The Dead Media Notebook

by Bruce Sterling

  “’We began showing Sound Bites to our retail trade last week, and the response is phenomenal,’ said Dan D. Owen, President of Hasbro’s Emerging Business Group, which includes Hasbro’s OddzOn subsidiary. OddzOn will distribute and market Sound Bites. ‘You have to experience Sound Bites to believe it,’ Mr. Owen said.

  “There are six different versions of Sound Bites. First introductions include three musical themes, guitar, drum and saxophone; and three special effects versions, with cartoon voices, space noises and fun voices.

  “Sound Bites’ proprietary technology was co-invented by Andrew Filo, an accomplished Silicon Valley engineer, and David Capper, a veteran toy industry entrepreneur whose track record and experience ranges from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe to the Koosh® brand. Sound Bites, LLC. has filed numerous patent applications to protect its revolutionary new technology.

  “’Sound Bites is a collectible candy experience that appeals to boys and girls of all ages,’ said Capper, the President of Sound Bites, LLC. ‘We see enormous potential for Sound Bites, with virtually unlimited line extensions tied to holidays, movies, sports, television and music, to name a few. If it makes a sound, Sound Bites can put it right inside your head.’

  Source: softball business press coverage [Bruce Sterling remarks: okay, this music-producing candy isn’t dead media yet, but one really has to wonder if the world is ready for this collectible candy experience.]

  Phonovid Vinyl Video

  From David Morton

  “Westinghouse Putting TV on Phonograph Records” “The Westinghouse Electric Corporation introduced yesterday a new electronics system that plays sound and television pictures from phonograph records. The new system, to be called Phonovid, was displayed before the Edison Electric Institute convention at Miami by Dr. William E. Shoupp, vice president for research at Westinghouse. ‘The record is not just an audio recording that triggers pictures from a slide projector,’ Dr. Shoupp said. ‘Both the audio signal and the video signal are present in the grooves of the record and both are picked up by the phonograph needle.’

  “In answer to questions, Dr. Shoupp disclosed that the price of a Phonovid installation was $10,000. He indicated that closed-circuit television in schools would be a prime market and that television stations might find Phonovid useful for news background pictures and reports.

  “It was emphasized that the series of still pictures, voice and music came from the same phonograph records. Up to 400 pictures and 40 minutes of voice and music are available from two sides of a 12-inch, 33 1/3 r.p.m. recording, known as the Videodisc. The pictures can be line drawings, charts, printed text, or photographs.

  “Dr. Shoupp did not cite a price on Videodiscs but indicated they could conceivably run as low as classical records if the demand warranted it. He explained Phonovid would thus provide ‘a complete 400-page picture book on a single long-play phonograph record. . . with the accompanying sound equal in quality to that broadcast by an AM radio station.’ “In operation, the record would be played on n ordinary turntable and the pictures and sound could appear on any number of television receivers in a classroom or throughout an entire building. Any part of the recording and picture can be held, skipped or repeated by manually lifting the tone arm of the record player.

  “The key to the system is a scan converter, a series of electronic circuits that ‘scan’ the video signals on the recording and convert them into a video image. This is a technique similar to that used for obtaining television pictures from signals broadcast from weather satellites and space probes.”

  Source: New York Times, May 6, 1965

  Ancient Irish fire beacon

  From Dave Walsh

  [Dave Walsh remarks: Here’s a quote concerning methods of signalling in ancient Ireland, gleaned from the pages of Praeger.]

  “A little to the west of Westmeath lake region the hill of Usnagh or Uisneach rises gently to 250 feet above the surrounding undulating country, itself attaining some 600 feet above sea level. It has a rather extensive flattish top, which was a place of importance in old days, as witnessed by the number of monuments, mostly of the nature of ring forts and tumuli, which are scattered over it. According to ancient sources, it was the site of a royal palace and a royal cemetary in prehistoric times, and leading place of assembly; later, in early Christian days, it was the seat of the kings of Connaught.

