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TELEVISUAL CULTURE Roberts Visions of Electric Media Ivy Roberts Visions of Electric Media Television in the Victorian and Machine Ages Visions of Electric Media Televisual Culture Televisual culture encompasses and crosses all aspects of television – past, current and future – from its experiential dimensions to its aesthetic strategies, from its technological developments to its crossmedial extensions. The ‘televisual’ names a condition of transformation that is altering the coordinates through which we understand, theorize, intervene, and challenge contemporary media culture. Shifts in production practices, consumption circuits, technologies of distribution and access, and the aesthetic qualities of televisual texts foreground the dynamic place of television in the contemporary media landscape. They demand that we revisit concepts such as liveness, media event, audiences and broadcasting, but also that we theorize new concepts to meet the rapidly changing conditions of the televisual. The series aims at seriously analyzing both the contemporary specificity of the televisual and the challenges uncovered by new developments in technology and theory in an age in which digitization and convergence are redrawing the boundaries of media. Series editors Sudeep Dasgupta, Joke Hermes, Misha Kavka, Jaap Kooijman, Markus Stauff Visions of Electric Media Television in the Victorian and Machine Ages Ivy Roberts Amsterdam University Press Cover illustration: ‘Professor Goaheadison’s Latest,’ Fun, 3 July 1889, 6. Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout isbn 978 94 6298 659 6 e-isbn 978 90 4853 787 7 doi 10.5117/9789462986596 nur 670 © I. Roberts / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2019 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. Table of Contents Introduction: The Lifespan of a Media Technology 11 1. The Telephonoscope: 37 How a Satire of Electric Light became a Visual Telephone 2. The Far-Sight Machine and the Kinetograph 65 How Television Brought Liveness to the Cinema 3. Human-Seeing Machines 105 From Annihilating Space to Mediated Vision Interlude 153 4. The Illuminating Engineers 161 Standardizing Vision 5. The Ikonophone 191 Bell Laboratory’s Two-Way Television Project Epilogue 235 Bibliography 241 About the Author 283 Index 285 List of Figures Figure 1. George Du Maurier, ‘Edison’s Telephonoscope,’ Punch, 9 December 1878. 17 Figure 2a. Thomas Alva Edison, Sketch of the Telephonoscope, Laboratory Notebooks, 2 April 1878. 19 Figure 2b. James E. Kelly, Sketch of the Telephonoscope, Labora- tory Notebooks, 17 May 1878. 19 Figure 3. George Du Maurier, ‘A Suggestion (Fair Female Phonog- raphers),’ Punch, 20 April 1878. 43 Figure 4. ‘Awful Possibilities of the New Speaking Phonograph,’ Daily Graphic, 21 March 1878. 45 Figure 5. James E. Kelly, ‘Gossip, by the Megaphone,’ Scribner’s, November 1878. 48 Figure 6. ‘Edison’s Megaphone,’ Scientific American, August 1878. 49 Figure 7. ‘Edison’s Latest Inventions; More About Edison’s Wonders,’ Daily Graphic, 19 July 1878. 50 Figure 8. ‘Brightness and Beauty,’ Punch, 13 November 1878. 52 Figure 9. ‘The Coming Light,’ Judy, 24 December 1878. 53 Figure 10. ‘Prometheus Unbound: Science in Olympus,’ Punch, 9 December 1878. 56 Figure 11. ‘Museum of Modern Antiques,’ Punch, 9 December 1878. 58 Figure 12. ‘Edison’s Anti-Gravitation Underclothing,’ Punch, 9 December 1878. 59 Figure 13. George Roux, ‘Telephote,’ in Jules Verne, ‘In the Twenty- ninth Century: The Day of an American Journalist in 2889,’ Yesterday and Tomorrow, 1910. 74 Figure 14. Shelford Bidwell, ’Telephotography,’ Nature 10 February 1881, 344-346. 76 Figure 15. Thomas Alva Edison, ‘Telegraphic Photography,’ Patent Series — Caveat Files: Case 115: Electric Light, Ore Milling, Phonograph, Telegraph, Telephone (12 May 1889) [PT031AAF1; TAEM 113:497]. 77 Figure 16. ‘Henley and the March of Science,’ Penny Illustrated (London), 6 July 1889. 80 Figure 17a. ‘Professor Goaheadison’s Latest,’ Fun, 3 July 1889, 6. 81 Figure 17b. ‘Goaheadison’s Real Latest,’ Fun, 17 July 1889, 24. 82 Figure 18. ‘Edison’s Phonographic Doll,’ Scientific American, 26 April 1890. 84 Figure 19. ‘The Kinetograph,’ The Sun, 28 May 1891, 1-2. 89 Figure 20. Antonia Dickson, ‘Wonders of the Kinetoscope,’ Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Magazine, March 1895, 256, 257. 94 Figure 21. Constantin Senlecq, ‘The Telectroscope’ The Electri- cian, 5 February 1881, 141-142. 109 Figure 22. George Carey’s Selenium Camera, ‘Seeing by Electric- ity,’ Scientific American, 5 June 1880, 355. 