The Dead Media Notebook

by Bruce Sterling

  Source: C. E. DeLoca and S. J. Kalow, The Romance Division: A Different Side of IBM (Wykoff, NJ: D&K Book Co., Inc., 1991)

  The Blickensderfer Typewriter; the Scientific keyboard

  From Darryl Rehr

  In response to the recent posting on the IBM Selectric, I offer the following. As a future collector of antique typewriters, I was blissfully oblivious to the release of the Selectric on my eleventh birthday. Now, these many years later, I have become aware that the electric, single-element typewriter dates back MUCH further. This excerpt is from the Blickensderfer section of my upcoming book Antique Typewriters and Office Collectibles

  There are few old typewriters with as much charm and as much history as the Blickensderfer Typewriter. People never cease to be amazed when they see its little type wheel spin into action at the press of a key, whirring into position before brushing past the ink roller on its way to deposit each letter upon the paper.

  Invented by George C. Blickensderfer, it was introduced to the public in 1893 at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It created quite a stir at the time, and it’s said that other major manufacturers dropped out of a planned typewriter competition when the Blickensderfer appeared.

  Although company literature mentions Models 1,2 and 3, apparently the first model actually manufactured for the public was the Blickensderfer No. 5, a diminutive typewriter with a spacebar that folded inward so the machine would fit inside its oak case. It was produced at the company factory in Stamford, Connecticut, but did not appear in substantial numbers until 1895.

  The dazzling star of the Blickensderfer lineup is the Blickensderfer Electric, which first appeared around 1902, but died a quick death. The Blick Electric essentially did everything that the IBM Selectric did more than 50 years later; everything except succeed in the marketplace, that is. Very few of these machines survive, and if you find one, don’t plug it in. The insulation may fail and damage the motor.

  It’s thought that most Blickensderfer Electrics ran on DC current, but at least one example has an AC motor. Hundreds of different Blickensderfer type elements were available in every imaginable type style and language. Extra type elements, in fact, are often found with surviving Blicks today.

  Most Blickensderfers are found with what the company called its Scientific keyboard. The most often-used letters (DHIATENSOR) were placed on the bottom row, closest to the user. The company did offer the Universal (QWERTY) keyboard upon request, but it strongly advised against it.

  Source: Antique Typewriters and Office Collectibles by Darryl Rehr (forthcoming)

  the Slide Rule

  From Paul Di Filippo

  “HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE SLIDE RULE

  “Since logarithms are the foundation on which the slide rule is built, the history of the slide rule rightly begins with John Napier of Merchiston, Scotland, the inventor of logarithms. In 1614 his “Canon of Logarithms” was first published. In presenting his system of Logarithms, Napier sets forth his purpose in these words:

  “’Seeing there is nothing (right well beloved Students of Mathematics) that is so trublesome to mathematical practice, nor doth more molest and hinder calculators, than the multiplications, divisions, square and cubical extractions of of great numbers, which besides the tedious expense of time are for the most subject to many slippery errors, I began to consider in my mind by what certain and ready art I might remove these hindrances.’

  “From Napier’s early conception of the importance of simplifying mathematical calculations resulted his invention of logarithms. This invention in turn made possible the slide rule as we know it today. Other important milestones in slide rule history follow.

  “In 1620 Edmund Gunter, of London, invented the straight logarithmic scale, and effected calculation with it by the aid of compasses.

  “In 1630 William Oughtred, the English mathematician, arranged to Gunter logarithmic scales adapted to slide along eash other and kept together by hand. He thus invented the first instrument that could be called a slide rule.

  “In 1675 Sir Isaac Newton solved the cubic equation by means of three parallel logarithmic scales, and made the first suggestion toward the use of an indicator.

  “In 1722 John Warner, a London instrument dealer, used square and cube scales.

  “Circular slide rules and rules with spiral scales were made before 1733, but their inventors are unknown.

  “In 1775 Thomas Everard, an English Excise Officer, inverted the logarithmic scale and adapted the slide rule to gauging.