  “One point is worthy of note. Though of but small elevation, the Hill of Usnagh, standing in the middle of the Central Plain, commands a singularly extensive view. From its summit, on a clear day, features belonging to no less than twenty out of the thirty-two Irish counties can be identified, and a beacon-fire lit here might be seen over one-fourth of Ireland, whence it could be readily relayed to the furthest corners. Probably this contributed materially to its early importance.”

  Source: The Way That I Went, Robert Lloyd Praeger, pp. 241, 1937, republished 1997 by The Collins Press ISBN 1-898-256-357

  the Pigeon Post Criminals

  From Trevor Blake

  CAPE TOWN (Reuters), South Africa has decided to shoot all pigeons in its North-West diamond producing area, because the birds are being used to smuggle gems out of the country.

  “’Diamonds are leaving the country in a manner which is extremely worrying,’ Manda Msomi, chairman of parliament’s public enterprises committee, said Tuesday, reporting after a visit to state diamond mining company Alexkor.

  “’Diamonds are being strapped onto the body of pigeons and flown out of the country. The law now is to shoot all pigeons on sight,’ Msomi said.

  “Msomi said his task team would recommend that Alexkor should not be privatized in the near term because the company’s assets had been so run down by diamond theft.

  “’There is no way we can allow the sale of Alexkor to be approved without a true valuation,’ he said. ‘The security of the product is paramount.’ “Msomi said it was possible that employees and the local community were implicated in the widespread theft and said Alexkor needed to spend about $8 million to improve security.”

  [Trevor Blake remarks: I don’t think pigeon post is “media.” Pigeons are not a “medium,” they’re just doing what comes naturally, whether it’s letters or diamonds tied to their feet. Media requires intent, and pigeons lack intent to convey information. The intent of those doing the tying is the same as with non-pigeoned mail. When the intent to communicate creates a new artifact, an artifact that can be superceded, then I’d call it “media.” Humans didn’t create pigeons.]

  [Bruce Sterling remarks: I couldn’t disagree more strongly. During the Franco-Prussian War, practically the entire information traffic of Paris, the besieged capital of a major industrial power, was carried on the wings of pigeons. This included news, government documents, war orders, personal mail and large sums of money (in the form of microfilmed postal orders). If this isn’t “media,” then what is?

  Pigeons may be a product of nature, but homing pigeons are domesticated animals, carrying specially designed cargo harnesses, rather like horses in the Pony Express. Furthermore, the pigeons themselves are just the aerial part of a larger mail system.

  It’s pleasant to see this fossil medium not only apparently thriving, but working both sides of the law. But I must say that I consider this tale of diamond-smuggling pigeons to be highly suspect. Maybe there’s a mysterious transnational network of feathered contrabandistas, or maybe this government diamond monopoly is trying to evade privatization because its books have been cooked.]

  Source: Reuters New Media, March 24 1998 S. Africa to shoot diamond-smuggling pigeons

  causes of media mortality; Roman relay runners, Mongol horse post, Polybius’s fire signals, British Naval Howe Code, Pony Express, Aztec signals

  From Alan Wexelblat

  I attended a talk given by Randy Katz (Department Chair of EECS at Berkeley) at MIT last week. As the title suggests, it was a fast review of communications technologies. The talk was bas
ed on a first-year course Katz teaches at Berkeley. Much of the talk (and the course, presumably) focuses on well-known dead media, such as the Nipkow disk.

  Below, I extract some of Katz’s more uncommon remarks on other dead media. Some of the most interesting parts of the talk were Katz’s suggestions on how to organize study of dead media. Katz suggests a framework based on the role of government.

  His argument is that communications technologies have historically been seen as ways to extend the power of the existing power structure (kings, nation- states, business cartels) to remote locations, and to that end, funding has been selectively given or withheld based on perceived power circumstances. One well-known example, of course, is the granting of a state monopoly to the entity that became AT&T.

  Katz argues that we see in the history of many media a recurring pattern of invention (most often by tinkerers, not scientists/researchers) leading to efforts to get state sponsorship for R&D.

