![[dan-truett-mcwhorter.jpg]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv8/S5hAR2x0JVI/AAAAAAAACVo/caHZJMX-j9o/s400/dan-truett-mcwhorter.jpg)
This picture is from 1938, and shows a picture of a device called a "Radio Newspaper". It looks like some sort of Facsimile machine. I was surprised to learn that technology was available in 1938 that could send pictures over a wire (or wireless, perhaps). I am not sure what the printing technology is being used at the receiving end. Hey, is this the same guy seen in Wednesday's picture? If so, he has all the cool gadgets.
Sure. As late as the '50s, early '60's if you saw a picture in your local paper of some big event that happened the day before in some faraway place (a city in rubble after an earthquake, a political assassination in Japan, etc.) you were seeing a wirephoto: a picture transmitted over telephone wires. Detail wasn't that great but even that tended to heighten the drama of the picture. If you looked down at the credit like it would say: "AP Wirephoto" or UP or INS, whatnot. Jim
ReplyDeleteor INS
WOW, for that day and age.
ReplyDeleteBut now we just hold up our phones and instantly send photos all over the world.
Amazing times we live in.
R
That is really impressive! Data over a wire wasn't new, but the pictures back then must have been cutting edge.
ReplyDeleteSo, do we get a chickie town update tomorrow?
ReplyDeleteIt looks like the same guy but I can't be sure.
ReplyDeleteWatch the movie "Northside 777" (1948) which is based on fact.
ReplyDeleteA key moment in the film is a photo received via wirephoto in the early forties.
PJM:Thanks for the fascinating Tech Week photos. And thanks to all you knowledgable commenters for explaining how all those machines worked. All I knew about that stuff was what I saw in the old movies.
ReplyDeleteBoy this is sure news to me! Had NO idea they could transmit a 'radio newspaper' in 1938. Look how far technology has come!
ReplyDeleteDon't the two gents in question have their hair parted on opposite sides?
ReplyDeleteAh, I KNEW I'd seen this gadget before!
ReplyDeleteModern Mechanix
Evidently it never caught on. But when a paper only cost a nickle, I guess it must have been a tough market to break into.
I can't say that I'm much interested in the photos from 'technology week'. Can't wait for the mystery person tomorrow, though!
ReplyDeleteHow about something more exciting than ticker tape machines next week, PJM?
Oh, and after some thinking, you really should have a shed or barn before you get a tractor. You wouldn't want it rusting away out in the weather, would you?