The Dead Media Notebook (44 page)

[The Videomat looks like the box a magician might use to stick swords through an assistant, with the sideways video screen about eye level. On top are two headlamps that wouldn’t look out of place on the rollbar of a 4X4 truck. The photo shows a modish woman smiling at the image of herself posing. ]

[ The Videomat is a relic of the days when seeing oneself on a video screen was still a novelty. A cartoon from the 1964/1965 World’s Fair Official Souvenir Book shows a boy at the RCA pavilion.

“Look here, son,” says the host, “You’ve been lost five times, today alone. How about letting some other kids get a crack at being on color TV?” And today we appear on video when we buy a Big Gulp.]

Source: Popular Science, May 1966 (Picture News, Page 87)

From Paul Di Filippo

[Bruce Sterling remarks: Paul Di Filippo was kind enough to send me this one-volume technical compendium from 1900 A.D., and it is a veritable brass mine of dead media. The beautiful period etchings (sadly mixed with blurry, up-to- date photos), are especially impressive, and the work now has a signal place of honor on my dead media reference shelf. The turn of a century seems to inspire technical writers to great flights of summary fancy, and Edward W. Byrn’s deep-breathing peroration on the telegraph rivals the writing of John Perry Barlow.]

“Of all the inventions which man has called into existence to aid him in the fulfillment of his destiny, none so closely resembles man himself in his dual quality of body and soul as the telegraph. It too has a body and soul. We see the wire and the electro-magnet, but not the vital principle which animates it. Without its subtile, pulsating, intangible spirit, it is but dead matter. But vitalized with its immortal soul it assumes the quality of animated existence, and through its agency thought is extended beyond the limitations of time and space, and flashes through the air and sea throughout the world.

“Morse’s first model, his pendulum instrument of 1837, is illustrated in Fig. 5. A pendulum carrying a pencil was in constant contact with a strip of paper drawn beneath the pencil. As long as inactive the pencil made a straight line. The pendulum also carried an armature, and an electro-magnet was placed near the armature. A current passed through the magnet would draw the pendulum to one side. On being released the pendulum would return, and in this way zigzag markings, as shown at 4 and 5, would be produced on the strip of paper, which formed the alphabet. A different alphabet, known as the Morse Code, was subsequently adopted by Morse...”

“The alphabet consisted simply of an arrangement of dots and dashes in varying sequence. The register is an apparatus operated by the combined effects of a clock mechanism and an electro-magnet. Under a roll, see Fig. 8, a ribbon of paper is drawn by the clockwork. A lever having an armature on one end arranged over the poles of an electro-magnet, carries on the other end a point or stylus. When an electric impulse is sent over the line the electro-magnet attracts the armature, and the stylus on the other end of the lever is brought into contact with the paper strip, and makes an indented impression. A short impulse gives a dot, and a long impulse holds the stylus against the paper long enough to allow the clock mechanism to pull the paper under the stylus and make a dash.

“the Morse register has been practically abandoned, as no expert telegrapher requires the visible evidence of the code, but all rely now entirely on the sound-click of the electromagnet placed in the local circuit and known as a sounder, the varying time length of gagps between the clicks serving every purpose of rapid and intelligent communication.”

[Note that the telegraph’s early hard-copy peripheral was simply tossed aside as useless!]

“The invention of the telegraph has been claimed for Steinheil, of Munich, and also for Cooke and Wheatstone, in England, but few will deny that it is to Prof. Morse’s indefatigable energy and inventive skill, with the preliminary work of Prof. Henry, that the world to-day owes its great gift of the electric telegraph, and with this gift the world’s great nervous forces have been brought into an intimate and sensitive sympathy.”