  “In 1815 Peter Roget, an English physician, invented a Log Log scale.

  “In 1859 Lieutenant Amadee Mannheim, of the French Artillery, invented the present form of the rule that bears his name.

  “Cylindrical calculators with extra long logarithmic scales were invented by George Fuller, of Belfast, Ireland, in 1878 and Edwin Thacher, of New York, in 1881.

  “A revolutionary slide rule construction, with scales on both the front and back surfaces of body and slide and with a double-faced indicator referring to all scales simultaneously, was patented in 1891, by William Cox, who was mathematical consultant to Keuffel and Esser Co. With the manufacture of Mannheim rules and this new rule, K&E became the first commercial manufacturer of slide rules in the United States...

  “Many types of slide rules have been devised and made in small quantities for the particular purposes of individual users. Rules have likewise been made specially for chemistry, surveying, artillery ranging, steam and internal combustion engineering, hydraulics, reinforced concrete work, air conditioning, radio and other special fields. However, the acceptance of such rules has been relatively limited.

  “The slide rule has a long and distinguished ancestry. The rule described in this manual incorporates the most valuable features than have been invented from the beginning of slide rule history, right up to date.”

  Source: K&E Slide Rules, A Self Instruction Manual by Lyman M. Kells, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Willis F. Kern, Former Associate Professor of Mathematics, and James R. Bland, Professor of Mathematics, All at the United States Naval Academy. Published by Keuffel and Esser Co., New York, Hoboken, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Anchorage, Toronto, Montreal. Copyright 1943, 1945, 1947, 1955.

  Wide-Screen Movies: Gance’s Polyvision, Waller’s Cinerama

  From Ian Campbell

  “Among the many breakthroughs of Napoleon [film 1927, dir. Abel Gance, France] was its use of multiple imagery, for which Gance’s general term was polyvision. Polyvision referred to superimposition (as many as sixteen images laid on top of one another), the split screen (as many as nine distinct images in a frame), and the multiple screen (the triptych, used three times in Napoleon, although two have been lost, whereby three [unsynchronized] cameras and projectors and screens could create a single wide-screen image with an aspect ratio of 4:1, or three separate, side-by-side images that reinforced, reverse or played against each other in counterpoint).

  “ With polyvision and rapid cutting, Gance became the unchallenged master of montage in France. The triptych, which was later reinvented as Cinerama, was an invention whose inventor was conveniently forgotten. The final reel of Napoleon was also shot in 3-D and again in colour, though Gance disliked the results and declined to release those experimental reels, deciding at last on the triptych.”

  “Cinerama, unlike 3-D, dazzled its patrons by bringing the audience into the picture rather than the picture into the audience. Cinerama originally used three interlocked cameras and four interlocked projectors (one for stereophonic sound). The final prints were not projected on top of one another (superimposed, as in 3-D), but side by side. The result was an immense wrap-around screen that was really three screens.

  “The wide, deeply curved screen and the relative positions of the three cameras worked on the eye’s peripheral vision to make the mind believe that the body was actually in moti
on. The difference between a ride in an automobile and a conventionally filmed ride is that in an automobile the world also moves past on the sides, not just straight ahead.

  “As early as the Paris exposition of 1900, the energetic inventor-cinematographers had begun displaying wraparound and multi-screen film processes. (Multi-screen experiments have long been popular at world fairs, for example, the New York fair of 1963-64 and Expo ‘67 in Montreal.) As early as 1927, Abel Gance had incorporated triple-effects, both panoramic and triptych, into his Napoleon.

  “In 1938, Fred Waller, Cinerama’s inventor, began research on the process. But when This is Cinerama opened in 1952, audiences choked, quite literally, with a film novelty that sent them racing down a roller coaster track and soaring over the Rocky Mountains. A magnificent six-track (in later Cinerama films, seven track) stereophonic sound system accompanied the galloping pictures; sounds could travel from left to right across the screen or jump from behind the screen to behind the audience’s heads.

