new design, whose intensely bright four-by- five-inch image is magnified by the projection lens. From the same booth, the operator controls the accompanying sound and all the stage lights.”

Source: Tim Onosko, Wasn’t the Future Wonderful?, Dutton (p. 88)

From Richard Kadrey

“Television in Three Dimensions

“A device which can produce a 360 degree picture by television through a stereoscope scanner has been invented by Leslie Gould, a radio engineer of Bridgeport, Connecticut. With Mr. Gould’s television system it is possible to televise a boxing match, a play, an orchestra, or any other spectacle whose scene of action can be compressed into a reasonable space.

“The new invention makes use of neon tubes of various sizes and colors, depending upon the magnitude of the image. The spot on which the television subject is located is scanned by beams from two rotating arms, as shown in the drawing above.[Note: imagine an elongated two-vane ceiling fan.-R.K.]. At the extremity of each arm is a scanning drum containing a photo electric cell, which picks up images to be televised.