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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

#101

Post by ersamsa »

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.

This is the right answer

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

#103

Post by Lucasoato »

mikehollinger wrote: post #47

This is remarkable. Lasers were invented in 1960 as a point of reference. The painted rope on two spools was also remarkable because of its simplicity - and it holds up today on explaining what a "download" is. ;-) And even cooler - if we wanted to, I would wager a high school student could implement something along these lines using lego today. There's optical sensors, and you could rig up something to hold a pen li…

Imagine the effort, creativity and commitment they’ve put with the rope on two spools, just to let the watcher better understand how they were transmitting the images.

Why even this simple thing seems unthinkable nowadays?

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

#104

Post by oefnak »

wodenokoto wrote: post #99
waterheater wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The obvious solution is to actually have librarians correctly classify the videos. DDS focuses on the nature of the work itself, not on the keywords or spam in the content. Librarians understand how to class all kinds of works, and it should be relatively simple to build a DDS/MDS index (Melville Decimal System since it's open, see https://librarything.com/mds ) for YouTube videos. Just like with books, disagreement…

> The obvious solution is to actually have librarians correctly classify the videos Which videos? The 500 hours of video uploaded every minute?

All videos of accounts with more than X subscribers.

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

#105

Post by anovikov »

Tor3 wrote: post #100
anovikov wrote: post #36

1930s? These machines were widely in use even in the very end of the Soviet era like in 1989 or so, in the USSR. I personally seen them in operation in post offices being a kid. I think the very last of them fell out of use when modern faxes appeared but just like telegrams existed for a while when email was already a thing, i think these stayed formally available even if not in demand, well into 1990s.

Not sure if it's the same tech or just similar, but all newspapers used to transmit photos from correspondents by telephone, all the way up to the eighties at least. I remember seeing it in practice - I was taking part in a multi-day bicycling competition, and a newspaper sent a two-person team to follow the tour. They developed their photos in their hotel room every evening, and sent them by phone to the newspaper b…

Same tech. That stuff was mainly used by press indeed (and law enforcement, like sending suspect photos and fingerprints).

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

#108

Post by Loughla »

shantara wrote: post #78
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.

I'll recommend a couple of other channels: - Old Royal Navy instruction manuals and documentaries: https://www.youtube.com/@davidbober7035 My favorite is Hands To Flying Stations (1975): https://youtu.be/cALccuPShQc - Historic films and clips, mostly focused on workplace safety: https://www.youtube.com/@markdcatlin My favorite is NASA's Toxic Propellant Hazards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND2TeNfcmKA

That toxic propellant one is fantastic.

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

#109

Post by flyinghamster »

xattt wrote: post #68
lebuffon wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Specially-conditioned circuits for broadcast audio were available at a price. These were point-to-point links, not on the PSTN. Network TV was sent over Bell System transcontinental coaxial cables before it went via satellite or fiber.

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

#110

Post by flyinghamster »

anovikov wrote: post #105
Tor3 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if it's the same tech or just similar, but all newspapers used to transmit photos from correspondents by telephone, all the way up to the eighties at least. I remember seeing it in practice - I was taking part in a multi-day bicycling competition, and a newspaper sent a two-person team to follow the tour. They developed their photos in their hotel room every evening, and sent them by phone to the newspaper b…

Same tech. That stuff was mainly used by press indeed (and law enforcement, like sending suspect photos and fingerprints).

Note that in the original 1965 Ian Fleming novel The Man with the Golden Gun (which has little in common with the movie save character names), James Bond describes being picked up by waterfront police in Vladivostok, and his prints being "belinographed" to Moscow, after his mission to Japan. The term is obvious enough to convey its meaning, at least.
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