Source: The Progress of Invention in the 19
^th
Century by Edward W. Byrn Munn and Co., Publishers, Scientific American Office, 361 Broadway, New York 1900

From Paul Di Filippo

[We continue quoting from this valuable pop-science tome from 1900, so kindly sent us by noted futurist and antiquarian Paul Di Filippo:]

“...When practical telegraphic communication was solved by Henry, Morse, and others, further advances in various directions were made. Efforts to increase the rapidity in sending messages soon grew into practical success, and in 1848 Bain’s Chemical Telegraph was brought out. (U. S. Pats. No. 5,957, Dec 5, 1848, and No. 6,328, April 17, 1849.) This employed perforated strips of paper to effect automatic transmission by contact made through the perforations in place of the key, while a chemically prepared paper at the opposite end of the line was discolored by the electrical impulses to form the record. This was the pioneer of the automatic system which by later improvements is able to send over a thousand words a minute.

“The duplex telegraph was invented by Dr. William Gintl, of Austria, in 1853, and was afterwards improved by Carl Frischen, of Hanover, and by Joseph B. Stearns, of Boston, Mass, who in 1872 perfected the duplex (U. S. Pats No. 126,847, May 14, 1872, and No. 132,933, Nov. 12, 1872). This system doubled the capacity of the telegraphic wire, and its principle of action permits messages sent from the home station to the distant station to have no effect on the home station, but full effect on the distant station, so that the operators at the opposite ends of the line may both telegraph over the same wire. This system has been further enlarged by the quadruplex system of Edison, which was brought out in 1874 (and subsequently developed in U. S. Pat No. 209,241, Oct. 22, 1878). This enabled four messages to be sent over the same wire at the same time, and is said to have increased the value of the Western Union wires $15,000,000.

“In 1846 Royal C. House invented the printing telegraph, which printed the message automatically on a strip of paper, something after the manner of the typewriter (U.S. Pat. No. 4,464, April 18, 1846). The ingenious mechanism involved in this was somewhat complicated, but its results in printing the message plainly were very satisfactory. This was the prototype of the familiar “ticker” of the stock broker’s office, seen in Figs 10 and 11. In 1856 the Hughes printing telegraph was brought out (U.S. Pat. No. 14,917, May 20, 1856), and in 1858 G. M. Phelps combined the valuable features of the Hughes and House systems (U.S. Pat. No. 26,003, Nov. 1, 1859).

“Facsimile telegraphs constitute another, although less important branch of the art. These accomplished the striking result of reproducing the message at the end of the line in the exact handwriting of the sender, and not only writing, but exact reproductions of all outlines, such as maps, pictures, and so forth, may be sent. The fac simile telegraph originated with F. C. Bakewell, of England, in 1848 (Br. Pat. No. 12,352, of 1848).

“The Dial Telegraph is still another modification of the telegraph. In this the letters arranged in a circular series, and a light needle or pointer, concentrically pivoted, is carried back and forth over the letters, and is made to successively point to the desired letters.”

Source: The Progress of Invention in the 19
^th
Century by Edward W. Byrn Munn and Co., Publishers, Scientific American Office, 361 Broadway, New York 1900

From Paul Di Filippo

“Among other useful applications of the telegraph is the fire alarm system. In 1852 Channing and Farmer, of Boston, Mass, devised a system of telegraphic fire alarms, which was adopted in the city of Boston (U.S. Pat. No 17,355, May 19, 1857), and which in varying modifications has spread through all the cities of the world, introducing that most important element of time economy in the extinguishment of fires. Hundreds of cities and millions of dollars have thus been saved from destruction.

“Similar applications of local alarms in great numbers have been extended into various departments of life, such as District Messenger Service, Burglar Alarms, Railroad-Signal Systems, Hotel Annunciators, and so on.” [Bruce Sterling remarks: It seems to me little appreciated that the telegraph as a species radiated into many specialized niches. Fire alarms and burglar alarms might be better described as “networks of sensors” rather than “media” per se, but these alarm systems were technically impossible before the telegraph, and their economic scope and influence on society must have been huge. I confess I have no idea what a “District Messenger Service” may have been. The deeply symbiotic relationship of railways and telegraphs is a subject worthy of close study. Dead forms of “hotel annunciator” still await the Necronaut who can resurrect this modest but intimate medium.]