110 Figure 23. Shelford Bidwell, ‘Telegraphic Photography,’ Journal for the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians 10, September 1881, 357. 112 Figure 24. Jan Szczepanik and his marvelous invention. ‘The Latest Triumph of Electricity,’ Illustrated London News, 23 April 1898, 593. 114 Figure 25. ‘Siemens’ Sensitive Electric Eye’, Scientific American, 8 December 1876, 374. 121 Figure 26. Fritz Lux, Der Elektrische Fernseher. Ludwigshafen, 1902. 122 Figure 27. Szczepanik’s Telectroscope. Cleveland Moffett, ‘Seeing by Electricity,’ Pearson’s Magazine, 1899. 130 Figure 28. Jan Szczepanik, ‘Method and Apparatus for Reproduc- ing Pictures and the like at a Distance by Means of Electricity, British Patent 5031, 1897. 131 Figure 29. A. A. Campbell Swinton, schematic for distant electric vision, ‘Presidential Address,’ Journal of the Röntgen Society 8.30, 1912, 10. 134 Figure 30. Hugo Gernsback, ‘Television and the Telephot,’ Electri- cal Experimenter, May 1918. 134 Figure 31. ‘How Television Equipment Works at One End of the Two-Way Line,’ illustrated by H. G. Seidstad for Popular Science. ‘Talk, Hear, SEE on This Phone: Two-Way Television Is Demonstrated in Laboratory As an Engineering Stunt,’ Popular Science, July 1930, 22. 136 Figure 32. Alden Armagnac, ‘A Telescopelike Window,’ Popular Science, 1929. 136 Figure 33. Illustration by Will B. Johnstone, ‘Face with the Smile,’ New York Morning World, 10 April 1930. 137 Figure 34. H. W. Secor, ‘Television, of the projection of pictures over a wire,’ Electrical Experimenter 3, August 1915, 131-132. 137 Figure 35. H. W. Secor, ‘Television Perfected at Last,’ Science and Invention, 1927. 139 Figure 36. C. H. W. Nason, ‘A Short Course in Television,’ Television News, 1931, 31. 140 Figure 37. Armagnac, ‘Television Brought into the Home,’ Popular Science Monthly, April 1928, 20-21, 143. 141 Figure 38. Jenkins Televisor, Modern Mechanics, January 1929. 141 Figure 39. ‘How the Light Waves from the Subject are Transmitted by Radio and Converted back into a Picture at the Receiver,’ in ‘What Television Offers You’, Popular Mechanics, November 1928, 820-824. 143 Figure 40. Sanabria Television System, Television News, September-October 1931. 143 Figure 41. ‘The Transmitter for Radio Pictures,’ in ‘Television for the Home,’ Popular Mechanics, April 1928, 531. 143 Figure 42. ‘The Ultimate System,’ in David Sarnoff, ‘Where Televi- sion Stands Today,’ Modern Mechanics, April 1932, 42. 157 Figure 43. Zworykin’s ‘Iconoscope’ Cathode Ray Tube (1933) in Alden Armagnac, ‘”Human-Eye” Camera Opens New Way to Television,’ Popular Science, September 1933, 11. 158 Figure 44. ‘Seeing is a partnership of vision and lighting,’ in Matthew Luckiesh and Frank Moss, ‘The new science of seeing,’ Transactions of the Illuminating Engineering Society, January 1930, 17. 173 Figure 45. Representation of the CIE standard observer, colour- matching functions, CIE standard colour space. 175 Figure 46. Graphic representations of the Fechner Law 178 Figure 47. ‘Color-matching functions for the 1931 CIE standard observer expressed in the CIE colorimetric coordinate system,’ in Deane Judd, ‘Fundamental Studies of Color Vision from 1860-1960,’ NAS Symposium 55, 1966, 1326. 179 Figure 48. ‘Radiant flux of the spectrum primaries,’ in Deane Judd, ‘Fundamental Studies of Color Vision from 1860-1960,’ NAS Symposium 55, 1966, 1314. 180 Figure 49. ‘Color-matching functions expressed relative to the Young primaries,’ in Deane Judd, ‘Fundamental Studies of Color Vision from 1860-1960,’ NAS Symposium 55, 1966, 1316. 180 Figure 50. ‘Electric eye that never sleeps’ (Westinghouse Ad), Popular Science, February 1930, 7 182 Figure 51. A. R. Olpin, ‘New Types of Photoelectric Cells,’ Televi- sion News, July 1931, 212-214. 183 Figure 52. E. E. Free, ‘Magic Cell Works New Marvels: An Expert Tells How Photo-Electric “Eyes” Bring Television Nearer and Promise to Harness the Sun,’ Popular Science, October 1928, 25-26. 183 Figure 53. Front of the 1927 model. Photo courtesy of the Early Television Museum, Hillard, OH. 197 Figure 54. Invitation letter accompanying invitation card and instructions (left). Television Demonstration Invitation Card, front and back (right). Photographs courtesy of the Early Television Museum, Hillard, OH. 200 Figure 55. 1930 version of the Bell Labs two-way television. Interior of Television Booth. Popular Mechanics, June 1930. 202 Figure 56. Opposite pages illustrating the electron camera and receiver, with a backdrop of the Baird Television
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