Thanks for expressing your interest in the Dead Media Project. The Dead Media Mailing List consists of occasional email to that stout little band of souls who have declared some willingness to engage in this recherche field of study. The list-editor is Bruce Sterling (bruces@well.com) and the list emanates from a mail exploder at fringeware.com. Traffic on this list should remain light == if I have any choice in the matter, that is *8-/. If at any time you want to be removed from this list, send me email and I will liberate you pronto. Contributions to the Dead Media database should be sent to me as list editor. These contributions should be considered as copyright-free texts abandoned to the howling wastes of cyberspace for the good of the net.community. We are not looking for polished commercial-quality articles, but for raw data that is easily fact-checked and designed for intellectual digestibility by other Dead Media researchers. The citation of sources is especially important. To date, the Dead Media Mailing List has consisted mostly of raw research notes with occasional theoretical venturings and general updates on the progress of the Project. Dead Media Working Notes generally appear in the following format: >Subject: Dead Media Working Note 00.7 >Dead medium: the cyrograph >From: drabin@taurus.apple.com (Dan Rabin) >Mr. Sterling, >I just attended your talk at Apple, and I thought I'd try >to get this to you before you get home. >The Dead Medium in question is the CYROGRAPH. It was a >form of authentication for duplicate documents used in >the Middle Ages. The document was written in duplicate >on a piece of vellum (or parchment); the copies were cut >apart and retained by two different parties. Sometimes >the cut was deliberately irregular in order to make >spurious matches unlikely. In addition, lettering would >be placed where the cut was to be made so that both the >shape of the cut and the lettering would have to match >in order to authenticate the copies. >References (from Library of Congress online catalog): >92-131963: Brown, Michelle. A guide to western historical >scripts : from antiquity to 1600 / London : British >Library, 1990. 138 p. : ill. ; 29cm. > LC CALL NUMBER: Z114 .B87 1990 >92-160830: Brown, Michelle. Anglo-Saxon manuscripts / >Toronto ; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1991. >80 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm. > LC CALL NUMBER: Z8.G72 E53 1991 >Enjoy, > Dan Rabin (drabin@taurus.apple.com) Mr Rabin's submission is brief and to the point. It offers intriguing avenues for future research. It describes a weird and deeply obscure technique that 99.995% of the human race has never heard of. If you send me something with these qualities, I can pretty well guarantee you that it will make the Dead Media Mailing List. Keep in mind that successfully contributing to this list is a deeply prestigious act. Contributors to this list are formally known as "Dead Media Necronauts." Others have the somewhat less stellar title of "Dead Media Lurkers." On occasion we have been known to tangibly reward Necronauts, with "official" swag such as Dead Media T-shirts, fridge magnets, snow globes, bumper stickers, pennants, monogrammed pencils, and adhesive floppy disk labels. Keep watching this space. If you are a collector of mechanical antiques, dead software, dead computers, dead playstations, dead recordings, PixelVisions, Teddy Ruxpins, or books on same, then you will want to be on our cousin list, the Dead Media Collectors' List. This list is run by Seth Carmichael (scarmike@well.com). To