The Dead Media Notebook

by Bruce Sterling

  “As the relieving army, commanded by Sir Redvers Buller, approached the city, his signal officer, Capt John Cayzer, attempted to establish communication by helio. There were problems with Boer operators who intercepted the British flashes. When Cayzer finally reached a station claiming to be British, he devised a test. ‘Find Captain Brooks of the Gordons,’ he signalled. ‘Ask him the name of Captain Cayzer’s country place in Scotland.’ Captain Brooks, when found, did not immediately grasp the purpose of the question and remarked, ‘Well, I always thought Cayzer was an ass, but I didn’t think he’d forget the name of his own home!’

  “Canada was the last major army to keep the heliograph as an issue item. By the time the mirror instruments were retired in 1941, they were not much used for signalling. Still, the army hated to see them go. One officer said, ‘They made damn fine shaving mirrors!’”

  Source The Telegraph: A History of Morse’s Invention and its Predecessors in the United States by Lewis Coe TK 5115 C54 1993 McFarland and Company, Publishers ISBN 0-89950-736-0

  Russolo’s Intonarumori

  From Frank Davis

  “Luigi Russolo, an Italian Futurist, lauded the modern era’s beautiful machine clangor. A painter, not a musician, Russolo was nonetheless committed to being the Futurist movement’s musical activist. His 1913 manifesto “The Art of Noises” rejected inherited preferences for harmony in favor of the dissonant masterpieces that serenade us everyday without our conscious awareness. Conventional pianos, violins, harps, and horns were inferior to ‘the crashing down of metal shop blinds, slamming doors, the hubbub and shuffling of crowds, the variety of din from stations, railways, iron foundries, spinning mills, printing works, electric power stations, and underground railways.’”

  “To realize his dream of a life when ‘every factory will be transformed into an intoxicating orchestra of noises’, Russolo created Intonarumori (Noise Intoners) - gangly speaker boxes that transmitted such chainsaw melodies as an internal combustion engine gurgling in ten whole-tones. He concocted four main noise families: the Exploder, the Crackler, the Buzzer, and the Scraper; the pitch and timbre of each were manipulated by a side lever.”

  [It is of note that Russolo’s influence can be seen years later in not only the name of a once popular British sampling collective, The Art Of Noise, but also in the industrial movement of the 80’s with such groups as Throbbing Gristle and Einsturzende Neubauten re- discovering the “noise as music” principle.]

  Source: ELEVATOR MUSIC by Joseph Lanza St. Martin’s Press 1994 ISBN 0-312-1-0540-1

  the Agfa Geveart Family Camera

  From Adrian Bruch

  In early 1981 Agfa Gevaert Australia released the “Family” camera. I think it was also released in Europe. This was a fixed-focus lens, modern design super 8mm film camera with easy to use controls (meaning a minimal opportunity for enthusiasts to fiddle and adjust anything).

  The accompanying “Family” projector held a 25’, 50’, or 200’ spool of colour film. The film was internally projected onto an acrylic screen (similar to a telecine screen) and had no capability to play sound.

  The camera sold for under $400 Australian. It could shoot one still frame (snapshot) whenever the still button was pressed. Or it could shoot normal motion footage. The camera had a built-in hole puncher, which made a small dot on the sprocket.

  When the dotted frame was projected on the Agfa “Family” player it would hold for 8 seconds, thus showing a still frame. The projector/player had an optional attachment for the Kodak instant camera, so that users could print out favourite snaps.

  The Agfa Family Camera failed to be marketed successfully. Several things caused its demise within 18 months.

  First, the State Electricity Commission refused to allow the release of the existing model until the wiring of the player was rewired to Australian standards. (This reduced the profits considerably.)

  Second, the Kodak Instant camera infringed Polaroid patents and was withdrawn from worldwide markets.

  Third, the rival video camera portapak technology arrived in Australia. By the time the Agfa “Family” was withdrawn from the market it was reduced in price to less than $99.

  Agfa Australia claims to remember nothing of this camera, but I found a camera repairer who will allow me to use the manuals, or take photos of his own camera/player if that is of use.

