THE BEGINNINGS OF FAX TECHNOLOGY
DURING THOREAU’S LIFETIME
And yet — in fact you need only draw a single thread at any point you choose out of the fabric of life and the run will make a pathway across the whole, and down that wider pathway each of the other threads will become successively visible, one by one. — Heimito von Doderer, DIE DÂIMONEN
1843
A news item relating to the development of ELECTRIC WALDEN technology: • A mechanism consisting of two pens on two pendulums above an electrically conductive surface, with the two pens and pendulums connected to each other only by an electricity-carrying wire, was able to duplicate writing at a distance. This amounted to the 1st prototype FAX machine and was patented by the clockmaker Alexander Bain (1818-1903) who had previously developed an electric telegraph device and a synchronized electric clock. The inventor’s electric telegraph had solved the transportation-of-message part of the new problem which he had set for himself, of writing at a distance, and his synchronized electric clock had helped with the synchronization part of the new problem. He prepared his message medium by the raising of metal blocks on a surface. As a metal stylus moved over the surface upon which the message had been prepared, the blocks that had been raised in lifting the stylus interrupted the flow of electricity. Unfortunately, this was merely a demonstration-of-possibility device as the preparation of such a surface was labor-intensive, and required considerable skill.
Which is more impressive — the speed of the fax’s diffusion in the last five years, or the lapse of a century between its first commercial use in 1865 and widespread use?
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” — Carl Sagan HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1848
A news item relating to the development of ELECTRIC WALDEN technology: •A working FAX design was patented by Frederick Bakewell (but his invention would not be commercialized).
1851
January: In the International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 2: We find in the London papers accounts of a Copying Electric Telegraph, invented by a Mr. Bakewell, who had given lectures upon it at the Russell Institution. Its object is the transmission of the handwriting of correspondents. Its advantages are, freedom from error, as the messages transmitted are fac-similes of the originals: authentication of the communications by the transmission of copies of the handwriting; increased rapidity, to such an extent that a single wire may be as effective as ten with the needle telegraph, and consequent economy in the construction of telegraphic lines of communication. The secrecy of correspondence would also be maintained in a greater degree by the copying telegraph, as it would afford peculiar facility for transmitting messages in cipher, and the telegraph clerks, instead of being compelled by their duties to read all the messages transmitted, might be forbidden from perusing any portion but the address. As an additional means of secrecy, the messages may be transmitted invisibly, by moistening the paper with diluted muriatic acid alone, the writing being rendered legible by a solution of prussiate of potass [sic]. FAX
2 Copyright Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1861
September 15, Sunday: Feng Kuei-fen authored the Chiao-pin-lu k’ang-i “Protest from the Chiao-pin Studio” document which recommended that China become capable of resisting the West by accommodating to the more powerful of the features of Western technology: this would be known as the Self-Strengthening Movement. Technology? In China? For sure, for sure, some say! An example of this is that there has been a claim made that FAXes were already being transmitted in this year in the Chinese language, before this technology became feasible in the West, as a hardware alternative to having a software “Morse code” (not viable for a non-alphabetic language) — as witness a transliteration from Chinese into English of a FAX cover sheet bearing an 1861 date:
September 15, the 10th year [1861] of the Xian Feng Reign [1851-61] To: The Cabinet Majesty Emperor Xian Feng From: [?] Re: Copy of treaties documented on the 11th and the 12th day of this month.