join the list, send mail to majordomo@lists.tmn.com with the message "subscribe collectorz [your email-address]" in the body. The Collectors' List has been established expressly for the sake of trading, bartering, want-ads, and other forms of netiquette-shattering dead media entrepreneurism. Under no circumstances will commercial announcements be run on the Dead Media Mailing List itself. Mailing List notes will be posted onto my topic on WELL.COM, the "Mirrorshades Postmodern Archive," and pretty much anywhere else anyone else wants to run them. Dead Media Working Notes come in "bound volumes" of twenty at a time. I've been known to snailmail the complete works on floppy disk to helpful Necronauts. The notes and associated Dead Media material are also available (at least temporarily) on that highly unstable medium, the World Wide Web. The First Official Dead Media Project Web Site http://www.multimedia.edu/~deadmedia Other Dead Media material on the web: http://www.islandnet.com/~ianc/dm/dm.html (Canada) http://www.peg.apc.org/~alonsdale/media/dedmedia.html (Australia) http://www.mediahistory.com/dead/archive.html (USA) I can't promise these websites will last, but they've been handy, and since they are run by volunteers at least the price is right. If you'd like to start your own Dead Media web site, send me email. Email serves the central purpose of keeping subscribers aware of "dead media." Since this field of study has never been a scholarly discipline and is not logically archived, it shows up mostly in the nooks and crannies of the arcane, the forgotten and the technosocially repressed. The likeliest way to discover examples of dead media is to learn to recognize it through repeated exposure, then to stumble over examples of it in daily life. One then alerts other Dead Media students by writing a Working Note for us. Here are the table of contents of the first three volumes: Dead Media Working Notes, 1-20 0.01. The Incan quipu 0.02. Chaucerian virtual reality 0.03. The Incan quipu 0.04. Kid media: viewmasters, filmstrips, portable projectors, Teddy Ruxpin 0.05. Dead personal computers 0.06. Dead mainframes; early computation devices 0.07. The cyrograph 0.08. The scopitone 0.09. Dead computer languages 01.0 The magic lantern 01.1 The magic lantern 01.2 Clockwork radio 01.3 The magic lantern 01.4 The term "Dead" 01.5 Silent film, the diorama, the panorama 01.6 The magic lantern 01.7 The Comparator; the Rapid Selector 01.8 Bibliography: Magic lanterns, Photography, Optical Toys, Early Cinema 01.9 The Experiential Typewriter 02.0 The magic lantern Dead Media Necronauts: Trevor Blake, Paul Di Filippo, Stefan Jones, Bradley O'Neill, Dan Rabin, Bruce Sterling Alan Wexelblat Dead Media Working Notes 02.1-04.0 02.1 Canada's Telidon Network 02.2 Dead Cryptanalytic Devices of World War II 02.3 The Stenograph 02.4 Canada's Telidon Network; Australia's Viatel and Discovery 40 02.5 The Copy Press, the Hektograph, Edison's Electric Pen, Zuccato's Trypograph, Gestetner's Cyclostyle, Dick-Edison Mimeograph, the Gammeter aka Multigraph, the Varityper, the IBM Selectric 02.6 Military Telegraphy, Balloon Semaphore 02.7 Mirror Telegraphy: The Heliograph, the Helioscope, the Heliostat, the Heliotrope 02.8 Schott's Organum Mathematicum 02.9 The Voder, The Vocoder, the Cyclops Camera, the Memex 03.0 C. X. Thomas de Colmar's Arithmometer 03.1 Toy telegraphy; toy telephony 03.2 Phonographic Dolls 03.3 The IBM Letterwriter 03.4 the Zuse Ziffernrechner; the V1, Z1, Z2, Z3 and Z4 program-controlled electromechanical digital computers; the death of Konrad Zuse 