  Many media die at this point, if the state refuses support. If the state grants support then the medium lives, at least for a time. This approach also speaks to the question of why/when/how media die.

  Katz identifies three methods:

  (1) “creative destruction” (in which a new medium destroys an old one, as the telegraph destroyed the pony express)

  (2) “withdrawal of state favor” (as when Minitel finally died after the French government withdrew its support)

  (3) “market-driven death” (Betamax videotape).

  Specific dead media mentioned in Katz’s talk:

  MUSCLE-POWERED MESSENGERS (FOOT AND HORSE):

  490 BC, Phidippides runs from Marathon to Athens with news of a battle. By 14 AD, the Romans have set up a network of relay runners.

  The Roman Relay is the first known example of express mail. Normal messages were carried at the approximate rate of 50 miles/day, but express mail was marked differently and carried approximately twice as far. This is the source of the phrase “post haste” which was the marking carried on the express messages.

  By 1280 AD, Kublai Khan had set up the first network of horse-using message relays. This medium finally dies about 400 years later when the Pony Express is retired (1860s). Pony Express riders covered 150-200 mi/day. The longest ride was by 14-year-old “Buffalo Bill” Cody, who managed 384 miles in one day (ouch!). The Pony Express record time for a message was 7 days, 17 hours. The message was Lincoln’s Inaugural address (March 4, 1861).

  VISUAL MESSAGING MEDIA

  Visual messages began with various heliographic systems before recorded history (the Aztecs apparently had such a system, as did many nomadic tribes).

  [Bruce Sterling remarks: “Aztec Heliography??” We must know more!]

  The first regularized visual signalling system was the Howe code, which was commissioned by the British Royal Navy in 1790. Howe’s system used 10 colored flags and a code book containing 260 entries.

  The goal, of course, was to be able to signal friends without giving away the orders to watching foes. Howe revived work which was apparently originated by the fire beacons in Greece. This system was first written down in 150BC by an historian named Polybius. This is the first documented system for relaying messages reliably.

  The Polybius system consisted of five torches on each of two towers. These were interpreted as the rows and columns of a matrix which had 25 elements; the Greek alphabet had 24 letters. Polybius’ writings include the first known instances of flow control, handshaking protocols and error correction. These procedures were learned by operators through an apprenticeship program. If there were written manuals they have not survived to modern days.

  OPTICAL TELEGRAPHY

  The French optical telegraph consisted of a tower surmounted by a large three-segmented wooden armature. The inventor, Claude Chappe, was funded by the French military and developed a code whereby arm positions every 45 degrees were defined and mapped to characters. Thus, users could make shapes such as +----+----+ and + | | [ASCII graphics don’t really do it justice.]

  Initially, the system operated inside Paris only. Napoleon extended it as he conquered territory. By 1814, the system was contiguous from Belgium through France to Italy. By 1853, there were 556 stations covering a diameter of almost 3000 miles.

  The system depended on the operator seeing that other towers had successfully copied his tower’s position. Then he would change his armature. Thus, messages rippled through the network in a one-character-at-a-time relay fashion. The effective data rate was 1 character every 30 seconds over a visible distance of approximately 10 miles between towers. The optical telegraph lasted until about the 1850s, when it was supplanted by the electrical telegraph.

  Source: speech at MIT by Professor Randy Katz Report on Dead Media Talk: From Smoke Signals to the Internet

  Public Fire Alarms In Colonial Shanghai

  From Bruce Sterling

  “While the wealthier residents enjoyed spacious accommodation, the majority of the population lived in crowded structures. Since most of the houses were built of wood, fire became a serious problem. Alarms were sounded by the ringing of church bells.

  Then, guns from the largest warship in port would respond with three volleys, followed by all other ships blowing their whistles. This system of warning, dramatic but not necessarily pin-pointing the exact location of the fire accurately, was used until 1880, when a more efficient system was devised.”

