The Dead Media Notebook

by Bruce Sterling

  By 1974, there were approximately 400 titles available on quad disks or 8- track tapes, and 75 on open-reel tapes. Equipment prices began to drop significantly after Motorola Corporation introduced a single-chip decoder suitable for several of the matrixed disk formats.

  However, the electronics press claimed that record manufacturers, record retailers, and electronics dealers never fully supported these products. Record companies and retailers complained about the dual inventory problem related to carrying the same titles in multiple formats, particularly since they were already compelled to stock LP, 8-track, and, increasingly, cassette versions of popular releases. More enthusiastic were the quad record clubs that began to spring up to cater to four channel fans.

  By 1975, A&M and EMI records had stopped issuing new releases in multiple formats, with the former choosing to stick with CD-4 and the latter SQ. That year, High Fidelity’s editor complained that electronics dealers represented the least enthusiastic group in the country where quad is concerned, reflecting the declining sales of equipment.

  By the end of 1975 most large electronics chains began discounting quad equipment by up to 50 per cent in order to clear it out. Harman Kardon, Sherwood and other companies declared that they would stop quad production, and Radio Shack closed out its brand of quad equipment to make way for the next big fad, the Citizen’s Band radio.

  The fact that sales of quad reel-to-reel decks never quite fulfilled expectations was an unanticipated boon for musicians, the lines of high-end recorders designed by TEAC and other companies for quad fans were hastily repackaged as multi track home studio equipment, resulting in one of the first relatively affordable multi track recorders with separate inputs, preamplifiers, and level controls for four channels.

  By August of 1977, quad had run its course. Apparently the only manufacturer to offer a new product that year was Sansui, which had two quad receiver models in its catalog. Ironically, the FCC completed its tests of matrixed FM broadcasting and submitted its findings to the public for comment.

  In 1978, it issued standards for quad broadcasts, but by that time public interest had waned.

  As late as 1979, the audiophile press was still hyping quad, with well-known audio journalist Len Feldman claiming that 4-channel broadcasting was still very much alive. In fact, four-channel audio was not to be heard from again until the current fad for surround sound television.

  Precious Metal As a Network Protocol

  From Julian Dibbell

  James Buchan, on page 18 of his remarkable Frozen Desire: The Meaning of Money writes this:

  “From our vantage, we can see that money is of no particular substance and may be of no substance at all; that whatever money is, it may be embodied in coins or shells, knives, salt, axes, skins, iron, rice, mahogany, tobacco, cases of gin; in persons; in a word or gesture, paper, plastic, electronic impulses or the silver ingots raced through the streets on trays at sundown to make up accounts between the foreign banks in my mother’s father’s days in Hangkow.”

  Two things about this passage interest me. The first is its suggestive implication that money has both a “hardware” component (i.e., the coins, paper, knives, mahogany, etc., that embody it) and a “software” component (i.e., among other things perhaps, the value thus embodied).

  The second is the wonderfully nostalgic closing tidbit about the shuttling trays of silver in the streets of old Hangkow (this I assume is the former city Hankou, China, now a subdistrict of the megalopolis Wuhan), which provides a vivid, high-Cahill-number image of the essentially abstract dead medium I’m proposing for consideration here: metallic monetary standards, the antiquated practice of backing every piece of circulating currency with a fixed amount of precious metal. Some preliminary taxonomizing is in order.

  Bruce Sterling suggested that money might be thought of as a distributed calculating system, and that seems about right. But there’s another suggestion built into that one: that we think of money as a network.

  Strictly speaking, too, we’d want to think of it as an internetwork, globally distributed and capable of transmitting value from one end of the net to the other, so long as the proper network gateways are traversed. Money, we might even say, throwing precision to the wind, is the original Internet. But let’s just call it an analogy, and see where it leads us.