03.5 Loutherbourg's Eidophusikon 03.6 Karakuri; the Japanese puppet theater of Chikamatsu 03.7 Dead memory systems 03.8 the Kinetophone; the "Kinetophone Project" 03.9 Clockwork wall animation -- "living pictures" 04.0 Skytale, the Spartan code-stick Dead Media Necronauts: Nick Montfort, Bradley O'Neill Andrew Pam, Darryl Rehr, Jack Ruttan, Geoffrey Shea Andrew Siegel, Bruce Sterling, Bill Wallace Dead Media Working Notes 04.1-06.0 04.1 The pigeon post 04.2 The pigeon post 04.3 The pigeon post 04.4 The pigeon post 04.5 The pigeon post; the balloon post 04.6 The pigeon post 04.7 Vidscan 04.8 Miniature Recording Phonograph, Neophone Records, Poulsen's Telegraphone, the Multiplex Grand Graphophone and the Photophone 04.9 Kids' Dead Media 1929: The Mirrorscope, the Vista Chromoscope, the Rolmonica, the Chromatic Rolmonica 05.0 The Speaking Picture Book; squeeze toys that 'speak' 05.1 SHARP, a microwave-powered relay plane 05.2 Refrigerator-mounted Talking Note Pad 05.3 The Experiential Typewriter 05.4 Kids' Dead Media 1937: the Auto-Magic Picture Gun 05.5 The 'writing telegraph;' Gray's Telautograph; the military telautograph; the telewriter; the telescriber 05.6 The Heliograph, the Heliotrope 05.7 The Heliograph 05.8 Russolo's Intonarumori 05.9 The Agfa Geveart "Family Camera" 06.0 The CED Video Disc Player Dead Media Necronauts: Trevor Blake, Adrian Bruch, Charlie Crouch, Frank Davis, Dan Howland, Stefan Jones, Matthew Porter, Marcus J. Ranum, Jack Ruttan, Larry Schroeder, Bruce Sterling, Bill Wallace You can see by this that the Dead Media Project is a loose networking effort by independent scholars to establish a common source of public knowledge. It's a kind of Invisible College of archeological media illuminati. There is no money in this for anybody, except of course for the fabulous CRISP FIFTY DOLLAR BILL that I am offering to the first personage to publish the "Dead Media Handbook," which I imagine to be the eventual upshot of this research effort. If you would like your own emailed copy of the original Dead Media manifesto, let me know. (It originally appeared in BOING BOING magazine as "The Dead Media Project: A Modest Proposal and a Public Appeal.") At the moment, our most pressing theoretical difficulty remains a working definition of "medium." (The term "dead" is also considerably troublesome.) Consider for instance the Babylonian cuneiform tablet. A dried (fired?) clay brick covered with wedge-shaped pictographs. Dead graphic instrument (stylus). Dead recording device (clay tablet). Dead language (Babylonian). Dead alphabet (combination syllabary/pictography). Is it a dead "medium"? And if it is,then is a papyrus scroll also a dead medium? How about a Latin incunabula work on medieval theology? How about a plastic-bound manual for the Osborne computer? I hope you grasp the difficulty in drawing hard and fast lines here -- and that perhaps you can help draw a few that make sense. Here is the current (highly fragmentary) master-list of extinct forms of media: ****************************** THE MASTER-LIST OF DEAD MEDIA ****************************** DEAD PRELITERATE MEDIA Prehistoric etched-bone mnemonic devices and lunar calendars. Preliterate clay tokens of Fertile Crescent area. The Luba Lukasa mnemonic bead-tablet. The Inuit Inuksuit. String and yarn-based mnemonic knot systems: Incan quipu, Tlascaltec nepohualtzitzin, Okinawan warazan, Bolivian chimpu, Samoan, Egyptian, Hawaiian, Tibetan, Bengali, Formosan; American wampum, Zulu beadwork. DEAD SOUND-TRANSFER NETWORKS Drumming, stentor shouting networks, alpenhorns, whistling