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How photos were transmitted by wire in the 1930s

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Re: How photos were transmitted by wire in the 1930s

#61

Post by sema4hacker »

cm2187 wrote: post #43
mhuffman wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I really like these old "explaining" films. The pedagogical level is far higher than what seems common today. And the they take their time to convey the message. I wonder what happened? I have been blown away by some of the older explainer videos from the 40s and 50s, esp. some of the military training videos for vehicle repair, electrical engineering, etc. Very concise and very clear explanations, always with visua…

Youtube is full of videos like that. A few sample excellent channels: https://www.youtube.com/@animagraffs https://www.youtube.com/@engineerguyvideo https://www.youtube.com/@Lesics/videos The problem is more that they are drowned under the volume of content available.

If YouTube had a Dewey decimal style clickable directory it would be a lot easier to find content.

Re: How photos were transmitted by wire in the 1930s

#62

Post by nonameiguess »

mhuffman wrote: post #8
rightbyte wrote: post #4

In it's simplicity it is genius. I had no clue this was a thing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirephoto I really like these old "explaining" films. The pedagogical level is far higher than what seems common today. And the they take their time to convey the message.

>I really like these old "explaining" films. The pedagogical level is far higher than what seems common today. And the they take their time to convey the message. I wonder what happened? I have been blown away by some of the older explainer videos from the 40s and 50s, esp. some of the military training videos for vehicle repair, electrical engineering, etc. Very concise and very clear explanations, always with visua…

I pretty much use YouTube as a MTV replacement to watch music videos only, so won't speak to the quality of instructional material you find there, but I was still in the military as recently as 12 years ago and the training material in the military was still terrific. This includes unclassified material, though I don't know how you'd find it as a civilian if, for whatever reason, you were interested in learning how to perform maintenance on a modern humvee or what not.

The technical manuals are all available through Army epubs, but even though they're not classified, you still need a common access card to login and use the site. A lot of them get mirrored somewhere the public can find them, but I would definitely not call the sprawl of where you might find them very searchable.

Re: How photos were transmitted by wire in the 1930s

#63

Post by Narkov »

mrandish wrote: post #10
rightbyte wrote: post #4

In it's simplicity it is genius. I had no clue this was a thing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirephoto I really like these old "explaining" films. The pedagogical level is far higher than what seems common today. And the they take their time to convey the message.

> The pedagogical level is far higher than what seems common today. This is a growing pet peeve of mine. I used to think that advancing media formats and productions tools would generally make conveying knowledge faster, better and deeper. Instead, we see most media intentionally engaging in overall 'dumbification'. It's not just more content being shorter or more summarized, as I'm trying to compare 'apples to apple…

Does survivor bias account for this? Only the best/most worthwhile videos from the "old times" are archived.

Right now, we see every piece of crap uploaded to YouTube. No doubt there's awesome video content being created today - Smarter Every Day by Destin Sandlin seems to fit - but it's surrounded by junk.

Re: How photos were transmitted by wire in the 1930s

#64

Post by singleshot_ »

sema4hacker wrote: post #61
cm2187 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youtube is full of videos like that. A few sample excellent channels: https://www.youtube.com/@animagraffs https://www.youtube.com/@engineerguyvideo https://www.youtube.com/@Lesics/videos The problem is more that they are drowned under the volume of content available.

If YouTube had a Dewey decimal style clickable directory it would be a lot easier to find content.

Yahoo, more or less. You’re not wrong.

Re: How photos were transmitted by wire in the 1930s

#65

Post by cj »

BurningFrog wrote: post #27
mhuffman wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I really like these old "explaining" films. The pedagogical level is far higher than what seems common today. And the they take their time to convey the message. I wonder what happened? I have been blown away by some of the older explainer videos from the 40s and 50s, esp. some of the military training videos for vehicle repair, electrical engineering, etc. Very concise and very clear explanations, always with visua…

My guess is that back then producing films was expensive cutting edge technology, and the few films that got made hired the brightest and best, and gave them time to get it right. Today any unemployed bozo can make explainer YouTube videos. That great as a "democratization", but the average quality is obviously lower.