  The CED Video Disc Player

  From Dan Howland

  “VIDEO DISC PLAYER “SGT-100W RCA VIDEO DISC PLAYER with CED (capacitance) pickups; plays video discs like record player plays LP records. Unit is ‘play only’ device and discs must be ‘flipped’ to Side 2 for complete play.

  Functions FOR-REV for ‘Rapid Access’ & ‘Visual Search’ plus ‘Pause.’

  This manually-loaded CED-type player will NOT play laser-type video discs. 6x17x16, 24 lbs sh. “

  Used-operational, but some adjustments may be required! $33.00” “SGT-100W, ‘AS-IS complete, not tested,’ just as we find it! May be it will work and maybe it will not! NO RETURNS! $16.00”

  “USED CED VIDEO DISCS for use with above; titles as recent as 1985. Write for list! Discs may have ‘blip-skips’ during play. If intolerable, advise us within 10 days of intent to exchange; 2 lbs sh. Used, $10 each. 2-disc movies, $15.00/set.

  “AS-IS DISCS, not tested—NO RETURNS! $5 ea.”

  [The CED disks themselves resemble giant floppy discs, approx 12” square (but a wee bit longer than wide). Like 8-track tapes, another clunky dead medium, the CED discs have a label glued to the plastic shell. Apparently, inside the shell is a grooved (vinyl?) disc.]

  Source: the CURRENT catalog of Fair Radio Sales, 1016 E. Eureka St. P.O. Box 1105, Lima OH 45802, (419) 223-2196, 227-6573, FAX (419) 227-1313.

  Eighteenth Century English mail hacks

  From Bruce Sterling

  [It’s very clear that the postal system is not a dead medium. However, the physical and economic structure of the posts has undergone profound, elaborate changes over the centuries. Early postal systems often doubled as espionage networks, and were often proverbially corrupt. Before the introduction of the flat-rate penny post in Britain, prices were high, yet geographically and socially inconsistent. Posts were also riddled with off-the-books “franking” privileges exercised by various privileged classes of users. Recipients were billed for posting through a ‘collect on delivery’ practice. These structural weaknesses in the postal system created a booming underground in black-market mail-fraud. Alvin F. Harlow’s avuncular and chatty history takes a deep prurient interest in these illicit goings-on.]

  “There were scores of devices for the sending of a few elementary facts by mail without paying for their carriage. One of the commonest media was the newspaper, which at that time the post carried free of charge. A line drawn under the name of a Whig politician meant that the sender was well; under a Tory meant ‘not so well.’ There were other signals which told other things. Apparent instructions to the post written on the wrapper were secret messages. Among those which the Post Office detected and for which it assessed fines were, ‘With Speed,’ ‘Send soon,’ ‘To be punctually forwarded,’ ‘With my compliments,’ ‘Postman, be you honest and true,’ ‘It is requested that this letter be delivered without delay, otherwise a complaint will be made to headquarters;’ all of which meant something entirely different.

  “Business men had code systems based on the writing of the address. One man’s address might be varied thus: William Henry Perkins, 97 Pump Court, London William Henry Perkins, Pump Court, London Wm. Henry Perkins, 97 Pump Court, London Wm. Henry Perkins, Pump Court, London William H. Perkins, 97 Pump Court, London William H. Perkins, Pump Court, London W. Henry Perkins, 97 Pump Court, London W. Henry Perkins, Pump Court, London Will H. Perkins, Wm. H. Perkins, W. H. Perkins, William Perkins and so on were other variants; then a change could be made by putting Mr. before each of the names, or adding Esq. after them. Mr Perkins’ address could be differently stated: �
�At the sign of the Golden Dog,’ or ‘Opposite St. Somebody-or-Other’s Church.’ Actually hundreds of changes might be made, all of which were recorded in a key book and each one having its meaning; the state of the market, bids, quotations, orders, cancellations, notice of arrival and transmission, etc.