Unless, that is, the above is a significant misunderstanding —and I have been unable to discover any independent attestation to its authenticity. (Bear in mind that in this year of 1861 also appeared the 1st photograph known to be an intentionally, politically doctored one: When King Wilhelm I of Prussia visited a livestock show in Berlin no photographer happened to be present, so later the 30 farmers reassembled and a photograph was made in order to paste upon it a trimmed image of Wilhelm.) According to Joshua Shi of the Shanghai Star, In 1865 ... a line was set up to establish telegraphic connections between Shanghai and Wusong, so that people in the foreign settlements could be informed of the shipping movements at the mouth of the Yangtze River. The farmers destroyed the poles, which they said had a bad effect on the “Fengshui” of the locality.... A year later, Russell and Company, with the permission of the foreign authorities, put up a line between the French Concession and the American Settlement in Hongkou. This was the first telegraph line to operate in China, but it was entirely within the settlement limits.... In 1870, when a cable was laid between Shanghai and Hong Kong, the cable at the Shanghai end was not to be landed on shore but on vessels anchored outside the limits. No part of the line went overland; and at each port where the company had an office, the telegraph service was conducted on hulks. The cable at Wusong was brought ashore secretly.... [I]n 1878 the Qing authorities permitted the construction of an overland line along the old Wusong Road, the poles being erected on foreign-owned land. ... In 1880 and 1881, the Qing authorities employed the Great Northern Telegraph Company (Danish) to construct a line connecting Shanghai and Beijing, the imperial capital, at a cost of 140,000 taels of silver.
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 3 HDT WHAT? INDEX
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It would appear, if the above account out of the Shanghai Star is correct, that there must have somehow been a misprint in the date of this above transmission –perhaps that instead of being dated September 15, 1881, it actually was dated September 15th, 1881– and that there must also have been a misunderstanding as to the nature of the document in question — perhaps instead of the sheet of paper in question being an actual transmitted FAX, it had instead been merely a temporary instruction sheet on the basis of which the numbers used for the Chinese characters in a telegram transmission had been coded!
1862
Yet another early event in the development of ELECTRIC WALDEN technology: • Giovanni Caselli devised a “pantelegraph” that added to Alexander Bain’s 1843 FAX device a synchronizing apparatus.
1863
Yet another early event in the development of ELECTRIC WALDEN technology: • A functioning FAX machine was patented in the United States and a functioning FAX line was installed between Paris and Lyon, France.1 Two Chinese gentlemen appeared at Paul Gustave Froment’s FAX workshop outside of Paris to check out this Western invention, and expressed great amazement at the technological progress being made by the white people.2 They politely remarked that such a device would be a most efficient manner in which to effect the transmission of the complex characters of their written language. And, in France, a publisher rejected a manuscript entitled PARIS AU XXe SIECLE, which would not be revisited and published until the 20th Century (specifically, 1994). In this manuscript the author, Jules Verne, wrote of a Paris of the year 1960 in which a “photographic telegraph permitted the dispatch over long distances of the facsimile of any writing, signature or design.” This was to be a sort of “photo-telegraphy” which by that remote future time would be allowing “any writing, signature, or illustration to be sent far away, and any contract to be signed at a distance of 20,000 kilometers.” The sci-fi dreamer added that “Every house was wired.”
1. This was the first positive functioning of the system which Jonathan Coopersmith describes as an 1865 system (“Facsimile’s false starts: The development of the 150-year-old concept underwent many twists and cost millions of dollars before soaring to success.” IEEE Spectrum of February 1993, pages 46-9), where he mentions a patent by Abbé Caselli and the introduction of an ink-on-tinfoil system between Paris and Lyon in 1865, and another system employing a shellac-on-adhesive-ink system for raising the stylus and breaking the current. The late date, 1865, which he used in his article, was merely the date on which the system which the French government had under development had “gone public,” to carry such business items as stock market citations, and he is evidently referring to the public ceremonial dedication of the system, which was staged on May 16, 1865. The system had been, however, authorized by the French legislature in 1861, and was already as of 1863 transmitting at 15 words per minute, with a general throughput of 40 telegrams of 20 words each per hour. 2. Were these guys industrial spies, checking to make sure that we weren’t getting too far ahead of Chinese technology? 4 Copyright Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1902
News items relating to the development of ELECTRIC WALDEN technology: • Arthur Korn (1870-1945) devised a process termed “telephotography” which improved FAX transmission by providing a way to break down and transmit and receive still photographs by means of electrical wires. • The Blickensderfer device — a 1st attempt at creating a typewriter that ran on electricity.
