Table of Contents
What is this book?
The DEAD MEDIA Project: A Modest Proposal and a Public Appeal
the Inca Quipu
Chaucerian Virtual Reality
The Milton Bradley Vectrex
the Voice-Activated Typewriter of 1916
Hotel Annunciator
The Cyrograph
the Scopitone
dead computer languages
artoc: The US Army’s portable pneumatic-tube powered multi-media system. in tents.
The Magic Lantern; Peck & Snyder’s price list
The scale of the Magic Lantern market
anatomy of A Magic Lantern show
Silent Film, Diorama, Panorama
Leaflet grenades and the Monroe bomb
software innovation in the Magic Lantern era
mechanical encryption systems of the 1930s; The Comparator; the Rapid Selector
The Experiential Typewriter
Dead Cryptanalytic Devices of World War II
Tongan Tin Can Mail
Edison’s Electric Pen and early desktop publishing
Military Telegraphy, Balloon Semaphore
Mirror Telegraphy: The Heliograph, the Helioscope, the Heliostat, the Heliotrope
The 17th century app store: Schott’s Organum Mathematicum
Mobile phones using telegraph wires
Pre wwII speech synthesis: The Voder, The Vocoder
C. X. Thomas de Colmar’s Arithmometer
Phonographic Dolls
IBM Letterwriter
the Zuse Ziffernrechner; the V1, Z1, Z2, Z3 and Z4 program-controlled electromechanical digital computers; the death of Konrad Zuse
Dead Media 1897: The Consumer Context
18TH CENTURY MULTIMEDIA: Loutherbourg’s Eidophusikon
Karakuri; the Japanese puppet theater of Chikamatsu
Dead memory systems
Victorian talking pictures: the Kinetophone
Clockwork wall animation—living pictures
Skytale, the Spartan code-stick
the pigeon post of ancient Sumer
the pigeon post in the seige of paris
the pigeon post in the seige of paris, part 2
the pigeon post and the balloon post
even more about the pigeon post
Vidscan
bootleg concert recordings of the 19th century, papier-mache records
Kids’ Dead Media 1929: The Mirrorscope, the Vista Chromoscope, the Rolmonica, the Chromatic Rolmonica
The Speaking Picture Book; squeeze toys that ‘speak’
Refrigerator-Mounted Talking Note Pad
The Experiential Typewriter
Kids’ Dead Media 1937: the Auto-Magic Picture Gun
The ‘writing telegraph;’ Gray’s Telautograph; the military telautograph; the telewriter; the telescriber
The Heliograph AND the Heliotrope
The Heliograph
Russolo’s Intonarumori
the Agfa Geveart Family Camera
The CED Video Disc Player
Eighteenth Century English mail hacks
the pigeon post FROM THE SEIGE OF ACRE TO WWI
Muybridge’s Zoopraxiscope
the Player Piano
Atari Video Music
the Elcaset cartridge tape and player
Bell Labs Half-Tone Television
Popular Science 1932: Naumburg’s Visagraph, the Electric Eye Linotype, Ordering Music by Phone
Piesse’s Smell Organ
Scott’s Electronium
Candle-Powered Radio
Cahill’s Telharmonium
Soviet bone music samizdat recordings
The Talking View-Master
Dead photographic processes
The Luba Lukasa
PhoneVision
Sonovision
Union telegraph balloons, Confederate microfilm
Chase’s Electric Cyclorama
Dead computational platforms
the Optigan
the Panorama
Daguerre’s Diorama
Known surviving panoramas
Jenkins Radiovisor, Bell Picture Telephone, RGA/Oxberry CompuQuad,
the theatrophone and the electrophone
more on the theatrophone and electrophone
Theatrophonic televangelism
Hopi town criers
Dancer’s novelty microphotographs and Dagron’s balloon post
Telephonic Jukeboxes: The Shyvers Multiphone, the Phonette Melody Lane, the AMI Automatic
Nazi U-boat automated weather forecasting espionage network
The Inuit Inuksuit