  “The manner of using the collect-on-delivery postage system for the free transmission of news is illustrated by an anecdote told by the poet Coleridge. While travelling in the north of England he halted at a wayside inn just as a postman was offering a letter to the barmaid. The postage was a shilling. Sighing sadly, the girl handed back the letter, saying that she was too poor to pay it. Coleridge, over the girl’s objection, insisted upon paying the shilling. When the postman was gone, she opened the letter and showed the poet that it was only a sheet of blank paper; but there were a few hieroglyphics on the back of it, alongside the address, which she had glanced at while she held the letter and which told her the news. ‘We are so poor,’ the girl explained, ‘that we have been forced to invent this method of franking our letters.’

  “Franks were the curse of the mail service then, not only in England, but in America and other countries as well. One twelfth of the letters sent from London went free. Members of Parliament and government officials by the hundred were authorized to frank letters, and few of them were averse to handing out whole batches of letter paper with their names written thereon to friends and constituents. By one clever scheme of the evaders of postage, a frank was made as elastic as a rubber band. Three or four friends or associates in as many cities would agree to use the name of one of them in their correspondence. A at London would then send a letter to B at Dublin, having the cover wafered and sealed so that it could be opened without breaking the seals. B would write a letter, enclose it in the same wrapper. and without changing the name would mark out his own address and write C’s address in Edinburgh, as if B had removed to that place. C would receive the letter, alleging that B was visiting him, write another letter and enclose it to D at York. Thus one frank would carry at least three or four letters before it became so covered with addresses as to arouse suspicion.”

  Source: OLD POST BAGS: The Story of the Sending of a Letter in Ancient and Modern Times by Alvin F. Harlow D Appleton and Company, New York 1928 383 H227o University of Texas

  the pigeon post FROM THE SEIGE OF ACRE TO WWI

  From Bruce Sterling

  [Harlow’s charmingly dated work takes an extensive interest in the pigeon post.]

  “It is said that during the siege of Acre by Lion- Hearted Richard of England, the town kept up communication with Saladin, the Saracen leader, by pigeon. Another good story is that during the siege of Ptolemais the crusaders captured a pigeon carrying to the city news that the sultan was bringing an army to its relief, and would arrive in three days. The captors substituted a forged letter in which the sultan was made to say that he could do nothing at the moment, and released the bird again; and by this the town was so much discouraged that it promptly surrendered. When the sultan arrived three days later he found the stronghold in the hands of the Christians. “ it seems probable that they were used by the Venetian Admiral Dandolo in the siege of Candia in 1204, at the siege of Haarlem by Frederick of Toledo in 1572 and of Leyden by the Spaniards in 1575, and coming down to a later day, at the seige of Antwerp by the French in 1832.

  “Early in the nineteenth century, when the lottery craze was in full blast, pigeons were sometimes used to hasten the announcement of the winning number, especially by shrewd tricksters. This was common between Paris, a great lottery center, and Brussels, a large consumer of lottery tickets. One operator, by means of very swift pigeons, gave his Belgian confederates the winning numbers, which they proceeded to buy up, if possible, before the official news arrived. In this manner the schemer acquired a considerable fortune; but his device was finally discovered, and being somehow construed as fraudulent, he spent the rest of his life at hard labor in the galleys of Toulon.

  “Nathan Meyer Rothschild, head of the London branch of his family’s banking business, was one of the earliest of modern financiers to use pigeons to bring the latest market news from other capitals of Europe. He spent considerable sums on his pigeon cotes, and was always ready to buy birds noted for unusual speed. There is a story that he received by pigeon the new of the French defeat at Waterloo, which he at first pretended had been a British defeat, and thus made a killing on the Stock Exchange.

  “Pigeons were thereafter used by stock brokers, especially in England and France (where they were called pigeons de la Bourse) until the invention of the electric telegraph. They usually flew between London and the French coast in an hour and a half.

  “Julius Reuter, founder of the great press-dispatch service bearing his name, used pigeons in his first press line. there were telegraph lines from Paris to Brussels, and from Berlin to Aix-le-Chapelle; and to hook these two together he established a pigeon line between Brussels and Aix.

  “Probably the most famous pigeon messenger service in all history was that which was carried on during the German siege of Paris in 1870-1871.

