The Dead Media Notebook Read online

  Table of Contents

  What is this book?

  The DEAD MEDIA Project: A Modest Proposal and a Public Appeal

  the Inca Quipu

  Chaucerian Virtual Reality

  The Milton Bradley Vectrex

  the Voice-Activated Typewriter of 1916

  Hotel Annunciator

  The Cyrograph

  the Scopitone

  dead computer languages

  artoc: The US Army’s portable pneumatic-tube powered multi-media system. in tents.

  The Magic Lantern; Peck & Snyder’s price list

  The scale of the Magic Lantern market

  anatomy of A Magic Lantern show

  Silent Film, Diorama, Panorama

  Leaflet grenades and the Monroe bomb

  software innovation in the Magic Lantern era

  mechanical encryption systems of the 1930s; The Comparator; the Rapid Selector

  The Experiential Typewriter

  Dead Cryptanalytic Devices of World War II

  Tongan Tin Can Mail

  Edison’s Electric Pen and early desktop publishing

  Military Telegraphy, Balloon Semaphore

  Mirror Telegraphy: The Heliograph, the Helioscope, the Heliostat, the Heliotrope

  The 17th century app store: Schott’s Organum Mathematicum

  Mobile phones using telegraph wires

  Pre wwII speech synthesis: The Voder, The Vocoder

  C. X. Thomas de Colmar’s Arithmometer

  Phonographic Dolls

  IBM Letterwriter

  the Zuse Ziffernrechner; the V1, Z1, Z2, Z3 and Z4 program-controlled electromechanical digital computers; the death of Konrad Zuse

  Dead Media 1897: The Consumer Context

  18TH CENTURY MULTIMEDIA: Loutherbourg’s Eidophusikon

  Karakuri; the Japanese puppet theater of Chikamatsu

  Dead memory systems

  Victorian talking pictures: the Kinetophone

  Clockwork wall animation—living pictures

  Skytale, the Spartan code-stick

  the pigeon post of ancient Sumer

  the pigeon post in the seige of paris

  the pigeon post in the seige of paris, part 2

  the pigeon post and the balloon post

  even more about the pigeon post

  Vidscan

  bootleg concert recordings of the 19th century, papier-mache records

  Kids’ Dead Media 1929: The Mirrorscope, the Vista Chromoscope, the Rolmonica, the Chromatic Rolmonica

  The Speaking Picture Book; squeeze toys that ‘speak’

  Refrigerator-Mounted Talking Note Pad

  The Experiential Typewriter

  Kids’ Dead Media 1937: the Auto-Magic Picture Gun

  The ‘writing telegraph;’ Gray’s Telautograph; the military telautograph; the telewriter; the telescriber

  The Heliograph AND the Heliotrope

  The Heliograph

  Russolo’s Intonarumori

  the Agfa Geveart Family Camera

  The CED Video Disc Player

  Eighteenth Century English mail hacks

  the pigeon post FROM THE SEIGE OF ACRE TO WWI

  Muybridge’s Zoopraxiscope

  the Player Piano

  Atari Video Music

  the Elcaset cartridge tape and player

  Bell Labs Half-Tone Television

  Popular Science 1932: Naumburg’s Visagraph, the Electric Eye Linotype, Ordering Music by Phone

  Piesse’s Smell Organ

  Scott’s Electronium

  Candle-Powered Radio

  Cahill’s Telharmonium

  Soviet bone music samizdat recordings

  The Talking View-Master

  Dead photographic processes

  The Luba Lukasa

  PhoneVision

  Sonovision

  Union telegraph balloons, Confederate microfilm

  Chase’s Electric Cyclorama

  Dead computational platforms

  the Optigan

  the Panorama

  Daguerre’s Diorama

  Known surviving panoramas

  Jenkins Radiovisor, Bell Picture Telephone, RGA/Oxberry CompuQuad,

  the theatrophone and the electrophone

  more on the theatrophone and electrophone

  Theatrophonic televangelism

  Hopi town criers

  Dancer’s novelty microphotographs and Dagron’s balloon post

  Telephonic Jukeboxes: The Shyvers Multiphone, the Phonette Melody Lane, the AMI Automatic