  [Bruce Sterling remarks: the firefighters of 19th-century Shanghai were unpaid volunteer brigades using hand-cranked pumps. Alerting and assembling them posed a serious challenge. There was a considerable language barrier between the German, Japanese, British, French and American emigre contingents and the Chinese locals. But fire was a general threat to all parties in Shanghai. Given these circumstances, we can see that a media solution evolved: everyone with the capacity to make public noise pitched in, with an almighty racket. However, they conveyed the alarm in order and with protocol: first the religious community, then the military, and finally, a general steam-powered shriek from private enterprise.]

  Source SHANGHAI: CRUCIBLE OF MODERN CHINA by Betty Peh-T’i Wei Oxford University Press, 1987 ISBN 0-19-583831-9

  the Chiu-mou-ti Hsing-wu-t’ai

  From Bruce Sterling

  “After 1911, theatres became known as wu’tai (stage), when raised platforms were introduced. In addition to traditional operas, there were acrobatic performances, magicians from China and abroad, puppets and, in time, Western-style plays. It was difficult to take away from the audience their considered birthright of talking, eating, and blowing whistles during the performance.

  “In the 1920s, an enterprising impressario built the Chiu-mou-ti Hsing-wu-t’ai (New Theatre on Nine Mou of Land), offering a combination of live actors and motion pictures. Complicated scenery such as mountains, rivers, moving trains, and steamships were shown on a screen, sometimes with actors performing in front of it. Indoor scenery, such as tables and chairs, would be placed on stage as props.

  Each play would consist of five or six scenes, alternating screen and stage actions.

  The format was quite popular until it was discovered that once an actor’s face was shown on the screen, the audience would not accept a different actor in the same role on stage. As a result, the format was not copied by other theatres in Shanghai.”

  [Bruce Sterling remarks: this is a charming example of cross- cultural multimedia hybridization. The Chiu-mou-ti Hsing-wu-t’ai is just one particularly exotic version of many, many efforts to somehow turn plays into films (“photoplays”) or to use projected screen techniques as theatrical special effects (Pepper’s Ghost, Riviere’s Theatre d’Ombres, the Prague Laterna Magika, etc.]

  Source: SHANGHAI: CRUCIBLE OF MODERN CHINA by Betty Peh-T’i Wei Oxford University Press, 1987 ISBN 0-19-583831-9

  Crandall’s Electric Sign

  From Dan Howland

  Crandall’s Electric Sign was an early changeable electric s
ign. It consisted of one or more frames holding an array of electric light bulbs, arranged in patterns similar to modern LCD characters. However, there is a charming Victorian twist, Crandall’s sign displayed a serif alphabet.

  With several of these frames linked together, the sign strongly resembles a baseball scoreboard. The switching device looks like a typewriter keyboard attached to an Autoharp, with electrical contacts replacing the felt pads, and current-carrying wires replacing the zither strings.

  By pressing the key for a letter, contact was made with the wires, lighting the required segments of the letter. According to Scientific American, the “government” (Federal? State?) tested the system in New York Bay on the night of April 2, 1898. A single frame, three feet by five feet, sat on top of a hotel. A boat withdrew to a mile offshore, where the sign was legible to the naked eye. At three and a half miles, the sign was visible through the spyglass.

  The front cover shows a Times Square-style headline: “CERVEARA’S FLEET IS AT SANTIAGO DE CUBA”. (The apostrophe appears in the same frame as the letter A, but how it would work elsewhere is a mystery.)

  Apparently, the system was in regular use displaying the headlines of a newspaper which Scientific American only identifies as “well known”. Also shown is the control room for this sign. Each letter (and space!) has its own separate keyboard, 38 in all.

  Source: Scientific American magazine, July 4, 1898

  Dead Digital Documents

  From Steven Black

  [Steven Black remarks: The more we think we save, the more is actually lost!]

  [Bruce Sterling remarks: here’s yet another set of colorful, horrific anecdotes on the fragility of digital storage media, this time appearing in the mainstream business press. It seems very likely that this once-arcane problem will slowly intensify into open scandal.]