1907
News items relating to the development of ELECTRIC WALDEN technology: • Plastic was patented by L.H. Baekeland. Industrial production of a compound they decided to term “Bakelite” would begin in 1909. • In an attempt to gain acceptance for their powered heavier-than-air aircraft, the Wright brothers packed it up and Wilbur went with it to France. At the port it was impounded for many months by French customs officials. Meanwhile, back in the USA, Orville had transported another model to the army base at Ft. Myer, Virginia, and on September 3rd flew it around the parade ground there. However, on September 17th, on a flight with Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge as a passenger, one of the guy wires snapped and fouled a propeller, the machine dove into the ground, and the lieutenant was killed and Orville seriously injured. Finally, in France, Wilbur was able to get his machine uncrated and assembled and into the air over Le Mans on August 8th. Then on December 1 31st he won the Michelin Prize by flying 77 /2 miles in two hours and twenty minutes, and the Wrights finally had achieved the press coverage which the novelness of their invention demanded.
However, the military enacted a curious specification for aircraft: before they would be interested, they said, the inventors would have to demonstrate that their machine could readily be disassembled, and transferred from place to place in a standard horse-drawn army wagon. • Arthur Korn sent his 1st intercity FAX, from München to Berlin. • Edouard Belin, who had been experimenting with FAX transmission since 1897, achieved with his invention, the “Belinograph,” the 1st telephoto transmission, from Paris to Lyon to Bordeaux and
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back to Paris. His device used a photoelectric cell to scan a cylinder as it rotated. A black-and- white photo mounted on this cylinder would, depending on the light or dark portions of the image, generate a string of transmittable electric impulses. Smile for the camera, Edouard:
1934
The Associated Press introduced the first system for routinely transferring “wire photos” (as FAXes were then being described). Meanwhile, the Xerox Corporation was introducing something they were deeming “Long Distance Xerography.”
1971
News items relating to the development of ELECTRIC WALDEN technology: • Computer Automation introduced the Alpha-16.
6 Copyright Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX
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• The IBM International Business Machines Corporation introduced its 370/135 and 370/195 mainframes. • The IBM 3720 machine featured a display terminal with a screen-oriented keyboard, and on this keyboard were keys for Enter, Ins, Del, Home, PageUp, and EOF (End). There were, in addition, arrow keys. • IBM introduced the “memory disk,” or “floppy disk,” an 8-inch floppy plastic disk coated with iron oxide, in order to load the IBM 370 microcode. • At intel Corporation, a team headed by Marcian E. Hoff announced the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004. The intel Corporation renegotiated its contract with ETI to obtain permission to market this microprocessor openly. • The intel Corporation introduced its 1101 chip, a 256-bit programmable memory, and its 1701 chip, a 256-byte EROM Erasable Read-Only Memory. • Kenback Corporation introduced the Kenback-1 computer, for US$750, a computer which used a 1KB MOS memory made by the intel Corporation. • John Blankenbaker built the 1st personal computer, the Kenbak I. • The National Radio Institute introduced the 1st computer kit, for US$503. • NCR introduced the Century 50. • Sperry-Rand took over the RCA computer product line. • David Nichols was working on an electronic process, at Iowa State University, that he would be able to patent in 1973. (It is this work which would constitute the foundation claim for fax machine patent royalties in the USA.) • By this point ARPANET had 15 nodes on 23 hosts: UCLA, SRI, UCSB, University of Utah, Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc., MIT, RAND, SDC, Harvard, Lincoln Lab, Stanford, UIU(C), CWRU, CMU, NASA/Ames. • Niklaus Wirth devised the Pascal programming language. • In this year and the next, at Xerox’s PARC, Gary Starkweather was developing the first functional laser printer. • Wang Laboratories introduced the Wang 1200 word processor system. • Michael S. Hart
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 7 HDT WHAT? INDEX
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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2013. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST
Prepared: June 24, 2013
8 Copyright Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX
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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, upon someone’s request we have pulled it out of the hat of a pirate that has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (depicted above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of data modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture. This is data mining. To respond to such a request for information, we merely push a button.
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 9 HDT WHAT? INDEX
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Commonly, the first output of the program has obvious deficiencies and so we need to go back into the data modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and do a recompile of the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process which you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge. Place your requests with
10 Copyright Austin Meredith