The General Electric Show ‘N Tell
The Bletchley Park Colossus
the Bletchley Park Colossus
The Aluminum Transcription Disk
Indecks Information Retrieval System
Pneumatic Typewriters
Dead Personal Computers
Early Mechanical Television Systems
Baird Mechanical Television, Part One: Technical Introduction
Baird Mechanical Television, Part Two: Technical Introduction
Baird Mechanical Television, Part Three: Baird Mechanical Television Part 3: Other Countries, Other Systems
Fire Signals and Horse Post on the Great Wall of China
The MiniCine toy projector
The Theatrophone, the electrophone
Peepshows
the Nintendo Virtual Boy, the Logitech Cyberman 3D mouse, the Nintendo Power Glove
An Amish Cyclorama
The Tru-Vue stereographic viewer
The ICL One Per Desk
The Philips Programmed Individual Presentation System (PIP)
the Travelling Panorama
the Edison Electric Pen, pneumatic pen, magnetic pen, and foot-powered pen
the Edison Electric Pen, Reed pen, and Music Ruling Pen
the Edison Electric Pen
New Guinea Talking Drum
Cat Piano and Tiger Organ Cat Piano
Shadow theatre
the Kinora
The Wilcox-Gay Recordio
The Velvet Revolution in the Magic Lantern
Native American Smoke Signals
fraudulent media of the Spirit world
the Edison Wax Cylinder
Kids’ interactive television: Captain Power
the Dubroni instant camera
the Singing Telegram; the death of George P. Oslin
Children’s Dead Media
Dead Personal Computers
Robertson’s Phantasmagoria
Dead media: Robertson’s Phantasmagoria; Seraphin’s Ombres Chinoises; Guyot’s smoke apparitions; the Magic Lantern
Robertson’s Phantasmagoria
Phantasmagoria enters the mainstream
Robertson’s Final Phantasmagoria
American Missile Mail
McDonnell Douglas Laserfilm VideoDisc Player
Two-track PlayTape; the Stanton Mail Call Letter Pack
Inuit carved maps
Edison’s Vertical-Cut Records
The Flame Organ; The Burning Harmonica; the Chemical Harmonica; Kastner’s Pyrophone
Telelogoscopy; Television Screen News
Phonograph History
PALplus television letterbox format
Heron’s Nauplius
the IBM Selectric Typewriter
The Blickensderfer Typewriter; the Scientific keyboard
the Slide Rule
Wide-Screen Movies: Gance’s Polyvision, Waller’s Cinerama
Wide Screen Movies: CinemaScope, Todd-AO, MGM Camera 65, CinemaScope 55, Super
Panavision 70, Ultra Panavision 70
Dead Cinema Color Processes
Norwegian transport wires
the pneumatic post and the dreyfus affair
Dead synthesizers: the Hazelcom McLeyvier
Dead Synthesizers: the Con Brio ADS 200
Dead synthesizers: ARP 2600
Dead synthesizers: the Adaptive Systems, Inc. Synthia
the library card catalog
the library card catalog
Dead Digital Documents
Officially Deleted Digital Documents
the Baby Mark I Computer
The Readies
Caselli’s Pantelegraph (Part One)
Bain’s Facsimile Telegraphy
NEWSPAPERS BY RADIO, IN 1938
TELEVISION IN THEATRES, AT 50,000 VOLTS
Gould’s 3-D Television
Duston’s Talking Book
Dead human languages
The Polyrhetor AT the 1939 World’s Fair Futurama
A VINE VENDING MACHINE IN THE 1960S: THE Sony Videomat
the Telegraph: the Morse Pendulum Instrument, the Morse Register
THE TELEGRAPHY ECOSYSTEM OF 1900
The Telegraph: Fire Alarms, Burglar Alarms, Railroad-Signal Systems, Hotel Annunciators, District Messenger Services
the Hotel Annunciator
The Telegraph: Inductive Telegraphy
recording and telling stories with The Inca Quipo
The Telegraph
Flower Codes
Henry Mills’ Typewriter
Typewriters: the Comptometer, the Numerograph, the book typewriter
Brown’s cash carrier