  “Cinerama remained commercially viable longer than 3-D because it was more carefully marketed. Because of the complex projection machinery, only a few theatres in major cities were equipped for the process. Seeing Cinerama became a special event; the film was sold as a “road-show” attraction, with reserved seats, noncontinuous performances, and high prices. Customers returned to Cinerama because they could see a Cinerama film so infrequently. (The second, Cinerama Holiday, came out three years after This is Cinerama.) And although Cinerama repeatedly offered its predictable postcard scenery and its obligatory rides and chases, the films were stunning travelogues.

  “Cinerama faced new troubles when it too tried to combine its gimmick with narrative: The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962), It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), How the West Was Won (1963). As with 3-D, what Aristotle called the “Spectacle” (he found it the least important dramatic element) overwhelmed the more essential dramatic ingredients of plot, character, and ideas.

  “In 1968, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, A Space Odyssey subordinated a modified Cinerama (shot with a single camera but projected on a Cinerama screen) to the film’s sociological and metaphysical journey, letting the big screen and racing camera work for the story rather than letting the story work for the effects. Despite the artistic and commercial success of 2001, Cinerama is even deader than 3-D, partially because the mid-1970’s combination of 70mm and Panavision lenses (which Kubrick also used), enhanced by Dolby Stereo soundtracks, comes close to reproducing the immense sights and sounds of Cinerama without clumsy multimachine methods of the earlier process.

  “In 1952 the gimmick successfully pulled Americans away from the small screen at home, but not enough of them at once to offer the film industry any real commercial salvation.”

  Source: A Short History of the Movies, Gerald Mast, Macmillan, New York, 1992. ISBN 0-02-377070-8

  Wide Screen Movies: CinemaScope, Todd-AO, MGM Camera 65, CinemaScope 55, Super Panavision 70, Ultra Panavision 70

  From Ian Campbell

  WIDE SCREEN

  “A third gimmick of the 1950’s also took advantage of the size of the movie screen. The new format, christened CinemaScope, was the most durable and functional of them all, requiring neither special projectors, special film, nor special optical glasses (this lack of special equipment especially pleased the theatre owners).

  “The action was recorded by a single, conventional movie camera on conventional 35mm film. A special anamorphic lens squeezed the images horizontally to fit the width of the standard film. When projected with a corresponding anamorphic lens on the projector, the distortions disappeared and a huge, wide image stretched across the curved theatre screen.

  “Once again the novelty was not new. As early was 1928, a French scientist named Henri Chretien had experimented with an anamorphic lens for motion picture cameras; in 1952, the executives of 20th Century Fox visited Professor Chretien, then retired to a Riviera villa, and bought the rights to his anamorphic process.

  “The first CinemaScope feature, Henry Koster’s The Robe (1953), convinced both Fox and the industry that the process was a sound one. The screen had been made wide with a minimum of trouble and expense. A parade of screen-widening “scopes” and “visions” followed Fox’s CinemaScope, some of them using anamorphic lenses, one nonanamorphic process (Vistavision) printing the image sideways on a celluloid strip, and some of them achieving screen width by widening the film to 55mm, 65mmm, or 70mm, notably Todd-AO, MGM Camera 65, CinemaScope 55, Super Panavision 70, and Ultra Panavision 70. The first 70mm film of the 1950s was Oklahoma (1955, directed by Fred Zinnemann and shot in Todd-AO).”

  Source: A Short History of the Movies, Gerald Mast, Macmillan, New York, 1992. ISBN 0-02-377070-8

  Dead Cinema Color Processes

  From Ian Campbell

  “From the earliest days of moving pictures, inventors and filmmakers sought to combine colour with recorded movement. The early Melies films were hand-painted frame by frame. Most silent films (Griffith’s, Lubitsch’s, and Gance’s most notably) were bathed in colour tints, adding a cast of pale blue for night scenes, sepia for interior or daylit scenes, a red tint for certain effect, a green for others. Such colourings were obviously tonal, like the accompanying music, rather than an intrinsic part of the film’s photographic conception.

