Comments on: Victorian Fax?

Victorian Fax?

arse_hat — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 23:54:16 -0800

Faxing since 1843.

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 00:15:51 -0800

Awesome.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 00:21:46 -0800

seconded!

By: Rumple

Rumple — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 00:35:41 -0800

I love the idea of replicating that machinery and making images with it . Tinkering art. Great post.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 01:03:19 -0800

Awesome post. I thought it was a gag until I read deeper into the site. Amazing. Thank you.

By: neckro23

neckro23 — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 01:55:01 -0800

Those of you who find this kind of stuff fascinating (as I do) will probably enjoy this 1930s filmreel that demonstrates how pictures were transmitted via wire prior to modern faxes.

By: dabitch

dabitch — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 03:58:43 -0800

superb!

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 05:59:22 -0800

Monty Burns to Smithers: "Put this on that Faxtrola!"

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 08:49:21 -0800

Excellent post! And I want to know why we didn't keep calling it a "telediagraph"; it's so much more impressive than "fax."

By: o0o0o

o0o0o — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 09:15:45 -0800

They demonstrated something similar on the show "The Secret Life of Machines", which you can sometimes catch in reruns. Here's a little comic they made that explains how it works: The Secret Life of the Fax Machine

By: MattD

MattD — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 09:28:53 -0800

Great link.

By: Human Stain

Human Stain — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 09:30:08 -0800

I was about to mention "The Secret Life of Machines" episode. I thought they also mentioned (although it's been a long time since I saw it) something about monks using some mechanical arm thing to do something similar much earlier. o0o0o, do you remember anything about that?

By: euphorb

euphorb — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 09:38:14 -0800

I too was about to mention Tim Hunkin's The Secret Life of Machines which was part of a post awhile back.

By: o0o0o

o0o0o — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 10:21:20 -0800

Human Stain, I don't recall monks being mentioned in that episode, but I'm rather sure they were during the photo copier episode. I found a full Episode Guide but it's unfortunately rather skimpy on the details. There's also some stills from each episode that might help jar your memory... though it didn't help mine.

By: arse_hat

arse_hat — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 10:31:47 -0800

Human Stain. Do you mean the panto graph ?

By: Human Stain

Human Stain — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 11:46:16 -0800

Hmm, the pantograph could be it. Or, it could have been a side effect of what I'm referring to here.

By: DrJohnEvans

DrJohnEvans — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 11:50:31 -0800

Wow. Nifty indeed.

By: carter

carter — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 21:11:01 -0800

Excellent - cheers!

By: horhey

horhey — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 00:33:21 -0800

Very cool. Yet another reason why I love MetaFilter.

By: drew

drew — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 11:44:03 -0800

But the big question is, how long did it take for the first unsolicited menu to be sent via this grandaddy o' the fax machine?