  One implication, I think, is that if coins and banknotes and so on are to be thought of as the hardware of the network, then we must also look for some underlying technical system we could call the network protocols. I am not enough of a finance wonk to identify the “protocols” of the contemporary world money system, a frighteningly live medium, in any case, but I think it’s safe to say that in the terms of our analogy, “protocols” is exactly what we would have to call the metallic standards that governed monetary exchange during the first great age of global capitalism (i.e., from Waterloo till the First World War).

  In particular, we would mean the gold standard, which died a slow death between 1931, when Great Britain abandoned it, and 1971, when Britain’s successor at the helm of world finance, the U.S., finally chucked it too.

  If I understand the Hangkow ingot exchange Buchan alludes to, that system might properly be considered a kind of monetary intranet, operating locally on the same principles as the global network.

  Globally, a physical transfer of precious metal was also used to settle accounts at the end of the day, though at that level the metal was gold rather than silver, and the transfers were between nations as well as banks, and the end of the day was really the end of the quarter or the year.

  It was a very different regime than what we have now, with very different effects. The money supply was tighter, often painfully so, and the drift of economies was (according to Buchan) deflationary rather than inflationary.

  In the U.S. at least, bitter and arcane controversy sometimes surrounded the subject of metallic standards, with the Populists of the late 1800s, for instance, supporting a move to a “bimetallist” gold-and- silver standard that would somehow loosen the money supply and make things easier for the little people.

  According to Jack Weatherford’s The History of Money: The Struggle Over Money from Sandstone to Cyberspace, it was apparently well-understood at the time that L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, published in 1900, was a Populist allegory inveighing against the gold standard (the seductive “yellow brick road” to the sham- world of Oz being merely one of the more obvious clues).

  Metal-based money was strange stuff. It’s difficult, at this late stage in the world-financial game, to imagine what could possibly bring the metallic standards back. Profound inflationary trauma perhaps; or maybe a global dictatorship. For the time being, at any rate, they remain very much dead.

  Source: Frozen Desire: The Meaning of Money by James Buchan (Farrar Straus Giroux, New York, 1977) The History of Money: The Struggle Over Money from Sandstone to Cyberspace by Jack Weatherford (Crown: New York, 1997)

  Dead Chinese Coinage

  From Matt Hall

  The currency that defines an economic period in a society is most definitely a medium. Perhaps not a medium for expressing ideas or concepts, but a medium for expressing value and worth. Early economies are sometimes incorrectly thought of as limited to primitive, person-to-person, bartering of goods. However, the Chinese seem to have had systems of currency as early as 1122 B.C.

  The cowry shell satisfied the dual criteria of portability and limited availability necessary for it to become a tool of trade. Later, cowry imitations were crafted in stone, and in different metals, so that the fragile shells themselves did not have to be used.

  Other, later forms of Chinese currency included inscribed replicas of a farmer’s spade and a type of curved knife. Both “spades” and “knives” had a denomination and a place of minting inscribed on them. Finally, the more contemporary Chinese coinage appeared, with its circular form and a square piece removed from the center.

  These knife and s
pade currencies became defunct for some pressing reason. Perhaps trends changed in what the populace perceived as a valuable shape or material. Maybe the common citizen somehow became comfortable with the idea of a unit of value no longer resembling the objects it could buy. What then is going to happen to our own society, with money replaced by digital representations?

  The cowry shell was imitated in stone to improve its longevity and transportability. Likewise, we replace the paper dollar with digital information to improve durability and the speed of transaction. Does this mean that our economies are getting more efficient? If so, what are we getting more efficient at?

  Source: Early Chinese Coinage, Wang Yu-Chuan, 1951, American Numismatic Society (HG 1223 W36)

  Timex Magnetic Disk Recorder

  From Bill Burns

  “New TIMEX Magnetic Recorder “Less than 9 lbs. Complete, 9 ½” x 11 ½” x 4 7/8” high overall.