  “As early as 1908, Charles Urban patented a colour photographic process, which he called Kinemacolor. But business opposition from the then powerful Film Trust kept Kinemacolor off American screens.

  “In 1917, the Technicolor Corporation was founded in the US. Supported by all the major studios, Technicolor enjoyed monopolistic control over all colour experimentation and shooting in this country. Douglas Fairbanks’ The Black Pirate (1926) and the musicals Rio Rita (1929) and Whoopee! (1930) used the Technicolor process, which added a garish grandeur to the costumes and scenery.

  “In the 1920’s Technicolor was, like Urban’s Kinemacolor, a two-colour process: two strips of film exposed by two separate lenses, one strip recording the blue-green colours of the spectrum, the other sensitive to the red-orange colours, then bonded together in the final processing. But by 1933 Technicolor had perfected a more accurate three-colour process: three strips of black and white film, one exposed through a filter to cyan, the second to magenta, the third to yellow, originally requiring a bulky three-prism camera for the three rolls of film.

  “Before WWII, colour was both a monopoly and a sacred mystery. Colour negatives were processed and printed behind closed doors. Natalie Kalmus, the ex-wife of Herbert Kalmus who invented the process, became Technicolor’s artistic director and constructed an officical aesthetic code for the use of colour (she preferred mutedly harmonious colour effects to discordantly jarring ones), a code as binding on a film’s colour values as was the Hays Code on its moral values. Until 1949, every film that used Technicolor was required to hire Mrs. Kalmus as ‘Technicolor Consultant.’

  [The film history series “Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood” (BBC TV, 1996) shows some remarkable clips of the French Pathe Studios tinting process. It differed from earlier (vaguer) hand tinting by using an assembly line of women using stencils and pantographs. The best of these films are as precise as the hand tinted postcards of the day. It’s also mentioned that once the novelty of motion wore off, early film audiences were dissatisfied with monochromatic cinema because they had become accustomed to the rich colours of the magic lantern shows.“Cinema Europe” is a great tv series for film buffs, but also has a few interesting examples of dead media. including a German phonographic “synchronized” sound film excerpt]

  Source: A Short History of the Movies, Gerald Mast, Macmillan, New York, 1992. ISBN 0-02-377070-8

  Norwegian transport wires

  From Richard Kadrey

  “How could it be possible that there were farmhouses in the middle of the mountain side? There were no roads of course; sometimes not even a path. Still they have cattle,
and cattle would need food. Hay. The answer was the transport wire.

  “By a well-developed network of transport wires they could move anything (even the cattle itself) up and down the mountain sides without trouble. Once established, this system generated a whole culture of its own. Since the length of the wire could exceed the range of the human voice, signals would be needed. ‘Sla pa traden’ (from the Norwegian language) means literally to knock on the wire, and that is precisely what was done.

  “Different ‘codes’ for every need gave a large number of signals. Though modern agriculture no longer gives room for such methods of small scale cattlery, this system is still alive in some rare places in Norway. Later in history, when the telephone spread to everywhere, the expression transferred to that new system of wires. Nowadays, ‘sla pa traden’ is a commonly used phrase in Norwegian for using the telephone.”

  Source: Sla Pa Traden (Music On Transport Wires) by Atle Pakutsch Gundersen; Experimental Musical Instruments, Vol. 12, #2; December 1996; pp 22

  the pneumatic post and the dreyfus affair

  From Mark Hayhurst

  “Today, the pneumatic post survives only in Paris and Italy. Pneumatic tubes are still however widely used for the transport inside many cities of the world of small batches of telegrams, express letters and air mail letters. These tubes are generally of a diameter of about 3 inches and the messages are carried in cylinders which are propelled along the tube by an air pressure differential from the back to the front, attaining speeds of around 25 mph.

  “Letters and cards which have been transported in the tubes are invariably creased where they have been rolled up for insertion in a cylinder.