  “One by one the great city’s communications with the outer world were severed. A telegraph line cunningly hidden in the bed of the Seine was discovered by the Germans and cut. The Director-General of Posts and Telegraphs caused light copper balls to be made, in which letters were floated down the Seine by night; but the enemy soon discovered the trick, stretched a net across and gathered them all in.

  “Parisian balloons continued to land in various parts of Europe, sometimes just where they should not be. One travelled all the way to Norway and landed eight hundred and forty miles from Paris. Another fell into the North Sea and the aeronaut was drowned, but his letters were saved. The Germans devised anti-aircraft guns, but did not hit any of the mail carriers. One aeronaut told of seeing cannon balls come almost to his basket, then fall back. Some balloonists fell in or near the German lines and underwent heroic adventures.

  “The Parisian balloons were made of thin cotton cloth, covered with two or three coats of a varnish composed of linseed oil and oxide of lead, and were inflated with the illuminating gas used to light the streets. From Metz, during its seige, smaller balloons made of various materials were sent out without human occupants. The correspondent of the Manchester Guardian planned the first one, which was made of strong white paper and inflated by means of a wisp of lighted straw under it, the stock of coal in the city being too small to permit the use of gas. It carried eight thousand letters in a rubber cloth wrapper, accompanied by a note promising one hundred francs reward to anyone who found the package and took it to the nearest postmaster or the mayor of the commune and got a receipt for it. Others sent out later were made of thin paper lined with muslin, or of varnished cotton cloth, inflated with atmospheric air by means of a rotary fan.

  “After this modern demonstration of the value of pigeons, they were taken up by nearly all the European armies, and special attention given to their breeding and training. During the recent Great War in Europe they were extensively used. The First and Second American Armies in France had one thousand birds each, and the Third Army six hundred and forty. Counting the instruction and breeding sections, we had over five thousand three hundred pigeons in France.

  “In the Meuse-Argonne offensive, 442 American pigeons were used, and 403 important messages delivered by them. One bird delivered fifty messages. The pigeons were carried from their automobile ‘lofts’ to the trenches in baskets slung on soldiers’ backs. There were gas-proof bags for the baskets in case of a gas attack. But a pigeon might be liberated during such an attack and come through safely, presumably because it rose above the gas. The pigeon-veterans’ home at Fort Monmouth still houses many veterans of the Great War, some of them bearing honorable scars. ‘Cher Ami,’ who lost a leg on the Verdun front, frequently delivered messages over a thirty- kilometer front in twenty-four minutes. ‘The Mocker’ had an eye shot out. ‘President Wilson’ wa
s liberated with an important message on November 5, 1918, during an intense machine gun and artillery fire, and reached his loft at Rampont, forty kilometers distant, in twenty-five minutes. On the way one leg had been shot off and his breast pierced by a bullet. The message was still hanging to the ligaments of the torn leg. A few months ago President Wilson was still alive at Fort Monmouth.”

  Source OLD POST BAGS: The Story of the Sending of a Letter in Ancient and Modern Times by Alvin F. Harlow D Appleton and Company, New York 1928 383 H227o University of Texas

  Muybridge’s Zoopraxiscope

  From Rich Burroughs

  [Eadward Muybridge was an Englishman, originally named Edward James Muggeridge, but it seems he changed his name for some extra flash. In the mid 1870s he was charged with murdering his wife’s lover, according to Robinson. I’m assuming he was acquitted, as that was near the beginning of his experiments and I didn’t see any accounts of them being interrupted do to jail time.]

  [Muybridge’s Zoopraxiscope was basically a renamed phenakistiscope, according to Robinson. Ceram says that Muybridge made some improvements on the earlier device. What seems to have set Muybridge apart was his technique of photography.]

  C. Francis Jenkins in “Technological History of Motion Pictures and Television”: “But it is to the persistence of Eadward Muybridge that we are indebted for the most scientific research in motion analysis, work which he began in 1879. His animal studies became classics with artists. Wet plates only were then available and he used above half a million of them in a plurality of cameras arranged in order along a track over which his subject was required to pass.”