Tag: Morsenet of Things
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Why is it a mismatch?
Via Verge: Google’s branch in Japan has a habit of releasing annual silliness, more or less an April Fool gag. The latest is interesting from a tech history viewpoint. It’s a computer keyboard with a set of rotary dials. You have to locate the letter on the circle and pull your finger around to the…
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Fessenden’s radio steganography
Before Fessenden developed underground and underwater sonar equipment, he went to work for an early radiotelegraph company. There he developed a unique system of private broadcasting, steganography for radio, the audio equivalent of invisible ink. Privacy was felt to be needed because radio had lost the innate self-contained privacy of a telegraph wire. Most of…
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Back to Magic Lanterns 2
Last week I returned to the subject of Magic Lanterns, the intersection of science and entertainment. Now I’m imagining another development of magic lantern tech that was easily possible in the era of the lanterns. Fluidic analog computers came along in the 1930s, AFTER electronic analog computers. This sequence was common. Many machines could have…
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Morse Day!
[I tried to write the title in code, but WP insists on condensing the spaces so it’s unreadable.] Today is Morse’s birthday! Since we tributed his original invention a couple years ago, we’ll just reprint. = = = = = START REPRINT: Last week I took a linguistic look at Morse and cranks and eccentrics.…
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Gelatin and polarization
This gadget shown in a book by Silvanus Thompson grabbed my attention. It was an attempt to polarize electromagnetic waves using mirrors. There isn’t much info on it, and it doesn’t appear to have proved anything. It sounds like a dead end, but with more persistence it could have led to a momentous discovery. Augusto…
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Dovetailing histories
Last month I featured an IEEE journal from 1962. Here’s the journal itself at Google Books. Along with the looking-forward articles, the journal included some plain history pieces. An article on p 752 by Colin Cherry tried to cover the ENTIRE history of mass communication, with a unique insight that our modern propaganda has wiped…
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More autonomous
Continuing on AI…. Dembski writes about autonomous cars, with a historically obvious point. The monsters who are depopulating the world are ready and willing to change everything. ALL MUST YIELD to the Supreme Will of Zuck. The easiest way to insure that cars can be autonomous is called TRAINS. Elon appears to have concluded that…
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The oldest hack
Bitcoiners, the ultimate anti-bank and anti-WallStreet radicals, are eagerly and voraciously gobbling up the chance to become part of Wall Street via Blackrock. Blackrock has been trying to set up an ETF, which is an abstract side-bet that used to be illegal before Reagan and Clinton wrecked FDR’s stock laws. All the gossip in the…
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Electrotyping, part 1 of 3
[Redated and slightly revised after I decided to continue the subject. This was originally a single free-standing item.] = = = = = Electrochemistry was the first practical use of electricity. The first attempted telegraphs used electrolytic bubbles in water as the indicator. Stereotyping was already mature in 1840, as an industrial process involving papier-mache…
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The Hughes Typograph
Found in Tangible Typography, or how the blind read, published in England in 1853. The Typograph was invented in 1851 by William Hughes, head of the Blind Institution at Manchester. It was demonstrated at one of the Crystal Palace exhibitions of new inventions, and was produced and used in small quantities. Several of the earliest…
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Missionaries of tyranny
Continuing from item on Ecumenical Institute. I wrote that EI was spreading the Tech Gospel in preparation for the Web War. This reminded me strongly of the missionaries sent by the same Deepstate to Kansas, who prepared the ground for Lincoln’s war against secure employment. The endpoint is the same in both cases. Costless labor…
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Party LAN
Thinking about Wincharger and rural electricity, it occurred to me that phones were common on farms LONG before electricity and automobiles and mail service. Started looking through old sources, easily verified the proportion: The rural free delivery carrier’s route rarely exceeds 24 miles in length and serves on an average about 70 farms. A rural…
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2015 reprint on intervals
I linked this 2015 piece in a footnote to yesterday’s item about two-part sleep. This piece listed several examples of theory and “learning” displacing older natural methods and natural knowledge. It rambled somewhat, but the rambling led to a point and turned out to be prophetic. = = = = = START REPRINT: Nothing can…
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Sequoyah was smart
A new article in Tablet makes a strong point. Hebrew is what keeps the Jewish tribe together. The author underestimates the specific linguistic power of Hebrew. (As opposed to just any generic shared language.) = = = = = START TABLET: To better understand this relatively unexplored contrast, we might refer to the distinction made…
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What ain’t it?
Rob Lowe makes the well-known point that most modern technology started with porn. How about older tech? Music and dance? Courtship rituals. Clear in our direct bird ancestors. Water and sewer systems? See bainea and thermae. Modern informal music unquestionably started with sexual connotations. Jazz means jism, and rock-n-roll means what you do in bed.…
Polistra's Mill 