  “Unit, complete with microphone, radio-phono cord, eraser magnet and one recording disc $59.95. Dealer cost $39.96 “Extra Attachments Available “NOW, for the first time, a recorder with all of these features: “Low cost “Simple to operate “Small size “Plays 45 RPM records “Discs can be folded and mailed “Discs compact for storage

  “This unique new magnetic disc recorder is especially suited to home and family use. It will record ‘sound albums’ of anniversaries, engagements, children’s first words, birthday parties, correspondence in sound from distant friends and relatives. It will record direct from radio, phonograph and TV; and can be used for business recordings.

  “The unit is as simple to operate as a standard record player; nothing to thread, no tape to break or tangle, no needles to wear out, no complicated controls, no accidental erasures.

  “The recording discs, iron oxide on a plastic base, are extremely smooth, lightweight and flexible. They can be folded and mailed without damage, only first class postage required. Over 100 discs can be stored in the space required for one standard record album.

  Source: National Jeweler, October 1954

  the Pigeon Post, alive in 1998

  From Trevor Blake

  [Bruce Sterling remarks: Fossil media, alive and on the wing! This is exciting news. I for one would love to see the official seals and badges of the Orissa Police Pigeon Service.] “Pigeons to carry election messages “NEW DELHI (Reuters), Election officials in the eastern province of Orissa kept carrier pigeons ready to take urgent messages as India held the second phase of general elections on Sunday.

  “Wireless services and telephones have still not reached some remote areas, where pigeons are used, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said.

  “The trained birds of the Orissa Police Pigeon Service, the only one of its kind in the country, might carry election messages and information regarding law and order,” it said.

  “The news agency said the pigeon service was launched in 1946 with birds taken from the army after World War Two.”

  Source: Reuters New Media, Monday, February 23, 1998, 10:33 AM EST

  Antique Chip Fabricator

  From Joel Altman

  [Joel Altman remarks: We deal with a company called ‘The Trailing Edge of Technology.’]

  “Philosophy “From its beginning, Lansdale Semiconductor, Inc., has specialized in ‘Aftermarket Technology.’ Lansdale has the technical expertise to support the aftermarket and has dedicated itself to that goal, assuring its customer base that older technology products will continue to be available.

  “The U.S. Military and Department of Defense contractors make a large portion of Lansdale’s clientele. Lansdale helps maintain the integrity of a number of military programs by supplying essential parts which are the equivalent to the originals, avoiding costly redesigns and emulations.

  “As technology advances, Lansdale is also keeping an eye on the future. As product life cycles become shorter, more programs are placed at risk by obsolete parts. Lansdale serves two vital functions by purchasing discontinued product lines. It allows the original manufacturer to divest itself of a product it can no longer support. It also offers users of that product the opportunity to keep their programs intact without costly redesign.

  “As long as customers need to maintain older systems, Lansdale will be there to supply the technology critical to their success.

  “History “Lansdale was founded in 1964 when Edward Pincus purchased Philco-Ford’s small signal transistor line. In 1976, Lansdale acquired Motorola’s Germanium transistor line. The company moved from Lansdale, Pennsylvania, to Arizona that same year.

  “Through the following years, the company purchased additional product lines, including the first bipolar digital integrated circuit line from Raytheon, and SUHL, DTL, and TTL lines from Motorola and Signetics. A bipolar wafer fabrication facility in Santa Monica, California, was added in 1984, allowing the company to expand its manufacturing capability in standard and custom integrated circuits. In 1986, the Germanium transistor lines were sold, and Lansdale dedicated itself to producing integrated circuits.

  “In 1987, Lansdale was purchased by then-company president R. Dale Lillard. Since then, Lansdale has added product from AMD, Fairchild, Harris, and Intel to the lines it supports. The company expanded its support of Motorola products by acquiring DTL, HTL, Linear, RTL, and more TTL lines in 1991. It has also increased its Signetics offerings by acquiring over 600 new parts, including both military and commercial product in 1992. The new sole-sourced commercial product facilitated Lansdale’s expansion into plastic packaging and the commercial marketplace.