networks, town criers. SMOKE DISPLAYS AND NETWORKS Signal fires, smoke signals (still in use by Vatican), fire beacons. Skywriting. DEAD PHYSICAL TRANSFER NETWORKS Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Mongol, Roman and Chinese imperial horse posts. Extinct mail and postal systems: Thurn and Taxis (1550 AD), Renaissance Italian banking networks, early espionage networks, German butcher's-post, Chinese hongs, Incan runners, etc etc. Balloon post (France 1870-1871), Russian rocket mail (1992). Pneumatic transfer tubes: Josiah Latimer Clark stock exchange pneumatic system London (1853); R.S. Culler/R. Sabine radial pneumatic telegraph/mail system London (1859); Paris pneumatic mail system (1868) Pigeon post: Egyptian Caliphate 1100s, Mameluke Empire 1250's, military sieges of: Acre (11--?), Candia 1204, Haarlem 1572, Leyden 1575, Antwerp 1832, Paris 1870-1871; Reuter's pigeon stock-price network 1849, military pigeoneers of World War 1. Chinese kite messages, 1232 AD DEAD OPTICAL NETWORKS Roman light telegraph; the torch telegraph of Polybius ca 150 BC Moundbuilder Indian signal mounds Babylonian fire beacons Amontons' windmill signals (1690) OPTICAL TELEGRAPHY: Johannes Trithemius's Steganographia (ca 1500?) Dupuis-Fortin optical telegraph (France 1788) Chappe's "Synchronized System" and "Panel Telegraph" (France 1793) Claude Chappe's French Optical Telegraph (France 1793) The Vigigraph (France 1794) Edelcrantz's Swedish Optical Telegraph (1795) British Admiralty Optical Telegraph (1795) Bergstrasser's German Optical Telegraph (1786) Chudy's Czech Optical Telegraph (the Fernschreibmaschine) (1796) Van Woensel's Dutch system (1798) Fisker's Danish Optical Telegraph (1801) Grout's American Optical Telegraph (1801) Olsen's Norwegian Optical Telegraph (1808) Abraham Chappe's Mobile Optical Telegraph (1812) Parker's American Optical Telegraph (ca 1820) Curacao Optical Telegraph (1825-1917) Watson's British Optical Telegraph (1827) Australian Optical Telegraph (Watson system) (1827) Lipken's Dutch system (1831) O'Etzel's German Optical Telegraph (1835) Schmidt's German Optical Telegraph (1837) Ferrier's optical telegraph (1831) Russian Optical Telegraph (1839, Chappe system) Spanish Optical Telegraph (ca 1846) San Francisco Optical Telegraph (1849) Ramstedt's Finnish Optical Telegraph (1854) Heliography: The Mance Heliograph (Britain 1860s) The heliostat, the heliotrope, the helioscope. The Babbage Occulting Telegraph (never built) Semaphore and flag signals: Byzantine naval code (Byzantium AD 900), Admiralty Black Book code (England 1337), de la Bourdonnais code (France 1738), de Bigot code (France 1763), Howe code (Britain 1790), Popham code aka Trafalgar Code (Britain 1803, 1813) US Army Myer Code semaphore (USA 1860). Military balloon semaphore (France 1790s). Early 20th Century electric searchlight spectacles. DEAD ELECTRICAL TRANSFER NETWORKS ELECTRICAL CURRENT TRANSFER George Louis Lesage / Charles Morrison electric telegraph (1774) Francisco Salva's Madrid-Aranjuez electric telegraph (1796) Soemmering's electrolytic bubble-letter telegraph (1812) Henry's electromagnetic telegraph (1831) Baron Schilling's Russian magnetized needle telegraph (1832) Gauss/Weber mirror galvanometer telegraph (1833) CODED ELECTRICAL TRANSFER Samuel Morse telegraph (patented 1837) Karl August Steinhill paper ribbon telegraph (1837) Charles Wheatstone / William Fothergill Cooke Five-Needle Telegraph (1837) The Alphabetical Telegraph Foy-Breguet Chappe-code Electrical Telegraph The Bain Chemical Telegraph (1848) Alexander Bain automatic perforated-tape