Source: The Progress of Invention in the 19
^th
Century by Edward W. Byrn Munn and Co., Publishers, Scientific American Office, 361 Broadway, New York 1900

From Paul Lindemeyer

[Bruce Sterling writes; Dead forms of ‘hotel annunciator’ still await the Necronaut who can resurrect this modest but intimate medium.’

You asked for it. The annunciator, an American invention of the 1830s, was designed to replace the old system of manually ringing bells to summon servants. It was intended for large urban hotels with many rooms, where hand bell ringing would obviously have been impractical. As it operated in New York’s opulent St. Nicholas Hotel, built in 1853, each guest room was equipped with a push button and a dial. The dial’s pointer could be turned to read Ice Water, Bellhop, Room Service, etc. Guests turned the dial to the service type desired and pushed the button. At the front desk, a buzz tone was heard and a metal disc dropped to the bottom of a case filled with discs for all the various rooms. Each disc had a room number and a service type stamped in it, i.e., “MAKE UP 405.” The appropriate servant would then be dispatched. The first annunciators had only one disc per room (and no dials), the guest making the request verbally when a servant arrived. By the 1850s the system had been refined for the even greater convenience of hotel patrons.

Source: Charles Lockwood, MANHATTAN MOVES UPTOWN (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1976)

From Bruce Sterling

“Telegraphing by induction, i.e., without the mechanical connection of a conducting wire, is another of the developments in telegraphy in recent years, and finds application to telegraphing to moving railway trains. When an electric current flows over a telegraph line, objects along its length are charged at the beginning and end of the current impulse with a secondary charge, which flows to the earth if connection is afforded. It is the discharge of this secondary current from the metal car roof to the ground which, on the moving train, is made the means of telegraphing without any mechanical connection with the telegraph line along the track.

“ a rapid series of impulses, caused by the vibrator of an induction coil, is made to produce buzzing tones of various duration representing the alphabet, and these tones are received upon a telephone instead of a Morse register.
“In 1881 William W. Smith proposed the plan of communicating between moving cars and a stationary wire by induction (U. S. Pat. No. 247,127, Sept 13, 1881). Thomas A. Edison, L. J. Phelps, and others have further improved the means for carrying it out. In 1888 the principle was successfully employed on 200 miles of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.” [Bruce Sterling remarks: Inductive telegraphy, being wireless, would seem to have been a precursor of radio (“wireless telegraphy”). Note the use of telephone receivers, which produced specialized buzzes instead of Morse code. Inductive telegraphy, used only on moving trains (and requiring a moving train in order to produce its signal) is another striking example of the symbiosis of telegraphs and railroads.]

Source The Progress of Invention in the 19
^th
Century by Edward W. Byrn Munn and Co., Publishers, Scientific American Office, 361 Broadway, New York 1900

From Bruce Sterling

“In place of writing they used some strands of cord or thin wool strings, like the ones we use to string rosaries; and these strings were called quipos. By these recording devices and registers they conserved the memory of their acts, and the Inca’s overseers and accountants used them to remember what had been received or consumed.

A bunch of these quipos served them as a ledger or notebook. The quipos consisted of diverse strings of different colors, and on each string there were several knots. These were figures and numbers that meant various things. Today many bunches of very ancient quipos of diverse colors with an infinite number of knots are found. On explaining their meaning, the Indians that know them relate many things about ancient times that are contained in them.

There were people designated for this job of accounting. These officials were called quipos camayos, and they were like our historians, scribes, and accountants, and the Incas had great confidence in them.

These officials learned with great care this way of making records and preserving historical facts. However, not all of the Indians were capable of understanding the quipos; only those dedicated to this job could do it; and those who did not study quipos failed to understand them. Even among the quipo camayos themselves, one was unable to understand the registers and recording devices of others. Each one understood the quipos that he made and what the others told him.

There were different quipos for different kinds of things, such as for paying tribute, lands, ceremonies, and all kinds of matters pertaining to peace and war. And the quipo camayos customarily passed their knowledge on to those who entered their ranks from one generation to the next. The quipo camayos explained to the newcomers the events of the past that were contained in the ancient quipos as well as the things that were added to the new quipos; and in this way they explain everything that that transpired in this land during all the time that the Incas governed.