  “To improve its ability to support its customers, Lansdale built a new wafer fabrication facility in Tempe, Arizona, in 1994, became a QPL manufacturer, then transitioned to QML in 1996. The QML plan was modified to allow Lansdale to list all its products, whether the die was fabricated by Lansdale or the original manufacturer.” [Joel Altman remarks: Looking through the Lansdale catalog is a trip down Memory Lane for this correspondent. It is interesting to see which circuits Lansdale considers “important.” They live up to their mission statement: To manufacture “important” integrated circuits forever.]

  Source: Catalog from Lansdale Semiconductor, Inc. 2502 W. Huntington Drive, Tempe, Arizona 85282 USA

  The Toy Artist drawing automaton

  From Dan Howland

  [Dan Howland remarks: In a nutshell, this toy was capable of storing simple line drawings as replacable dual cams. The engraving shows a seated doll in a clown suit, with his right arm holding a pencil lead to an easel. Behind him, on the base, is a crank.]

  “The mechanical toy shown in the accompanying illustration is one of the most original and ingenious things of its kind that have recently appeared. Within the base upon which the ‘artist’ and his easel are placed, and immediately below the figure, is a small pinion which is operated by a worm at the end of the crankshaft which is seen projecting through the side of the base. The pinion, which rotates in a horizontal plane, is provided with a couple of pins upon which is placed one of the sets of removable cams which accompany the toy.

  “The cams are double, being provided with two separate peripheral edges, and each edge is engaged by the short arm of a pair of levers, as shown in the engraving. [To picture the double cam, imagine an Oreo with small chunks broken at irregular intervals from the cookie’s edges.] The upper lever attaches at the end of its long arm to a vertical shaft, which passes up through the body of the figure, and is pivotally attached to its right arm at the shoulder.

  “By this means the rotation of the cam causes a vertical up and down movement of the arm and the drawing pencil which it carries. The lower cam operates a system of levers by which the arm is given a series of right and left movements. It is evident that by giving the proper relative contours to the two edges of the cam, the arm, with the pencil which it carries, may be made to trace any desired line upon the paper, either vertical or horizontal, by the action of the first or second cam, or diagonal or curved, by the joint
operation of the two. Each of the double cams which are provided with the toy will cause the figure to draw some well-known object...

  “The model from which our engraving was made produced an easily recognized likeness of the Emperor William of Germany [the device is made in Germany] and a drawing which bore a strong resemblance to a familiar barndoor fowl.”

  Source: Scientific American, October 17, 1896

  Sound Bites musical candy

  From Trevor Blake

  HASBRO SOUND BITES, YOU HAVE TO TRY IT TO BELIEVE IT

  Revolutionary Lollipop Lets You Hear Music Inside Your Head

  “Toy Fair is filled each year with innovative products that entertain children and families, but never before has the world experienced a toy that delivers sounds ‘inside your head.’ “Sound Bites™ is being unveiled at the 1998 Toy Fair in New York City, and the early reaction is music to Hasbro’s ears.

  “Based on proprietary technology developed by Sound Bites, LLC., the new toy-candy sensation sends safe sound vibrations through a standard lollipop. When a person bites on a lollipop that has been inserted in a Sound Bites, the sound vibrations travel through the teeth to the inner ear, where they are heard just like normal sounds. Audible primarily to the eater, the effect is the magic of hearing sounds inside your head.

  “’It’s rare to find a truly original product that is a sure winner,’ said senior toy industry analyst Sean McGowan of New York-based Gerard Klauer Mattison. ‘The possibilities for line extensions are practically limitless.’ “The Sounds Bites has four buttons that, when pushed, mix and match the sound selection. The holder is compatible with most standard lollipops. The first Sound Bites will be available nationwide at specialty and national retailers in May, with more extensive, global distribution later in 1998. Sound Bites will retail for approximately $9.99 in the U.S.