transmitters (1864). Telex. CODED ELECTRICAL TRANSFER OF IMAGES Elisha Gray's telautograph (1886); the telescriber. The Vail telegraphic printer (1837), the House telegraphic printer (1846) Frederick Bakewell's shellac conducting roller (1848) Giovanni Caselli's fascimile pantelegraph (Paris-Lyon 1865-1870); Arthur Korn's telephotography (1907), Edouard Belin's Belinograph (1913), Alexander Muirhead's 1947 fax. ELECTRICAL TRANSFER OF SOUND Unorthodox telephony networks and devices: The Bliss toy telephone (1886), Telefon Hirmondo, Cahill's Telharmonium (1895), Bell's photophone, the Telephone Herald of Newark, Electrophone Ltd. wire broadcast Telephonic Jukeboxes: The Shyvers Multiphone, the Phonette Melody Lane, the AMI Automatic Hostess, the Rock-Ola Mystic Music System ELECTRICAL TRANSFER OF SOUND AND IMAGE (Dead Telephony) The AT&T Nipkow disk picturephone (1927), Gunter Krawinkel's video telephone booth (Germany 1929), Reichspost picturephone (Germany 1936), AT&T Picturephone, AT&T Videophone 2500, etc (Dead Mechanical Television) Baird Television; Baird Noctovision; The General Electric Octagon; the Daven Tri-Standard Scanning Disc; the Jenkins W1IM Radiovisor Kit, the Jenkins Model 202 Radiovisor, Jenkins Radio Movies; the Baird Televisor Plessey Model, the Baird Televisor Kit; the Western Television Corporation Visionette (Dead Color Television Formats): Baird Telechrome, HDTV, etc (Dead Interactive Television) Zenith Phonevision, the first pay-per-view TV service (1951). AT&T wirephoto (1925) DEAD DIGITAL NETWORKS Teletext, Viewtron, Viewdata, Prestel, The Source, Qube, Alex (Quebec), Telidon (Canada), Viatel and Discovery 40 (Australia) etc. TRANSFERS BY ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION (Dead Television) Nipkow disk (1884), Zworykin iconoscope (1923), Farnsworth Dissector. Hugo Gernsback's Nipkow television broadcasts (1928) (Microwaves) Microwave relay drone aircraft (Canada 1990s) (Radio) RCA radiophoto (1926) DEAD INK-BASED MEDIA (dead text production devices and systems) Typewriters: Henry Mill's device (1714) Pingeron's machine for the blind (1780), Burt's Family Letter Press (1829), Xavier Progin's "Machine Kryptographique" (1833), Guiseppe Ravizza's "Cembalo-Scrivano" (1837), Charles Thurber's "Chirographer" (1843), Sir Charles Wheatstone's telegraphic printers (1850s), J B. Fairbanks' "Phonetic Writer and Calico Printer," Giuseppe Devincenzi's electric writing machine (1855) Edison electric typewriter (1872), Bartholomew's Stenograph (1879) Schulz Auto-typist punch-paper copier typewriter (1927) Weir's pneumatic typewriter (1891), Juan Gualberto Holguin's 'Burbra' pneumatic typewriter (1914), etc. Dead copying devices: James Watt's ink copier (1780) The aniline dye copy press The hektograph Edison's Electric Pen stencil (1876) Zuccato's Trypograph (1877) Gestetner's Cyclostyle (1881) The Edison Mimeograph (1887) The Gammeter, aka Multigraph (circa 1900) The Vari-Typer Chinese imperial court printed newspaper (circa 618 AD); Beijing city printed newspaper (748 AD) Bi Sheng's clay movable type (1041 AD) DEAD SOUND-CAPTURE TECHNOLOGIES Extinct forms of dictation machine. Poulsen's telegraphon wire recorder (1893) The Wilcox-Gay Coin Recordio (1950?) DEAD SOUND ARCHIVAL TECHNIQUES Extinct phonographic formats: Leon Scott de Martinville phono-autograph, Edison wax cylinder, the telegraphone, Bell's graphophone, wire recorders, 78s, 8-track, the Elcaset, Soviet "bone music," aluminum transcription disks, etc. DEAD SOUND REPRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES: The AT&T Voder (1939) The