Want to really appreciate how amazing it is that you can take and send photos from your mobile phone? Check out this educational film from 1937, which explains how photographs were sent across the wire:
It’s actually wildly fascinating (and gets pretty “technical” in the middle).
If you didn’t know the film was from 1937, it wouldn’t sound entirely out of place today when talking about snapping and sending photos on iPhones, Flip Cams, or Blackberrys to frame a news event as it unfolds:
“Every available development of science and engineering has been utilized to get the story to the reader in the shortest possible time.
It is only a matter of minutes after a news event has occurred before newspapers all over the country are carrying pictures that tell the story more graphically and completely than the printed word. Pictures sent from any location, by simply picking up a telephone.”
What once was old is new again…
“This is called ‘Scanning’”
Great find. The other great parts to note:
a) Photographer has no qualms about climbing on top of the car in a suit
b) Gets exactly one picture…
And let’s not forget the fact that an AIRPLANE was strapped to a CAR.
It is funny, because, you could just as easily see Ballon Boy’s Dad driving his car through the desert and unleashing his next machine of flight.
Meh, less entertaining — let’s focus on the important part — the media :)
Absolutely LOVED this!
I loved the photographer climbing up on the top of the car – regardless of having a suit or not! He looked so intense! And only one photo – he’s so confident! It was great.
What a great find. Thanks for sharing with the rest of the class.
- @vedo
“Speed! The Lifesblood of a Newspaper! Speed – Speed – Speed…!”
Indeed, there are indeed some things that will never…ever…change! Even if an ‘aeroplane’ is strapped to an ‘automohbeel’ … if it’s a good story, they’ll run with it!
Cool Find, Amy!
Narciso Tovar
Big Noise Communications
@Narciso17
Utterly fascinating! It’s really an early modem. This video find is also an excellent reminder about one of slightly ironic effects of the web – it’s made content from the past much more widely available.
This technology was used extensively in WWII. For example, photos from Iwo Jima were appearing in U.S newspapers the morning after they were taken.
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Really fabulous…. Two things struck me – first – how far we have come in relatively so little time, and yet how well you can trace today from yesterday technologically; and second – as a consultant focused on connecting geeky with touchy-feely, I am impressed how well this “new” technology is explained, in ways that most people would understand. I am bookmarking this to use as a training tool, to provide a funny, but impressively TERRIFIC model of how to explain technological workflow clearly and succinctly in a nicely layered way, AND how multiple cognitive preferences are respected in its content (I may need to blog about that myself). This would make a GREAT training intro for a training for techies on how to give demos. Thanks for posting!