  Nazi U-boat automated weather forecasting espionage network

  The Inuit Inuksuit

  The General Electric Show ‘N Tell

  The Bletchley Park Colossus

  the Bletchley Park Colossus

  The Aluminum Transcription Disk

  Indecks Information Retrieval System

  Pneumatic Typewriters

  Dead Personal Computers

  Early Mechanical Television Systems

  Baird Mechanical Television, Part One: Technical Introduction

  Baird Mechanical Television, Part Two: Technical Introduction

  Baird Mechanical Television, Part Three: Baird Mechanical Television Part 3: Other Countries, Other Systems

  Fire Signals and Horse Post on the Great Wall of China

  The MiniCine toy projector

  The Theatrophone, the electrophone

  Peepshows

  the Nintendo Virtual Boy, the Logitech Cyberman 3D mouse, the Nintendo Power Glove

  An Amish Cyclorama

  The Tru-Vue stereographic viewer

  The ICL One Per Desk

  The Philips Programmed Individual Presentation System (PIP)

  the Travelling Panorama

  the Edison Electric Pen, pneumatic pen, magnetic pen, and foot-powered pen

  the Edison Electric Pen, Reed pen, and Music Ruling Pen

  the Edison Electric Pen

  New Guinea Talking Drum

  Cat Piano and Tiger Organ Cat Piano

  Shadow theatre

  the Kinora

  The Wilcox-Gay Recordio

  The Velvet Revolution in the Magic Lantern

  Native American Smoke Signals

  fraudulent media of the Spirit world

  the Edison Wax Cylinder

  Kids’ interactive television: Captain Power

  the Dubroni instant camera

  the Singing Telegram; the death of George P. Oslin

  Children’s Dead Media

  Dead Personal Computers

  Robertson’s Phantasmagoria

  Dead media: Robertson’s Phantasmagoria; Seraphin’s Ombres Chinoises; Guyot’s smoke apparitions; the Magic Lantern

  Robertson’s Phantasmagoria

  Phantasmagoria enters the mainstream

  Robertson’s Final Phantasmagoria

  American Missile Mail

  McDonnell Douglas Laserfilm VideoDisc Player

  Two-track PlayTape; the Stanton Mail Call Letter Pack

  Inuit carved maps

  Edison’s Vertical-Cut Records

  The Flame Organ; The Burning Harmonica; the Chemical Harmonica; Kastner’s Pyrophone

  Telelogoscopy; Television Screen News

  Phonograph History

  PALplus television letterbox format

  Heron’s Nauplius

  the IBM Selectric Typewriter

  The Blickensderfer Typewriter; the Scientific keyboard

  the Slide Rule

  Wide-Screen Movies: Gance’s Polyvision, Waller’s Cinerama

  Wide Screen Movies: CinemaScope, Todd-AO, MGM Camera 65, CinemaScope 55, Super
Panavision 70, Ultra Panavision 70

  Dead Cinema Color Processes

  Norwegian transport wires

  the pneumatic post and the dreyfus affair

  Dead synthesizers: the Hazelcom McLeyvier

  Dead Synthesizers: the Con Brio ADS 200

  Dead synthesizers: ARP 2600

  Dead synthesizers: the Adaptive Systems, Inc. Synthia

  the library card catalog

  the library card catalog

  Dead Digital Documents

  Officially Deleted Digital Documents

  the Baby Mark I Computer

  The Readies

  Caselli’s Pantelegraph (Part One)

  Bain’s Facsimile Telegraphy

  NEWSPAPERS BY RADIO, IN 1938

  TELEVISION IN THEATRES, AT 50,000 VOLTS

  Gould’s 3-D Television

  Duston’s Talking Book

  Dead human languages

  The Polyrhetor AT the 1939 World’s Fair Futurama

  A VINE VENDING MACHINE IN THE 1960S: THE Sony Videomat

  the Telegraph: the Morse Pendulum Instrument, the Morse Register

  THE TELEGRAPHY ECOSYSTEM OF 1900

  The Telegraph: Fire Alarms, Burglar Alarms, Railroad-Signal Systems, Hotel Annunciators, District Messenger Services

  the Hotel Annunciator

  The Telegraph: Inductive Telegraphy

  recording and telling stories with The Inca Quipo

  The Telegraph

  Flower Codes

  Henry Mills’ Typewriter

  Typewriters: the Comptometer, the Numerograph, the book typewriter

  Brown’s cash carrier

  Brown’s cash carrier

  Super 8 mm film

  how to build a ‘farmer’s telephone’