Bell Labs Vocoder Talking dolls and cassette dolls (von Kempelen's "talking" doll (1778), Robertson's talking waxwork (1815), Faber's talking automaton (1853), Teddy Ruxpin, dolls linked to television programs, realistic sound-producing squeeze toys, etc). DEAD STILL-IMAGE CAPTURE TECHNOLOGIES Extinct photographic techniques: Niepce's asphalt photograph (1826), daguerrotype, talbotype, calotype, collodion, fluorotype, cyanotype, Pellet process, ferro- gallic and ferro-tannic papers, albumen process, argenotype, kalliotype, palladiotype, platinotype, uranium printing, powder processes, pigment printing, Artigue proces, oil printing, chromotype, Herschel's breath printing, diazotype, pinatype, wothlytype, etc. DEAD STILL-IMAGE TO TACTILE IMAGE TECHNOLOGY Naumburg's printing visagraph and automatic visagraph. DEAD STILL-IMAGE DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES The stereopticon, the Protean View, the Zogroscope, the Polyorama Panoptique, Frith's Cosmoscope, Knight's Cosmorama, Ponti's Megalethoscope (1862), Rousell's Graphoscope (1864), Wheatstone's stereoscope (1832), dead Viewmaster knockoffs. Medieval and renaissance magic-glass conjuring. Alhazen's camera obscura (1000 AD), Wollaston's camera lucida (1807). Magic lantern, dissolving views, phantasmagoria. DEAD STILL-IMAGE WITH SOUND The GE Show 'N Tell DEAD STILL-IMAGE "3-D" WITH SOUND The Talking View-Master. DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION TECHNOLOGIES Joseph Plateau's phenakistiscope (1832), Emile Reynaud's praxinoscope, Ayrton's thaumatrope or "magic disks" (1825), Stampfer's stroboscope, William George Horner's zoetrope or "wheel-of-life" (1834), L. S. Beale's choreutoscope (1866), the viviscope, Short's Filoscope, Herman Casler's mutoscope and the "picture parlor" (1895), the Lumiere kinora viewer, the fantascope, etc. Dead cinematic devices, including but not limited to: Muybridge's zoogyroscope, E J Marey's chronophotographe and fusil photographique, George Demeny's Phonoscope, Edison kinetoscope, Anschutz's tachyscope, Armat's vitascope, Rudge's biophantascope, Skladanowsky's Bioscope, Acre's kineopticon, the counterfivoscope, the klondikoscope, Paul's theatrograph, Reynaud's Theatre Optique, Reynaud's Musee Grevin Cabinet Fantastique, Lumiere cinematographe, Kobelkoff's Giant Cinematographe, Lumiere Cinematographe Geant (1900), the vitagraph, Paul's animatograph, the vitamotograph, the Kinesetograph, Proszynski's Oko, the Urbanora. DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, SOUND TECHNOLOGIES the Photo-Cinema-Theatre sound film system (1900), Gaumont's Chronophone (1910), Messter's Biophon (1904), The Mendel-Walturdaw cinematophone (1911), The Jeapes- Barker Cinephone (1908), Hepworth's Vivaphone (1911), Edison kinetophone (1913), Ruhmer's Photographon optical sound recorder (1901), the synchronoscope, the cameraphone, phonofilm, the graphophonoscope, the chronophotographoscope, the biophonograph, DeForest Phonofilm (1923), Warner Bros/ Western Electric Vitaphone (1926), Fox Movietone (1927), Vocafilm, Firnatone, Bristolphone, Titanifrone, Disney's Cinephone, Hoxie / RCA Photophone (1928), General Electric Kinegraphone (1925), Cinerama (1951), CinemaScope (1952), Natural Vision (1952), etc. The Scopitone. DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, IMMERSIVE Raoul Grimoin-Sanson's Ballon-Cineorama ten-projector circular screen (1900) DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, SOUND, SMELL Odorama, Smell-O-Vision (1960), Aromarama (1959) etc. DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, SOUND, SMELL, IMMERSIVE