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Subject: Dead Media Working Note 05.5
Dead Medium: The 'writing telegraph;' Gray's
Telautograph; the military telautograph; the telewriter;
the telescriber
From: bruces_AT_well.com (Bruce Sterling)
Source: The Telegraph: A History of Morse's Invention
and its Predecessors in the United States by Lewis Coe
TK 5115 C54 1993 McFarland and Company, Publishers
ISBN 0-89950-736-0
(((Mr Coe's lovingly detailed, too-brief work is
soaked with heartfelt nostalgia for the world of dead
telegraphy.)))
page 20
"It was not until 1886 that inventors became
interested in the idea of transmitting handwriting by
wire. The first machine, the 'writing telegraph,'
actually saw some limited commercial use. The writing was
received on a moving paper tape, and since there was no
pen-lifting mechanism on the receiver, all of the
individual letters were joined by a continuous line on the
tape.
"Telegraphic writing soon attracted the attention of
Elisha Gray, the man who lost the telephone patent to Bell
(...) Gray developed a practical machine, which he
patented and christened the "telautograph." Gray's
machine had a pen-lifting mechanism, and the received
message was written in conventional format on a wide sheet
of paper.
"A company called the Gray National Telautograph Co.
was chartered in 1888 and purchased the patent rights to
the machine from Elisha Gray. The telegraphic writing
created a sensation at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.
An improved machine in 1895 staged an impressive
demonstration in transmitting handwriting 431 miles from
Cleveland to Chicago.
"In 1900, Foster Ritchie, a former Gray assistant,
perfected a new design that represented a great
improvement over the original. This was the machine that
was marketed for the next 30 years. At this time,
telautographs were normally short-range instruments. They
had technical limitations that prevented reliable
performance at distances much over five miles.
"Even with its limitations, the telautograph managed
to find a sphere of useful applications and held its share
of the market in competition with the rapidly expanding
telegraph and telephone industry. It remained a device
that was little known to the general public since the
applications were mostly in large metropolitan areas. A
typical application was in the old Dearborn Street
railroad station in Chicago where a telautograph in the
main concourse kept baggage and mail handlers informed of
train movements.
"Perhaps the ultimate triumph of the telautograph
came in the late 1890s when it was selected by the U.S.
Army for fire-control communication in the coastal defense
system.
"First tested at Fort Wadsworth, New York, the system
was eventually installed in the most important coastal
forts of both Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The
nineteenth-century equivalent of Star Wars, the coastal
defense guns were the wonder of the age. Before the days
of air power and submarines, the only defenses needed
against enemy attack were the coastal artillery batteries
placed to protect important seaports. As typified by the
guns at Sandy Hook and Fort Hancock, New Jersey, that
protected New York harbor, the installations utilized the
highest technology then known and were shrouded in extreme
secrecy. In an 1898 article, the *Scientific American*
lamented that no one from the media had been permitted to
inspect the Sandy Hook installations since 1895.
"The guns were aimed on the basis of data received
from observers stationed some distance away, and a
reliable method was needed to transmit the data.
Telephone or telegraph was not practical due to the
deafening noise in the gun pits when the battery was
firing. Special military models of the telautograph were
designed to enhance ruggedness and reliability. The
receiver units at the guns were enclosed in heavy brass,
waterproof cases suspended on shockproof mounts. A plate-
glass window enabled the message to be read without
opening the case, and a small electric bulb illuminated
the paper for night reading. None of the coastal guns was
ever fired at an enemy, although there were active
concerns when tension mounted with Spain in 1898.
"Redesign of the telautograph instrument that took
place between 1940 and 1960 incorporated the latest
developments in electronics. The modern versions are not
limited in range and will operate on any channels normally
used for telecommunication, including microwave and
satellite facilities. Large numbers of the telewriters,
or telescribers, as they are now called, are still in use
throughout the world. Hospitals, hotels and factories
find them ideal for quick, errorless interchange of
written information. The current machines are a far cry
from the first models, yet they still do the same thing --
transmitting a written message by wire. Officials of the
Telautograph Corp. say that facsimile machines have now
taken over most of the needs for communication that were
first filled by the 'writing telegraph' of 1888."
Dead
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08.1-10.0 | 10.1-12.0 |