Brown’s cash carrier
Super 8 mm film
how to build a ‘farmer’s telephone’
Cash carriers
graphic novels of 981AD
Dead ASCII Variants
Dead Money
Wheatstone’s Telegraphic Meterometer
The Amateur Radio Relay League Radiogram
The Teleplex Morse Code Recorder
Bi Sheng’s Clay Printing Press
the Astrolabe; Ctesibius’s Clepsydra Orrery
the Astrolabe in Islam
the Astrolabe in Europe
Chaucer’s Astrolabe Manual
VISIDEP 3-D Television
Coins as Media
Interactive Cable Television: Cableshop
a personal recollection of VisiDep 3-D Television
Anschutz’s arcade peepshow
the death of naval morse code
artificial church bells
Exchequer Tallies
afterlife of the Edison Electric Pen
Poster Stamps
The Regina Music Box
3D PHOTOGRAPHY IN 1903
Mobile Cavalry Telephone
Camras’s Wire Recorder
Minitel R.I.P
The Burroughs Moon-Hopkins Typewriter AND Calculator
TelegraphIC LANGUAGE: Cablese, Wirespeak, Phillips Code, Morse Code
Whistling Networks of the Canary Islands
Talking Greeting Card; Manually-Powered Sound Tape
Monastic sign language
cardboard artificial intelligence
Spook Shows
Vinyl Multimedia
Basque Talking Drum
Peek-a-Boo Index Cards: Optical Parallel Computers of the 1950s
US Air Force ‘Clones’ Obsolete Electronics
Paris pneumatic mail
RCA SelectaVision Holographic Videofilm
Hummel’s Telediagraph; the fax machine of 1898
The Organetta
Computer Game Emulators
Ghost Sites on the Web
De Moura’s Wave Emitter
Nixie indicator tube displays
Korean Horse Post
Naval SOS Becomes Obsolete
Dead public sirens and horns
tower clocks and chimes; city-wide public address systems; factory whistles; foghorns
Telegraphy
Dead Digital Documents
The Philips-Miller Audio Recording System
Trail Blazing by Apes
Notched Bones
The Vortex Experimental Theater
Minifon Pocket-size Wire Recorder
Trail Blazing in Ancient Australia
Paper Magnetic-Recording Tape
AT&T Telephotography; AT&T Picturephone
Mechanical Sirens and Foghorns
Quadraphonics
Dead Chinese Coinage
Timex Magnetic Disk Recorder
the Pigeon Post, alive in 1998
Antique Chip Fabricator
The Toy Artist drawing automaton
Sound Bites musical candy
Phonovid Vinyl Video
Ancient Irish fire beacon
the Pigeon Post Criminals
causes of media mortality; Roman relay runners, Mongol horse post, Polybius’s fire signals, British Naval Howe Code, Pony Express, Aztec signals
Public Fire Alarms In Colonial Shanghai
the Chiu-mou-ti Hsing-wu-t’ai
Crandall’s Electric Sign
Dead Digital Documents
Winky-Dink Interactive TV
the Cat Piano
the Cat Piano, The Donkey Chorus, the Pig Piano
Train Token Signals System
Optical Telegraphy; Heliography
Train Token Signals System
Ramelli’s Book Wheel
The Camera Obscura
Parisian Shadow Theatre
Camera Obscuras Existing Today
Immortal Media
Pigeon Post in Paris
Donisthorpe’s Kinesigraph
Naragansett Drum Rocks
Pneumatic Mail in London
Pneumatic Mail in Berlin
Pneumatic Mail in America
the Pigeon Post
Radio Killed the Vaudeville Star
Pigeon Vests
Pigeon Spies of World War Two
Military Pigeoneers of World War Two
Pigeon paraphernalia
The Fisher-Price Pixelvision
Nazi Videophones
the pigeon post; the ostrich post
the Auto-typist
Unstable Photographs
Freight Tubes
The Clegg-Selvan pneumatic vehicle; wire conveyors, cash carriers, parcel carriers; the Lamson Tube; pneumatic tube industrial history
Fungal Hallucinogens in Decaying Archives
The Robotyper; the Flexowriter
Computer Game Designer Dies Young, But Outlives Own Games
Pneumatic tubes
Pneumatic tube applications