  Cash carriers

  graphic novels of 981AD

  Dead ASCII Variants

  Dead Money

  Wheatstone’s Telegraphic Meterometer

  The Amateur Radio Relay League Radiogram

  The Teleplex Morse Code Recorder

  Bi Sheng’s Clay Printing Press

  the Astrolabe; Ctesibius’s Clepsydra Orrery

  the Astrolabe in Islam

  the Astrolabe in Europe

  Chaucer’s Astrolabe Manual

  VISIDEP 3-D Television

  Coins as Media

  Interactive Cable Television: Cableshop

  a personal recollection of VisiDep 3-D Television

  Anschutz’s arcade peepshow

  the death of naval morse code

  artificial church bells

  Exchequer Tallies

  afterlife of the Edison Electric Pen

  Poster Stamps

  The Regina Music Box

  3D PHOTOGRAPHY IN 1903

  Mobile Cavalry Telephone

  Camras’s Wire Recorder

  Minitel R.I.P

  The Burroughs Moon-Hopkins Typewriter AND Calculator

  TelegraphIC LANGUAGE: Cablese, Wirespeak, Phillips Code, Morse Code

  Whistling Networks of the Canary Islands

  Talking Greeting Card; Manually-Powered Sound Tape

  Monastic sign language

  cardboard artificial intelligence

  Spook Shows

  Vinyl Multimedia

  Basque Talking Drum

  Peek-a-Boo Index Cards: Optical Parallel Computers of the 1950s

  US Air Force ‘Clones’ Obsolete Electronics

  Paris pneumatic mail

  RCA SelectaVision Holographic Videofilm

  Hummel’s Telediagraph; the fax machine of 1898

  The Organetta

  Computer Game Emulators

  Ghost Sites on the Web

  De Moura’s Wave Emitter

  Nixie indicator tube displays

  Korean Horse Post

  Naval SOS Becomes Obsolete

  Dead public sirens and horns

  tower clocks and chimes; city-wide public address systems; factory whistles; foghorns

  Telegraphy

  Dead Digital Documents

  The Philips-Miller Audio Recording System

  Trail Blazing by Apes

  Notched Bones

  The Vortex Experimental Theater

  Minifon Pocket-size Wire Recorder

  Trail Blazing in Ancient Australia

  Paper Magnetic-Recording Tape

  AT&T Telephotography; AT&T Picturephone

  Mechanical Sirens and Foghorns

  Quadraphonics

  Dead Chinese Coinage

  Timex Magnetic Disk Recorder

  the Pigeon Post, alive in 1998

  Antique Chip Fabricator

  The Toy Artist drawing automaton

  Sound Bites musical candy

  Phonovid Vinyl Video

  Ancient Irish fire beacon

  the Pigeon Post Criminals

  causes of media mortality; Roman relay runners, Mongol horse post, Polybius’s fire signals, British Naval Howe Code, Pony Express, Aztec signals

  Public Fire Alarms In Colonial Shanghai

  the Chiu-mou-ti Hsing-wu-t’ai

  Crandall’s Electric Sign

  Dead Digital Documents

  Winky-Dink Interactive TV

  the Cat Piano

  the Cat Piano, The Donkey Chorus, the Pig Piano

  Train Token Signals System

  Optical Telegraphy; Heliography

  Train Token Signals System

  Ramelli’s Book Wheel

  The Camera Obscura

  Parisian Shadow Theatre

  Camera Obscuras Existing Today

  Immortal Media

  Pigeon Post in Paris

  Donisthorpe’s Kinesigraph

  Naragansett Drum Rocks

  Pneumatic Mail in London

  Pneumatic Mail in Berlin

  Pneumatic Mail in America

  the Pigeon Post

  Radio Killed the Vaudeville Star

  Pigeon Vests

  Pigeon Spies of World War Two

  Military Pigeoneers of World War Two

  Pigeon paraphernalia

  The Fisher-Price Pixelvision

  Nazi Videophones

  the pigeon post; the ostrich post

  the Auto-typist

  Unstable Photographs

  Freight Tubes

  The Clegg-Selvan pneumatic vehicle; wire conveyors, cash carriers, parcel carriers; the Lamson Tube; pneumatic tube industrial history