Some quick googling shows cinematic film cameras in 1930/40 used to cost $100k-$300k adjusted for inflation.

Today, the cheapest Netflix-approved camera is $2k [0]

Lower barrier to entry is a blessing and a curse. Signal v noise, etc.

[0] https://noamkroll.com/the-3-most-affordable-netflix-approved...

Re: How photos were transmitted by wire in the 1930s

#66

Post by lagrange77 »

rightbyte wrote: post #4

In it's simplicity it is genius. I had no clue this was a thing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirephoto I really like these old "explaining" films. The pedagogical level is far higher than what seems common today. And the they take their time to convey the message.

As someone else also pointed out, this video about the differential is fantastic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYAw79386WI

Re: How photos were transmitted by wire in the 1930s

#67

Post by nyanpasu64 »

Breaking an image up into lines is similar to how television cameras/displays and raster scan CRTs operated (IIRC TV dated back to the 1920s?), though wrapping the image on a drum was clever and not found in television technology. I wonder how they synchronize lines between the transmitter and receiver though (all video standards have hsync pulses, while I didn't see any such here). I'm not sure how fax machines worked/work either.

Re: How photos were transmitted by wire in the 1930s

#68

Post by xattt »

lebuffon wrote: post #3
xattt wrote: post #2

Tangential, but was there ever some form of fibre or telephony connection for news crews in 1990s? Microwave trucks excluded. I ask this because I swear, as a kid, I’ve seen a cameramen open up a telecom/telephone box and connect something to it. I assumed it was for an uplink back to the station to transmit video.

Absolutely. From the advent of radio broadcasting telephone lines were used for everything, audio and even DC signalling to control relays. All remote radio broadcasts used at least two lines. One for sending sound back to the station and a 2nd pair (telephone lines are a balanced pair of wires) for "cue" that came from the master control room to the remote site. Since most transmitters were located outside of city l…

You mention two telephony lines were used for comms between station and site. Was the quality of audio for remote broadcasts better than a typical phone call?

Re: How photos were transmitted by wire in the 1930s

#69

Post by Swizec »

anonymoose33282 wrote: post #38
mrandish wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The pedagogical level is far higher than what seems common today. This is a growing pet peeve of mine. I used to think that advancing media formats and productions tools would generally make conveying knowledge faster, better and deeper. Instead, we see most media intentionally engaging in overall 'dumbification'. It's not just more content being shorter or more summarized, as I'm trying to compare 'apples to apple…

What’s interesting is you also see the is was sponsored by Chevrolet (on the title screen), so it seems monetization-wise, it’s no different than today when YouTubers have a sponsor read at the start of a video. I just wonder if then it’s simply a matter of more creators competing for less ad-money-per-person, which leads to the kind of “optimized” content we see today.

It’s the algorithm. You’re playing a different game when your content has to compete with and grab attention on its own vs when a gatekeeper decides to broadcast you at 3pm to every TV.

Re: How photos were transmitted by wire in the 1930s

#70

Post by ant6n »

cm2187 wrote: post #43
mhuffman wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I really like these old "explaining" films. The pedagogical level is far higher than what seems common today. And the they take their time to convey the message. I wonder what happened? I have been blown away by some of the older explainer videos from the 40s and 50s, esp. some of the military training videos for vehicle repair, electrical engineering, etc. Very concise and very clear explanations, always with visua…

Youtube is full of videos like that. A few sample excellent channels: https://www.youtube.com/@animagraffs https://www.youtube.com/@engineerguyvideo https://www.youtube.com/@Lesics/videos The problem is more that they are drowned under the volume of content available.

I like the game boy graphics explanations by Jesse „system of levers“: https://youtu.be/SK7XT0DWqtE
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