Dead supercomputers become furniture
Dead tunnels of Chicago
The Chicago Freight Tunnel Flood
Canada’s Telidon Network
Dead tunnels of Chicago, eyewitness report
the Optigan
the Railway Panorama
the Mareorama; the Cineorama
Newspaper via Radio Facsimile
Ultra-Personal Sony Handycam
Vinyl Record with Zoetrope
British Foreign Office Abandons Telegrams
Gilbreth’s Chronocyclegraph
Signals of the Beyazit Tower, Istanbul
Information Tech of Ancient Athenian democracy, Part One: Post-it Notes of 500BC
Info Tech of Ancient Athenian democracy, Part Two: The kleroterion randomiser
Info Tech of Ancient Athenian democracy, Part Three: cryptographic ID Cards
Info Tech of Ancient Athenian democracy, Part Four: voting machines
INFO Tech of Ancient AthenIAN DEMOCRACY, Part Five: PUBLIC RELATIONS
The Stereoscope; IMAX
Mutant Mosquitoes in Subway Tunnels
Telegraphic Paper Tape; Digital Paper Tape; Baudot Code; Dead Encoding Formats; ILLIAC; TTY
Military Pigeoneers of World War Two: Qualifications for Pigeoneers, Pigeon Lofts; Loft Routines; Pigeon Banding Codes, Lof
t Equipment Pigeoneer Supplies, Message Holders, Pigeons by Parachute
Bibliocadavers
the Prague Pneumatic Post
Babbage’s Difference Engine
The Pigeon Post
Bertillonage
Typesetters: a Dead Class of Media Workers
Spirit Duplicators
Phonautograph and Barlow’s Logograph
Sensorama
Chrysler’s Highway Hi-Fi, pt. one
Dead Binary Digital Computer (The Manchester Small Scale Experimental Machine—The Baby)
The invention of envelopes and the postal system in Ancient Mesopotamia
Canada’s Telidon network; Australia’s Viatel and Discovery 40
Scriabin’s Color Organ
Virtual Reality Techniques During the French Revolution and the Early 19th Century
Rene Dagron, Pigeon Post Microfilm Balloonist
The Kromskop, Victorian Colour Photography
The Birth and Death of Memory
Dead UK Video Formats
DIVX: Stillborn Media
The acoustic telephone
Damaged, obsolete undersea cables
How I became the first foreigner to operate the Prague Pneumatic Post
MICRONESIAN STICK CHARTS
Newspaper via Radio Facsimile
Cyclorama
Telautograph
Cash Carriers (intra-building)
Cash carriers (intra-building)
Seeburg 1000 background music system
Del Mar CardioCorder
Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100
Old Hard Drives
pre-digital crowdsourcing
Carmontelle’s Transparency
the Echo Cannonade of 1825
Undead Media - The Edison Stock Ticker
The Toy Artist drawing automaton
Mechanical Memories (rotating disk, movable pins)
The ephemeral nature of magnetic domains on rotating platters
Pre-cinema moving pictures (electrotachyscope)
The Nazi Volksempfanger Radio
clay tokens
Paul Allen revives Cinerama
Runic Tally Sticks
Color Movies from Black-and-White Film: Thomascolor
Totenrotel, the Medieval Wikipedia
Non-HTML hypertext authoring systems, circa 1993
NASA technology could save vanishing native American languages
Primordial Interactive Television (or Winky-Dink Redux)
Undead Media: The French Minitel System
The unexpected survival of Telex
Old music recordings, effects on music
Contoura portable non-xerographic photocopier
V-Mail, Microfilmed mail of WWII
Obsolete TV-type remote control techniques
Dead Architectural (and drafting) Media
Czarist-era Russian color photography
Magnetic disc audio
Decoding dead Martian data formats
Based on material from Dead Media Working Notes: deadmedia.org
Compiled (1995-2001) by Bruce Sterling, Richard Kadrey, Tom Jennings
The Dead Media Notebook Page 1