  Fungal Hallucinogens in Decaying Archives

  The Robotyper; the Flexowriter

  Computer Game Designer Dies Young, But Outlives Own Games

  Pneumatic tubes

  Pneumatic tube applications

  Dead supercomputers become furniture

  Dead tunnels of Chicago

  The Chicago Freight Tunnel Flood

  Canada’s Telidon Network

  Dead tunnels of Chicago, eyewitness report

  the Optigan

  the Railway Panorama

  the Mareorama; the Cineorama

  Newspaper via Radio Facsimile

  Ultra-Personal Sony Handycam

  Vinyl Record with Zoetrope

  British Foreign Office Abandons Telegrams

  Gilbreth’s Chronocyclegraph

  Signals of the Beyazit Tower, Istanbul

  Information Tech of Ancient Athenian democracy, Part One: Post-it Notes of 500BC

  Info Tech of Ancient Athenian democracy, Part Two: The kleroterion randomiser

  Info Tech of Ancient Athenian democracy, Part Three: cryptographic ID Cards

  Info Tech of Ancient Athenian democracy, Part Four: voting machines

  INFO Tech of Ancient AthenIAN DEMOCRACY, Part Five: PUBLIC RELATIONS

  The Stereoscope; IMAX

  Mutant Mosquitoes in Subway Tunnels

  Telegraphic Paper Tape; Digital Paper Tape; Baudot Code; Dead Encoding Formats; ILLIAC; TTY

  Military Pigeoneers of World War Two: Qualifications for Pigeoneers, Pigeon Lofts; Loft Routines; Pigeon Banding Codes, Lof
t Equipment Pigeoneer Supplies, Message Holders, Pigeons by Parachute

  Bibliocadavers

  the Prague Pneumatic Post

  Babbage’s Difference Engine

  The Pigeon Post

  Bertillonage

  Typesetters: a Dead Class of Media Workers

  Spirit Duplicators

  Phonautograph and Barlow’s Logograph

  Sensorama

  Chrysler’s Highway Hi-Fi, pt. one

  Dead Binary Digital Computer (The Manchester Small Scale Experimental Machine—The Baby)

  The invention of envelopes and the postal system in Ancient Mesopotamia

  Canada’s Telidon network; Australia’s Viatel and Discovery 40

  Scriabin’s Color Organ

  Virtual Reality Techniques During the French Revolution and the Early 19th Century

  Rene Dagron, Pigeon Post Microfilm Balloonist

  The Kromskop, Victorian Colour Photography

  The Birth and Death of Memory

  Dead UK Video Formats

  DIVX: Stillborn Media

  The acoustic telephone

  Damaged, obsolete undersea cables

  How I became the first foreigner to operate the Prague Pneumatic Post

  MICRONESIAN STICK CHARTS

  Newspaper via Radio Facsimile

  Cyclorama

  Telautograph

  Cash Carriers (intra-building)

  Cash carriers (intra-building)

  Seeburg 1000 background music system

  Del Mar CardioCorder

  Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100

  Old Hard Drives

  pre-digital crowdsourcing

  Carmontelle’s Transparency

  the Echo Cannonade of 1825

  Undead Media - The Edison Stock Ticker

  The Toy Artist drawing automaton

  Mechanical Memories (rotating disk, movable pins)

  The ephemeral nature of magnetic domains on rotating platters

  Pre-cinema moving pictures (electrotachyscope)

  The Nazi Volksempfanger Radio

  clay tokens

  Paul Allen revives Cinerama

  Runic Tally Sticks

  Color Movies from Black-and-White Film: Thomascolor

  Totenrotel, the Medieval Wikipedia

  Non-HTML hypertext authoring systems, circa 1993

  NASA technology could save vanishing native American languages

  Primordial Interactive Television (or Winky-Dink Redux)

  Undead Media: The French Minitel System

  The unexpected survival of Telex

  Old music recordings, effects on music

  Contoura portable non-xerographic photocopier

  V-Mail, Microfilmed mail of WWII

  Obsolete TV-type remote control techniques

  Dead Architectural (and drafting) Media

  Czarist-era Russian color photography

  Magnetic disc audio

  Decoding dead Martian data formats

  Based on material from Dead Media Working Notes: deadmedia.org

  Compiled (1995-2001) by Bruce Sterling, Richard Kadrey, Tom Jennings