Morton Heilig's early virtual reality. DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, "3-D" 3-D projection systems: d'Almeida's projected 3-D magic lantern slides (1856), Grivolas's stereoscopic moving pictures (1897), the Fairall anaglyph process (1922), Kelly's Plasticon (1922), Ives and Leventhall's Plastigram, aka Pathe Stereoscopiks, aka Audioscopiks, aka Metroscopix (1923,1925, 1935, 1953), Teleview (New York 1922), polarized light stereoscopic movies (1936), Ivanov's parallax stereogram projector (Moscow 1941), Savoy's Cyclostereoscope (Paris 1949), the Telekinema (London 1951), Space Vision (Chicago 1966). DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, SOUND, ARCHIVAL Dead video: Baird Phonovisor wax videodisk (1927), Ives/Bell Labs Half-Tone Television (1930s) Eidophor video projector (1945), PixelVision, Polavision, Philips Laservision videodisk, Panasonic HDTV (1974), analog HDTV (1989), RCA SelectaVision CED videodisk, Telefunken Teldec Decca TeD videodisk, TEAC system videodisk, Philips JVC VHD/AHD videodisk Dead videotapes: Ampex Signature I (1963), Sony CV B/W (1965) Akai 1/4 inch B/W & Colour (1969), Cartivision/Sears (1972) Sony U-Matic (197?), Sony-Matic 1/2" B/W (197?) EIAJ-1 1/2" (197?), RCA Selectavision Magtape (1973) Akai VT-100 1/4 inch portable (1974), Panasonic Omnivision I (1975) Philips "VCR" (197?), Sanyo V-Cord, V-Cord II (197?) Akai VT-120 (1976), Matsushita/Quasar VX (1976) Philips & Grundig Video 2000 (1979), Funai/Technicolor CVC (1984) Sony Betamax (???) DEAD VIRTUALITIES Physical display environments (non-immersive): Dioramas (no sound), de Loutherbourg's Eidophusikon (sound and lighting) (1781), the Stereorama, the Cosmoramic Stereoscope, Japanese karakuri puppet theatre (non-immersive mechanical drama). Immersive physical display environments Panoramas, Poole's Myriorama, the Octorama, the Diaphorama, Cycloramas, the Paris Mareorama (1900), dead thrill rides. Defunct digital VR systems. DEAD DATA-RETRIEVAL DEVICES AND SYSTEMS accountant tally sticks Card catalogs: The Indecks Information Retrieval System, Diebold Cardineer rotary files, etc. Vannevar Bush's Comparator and Rapid Selector Scott's Electronium music composition system DEAD COMPUTATIONAL TECHNOLOGY (ANALOG) Extinct computational platforms: abacus (circa 500BC Egypt, still in wide use) saun-pan computing tray (200 AD China) soroban computing tray (200 AD Japan) Napier's bones (1617 Scotland), William Oughtred's slide rule (1622 England) Wilhelm Schickard's calculator (1623 ?) Blaise Pascal's calculating machine (1642 France) Schott's Organum Mathematicum (1666) Gottfried Liebniz's calculating machine (1673) Charles Babbage's Difference Engine (built 1990s) (1822 England) Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine (never built) (1833 England) Scheutz mechanical calculator (1855 Sweden) The Thomas Arithmometer Hollerith tabulating machine (1890) Vannevar Bush differential analyzer (1925 USA) DEAD COMPUTATIONAL TECHNOLOGY (DIGITAL) The Cauzin Strip Reader (archival) Extinct game platforms: Actionmax Video System, Adam Computer System, Aquarius Computer System, Atari: 2600/5200/7800, Colecovision, GCE Vectrex Arcade System, Intellivision I/II/III, Odyssey, Commodore, APF, Bally Astrocade, Emerson Arcadia, Fairchild "Channel F," Microvision, RCA Studio II, Spectravision, Tomy Tutor, etc. DEAD BINARY DIGITAL COMPUTERS Konrad Zuse's Z1 computer (1931 Germany) Atanasoff-Berry Computer (1939 USA) Turing's Colossus Mark 1 (1941 England) Zuse's Z3 computer (1941 Germany) Colossus Mark II (1944 England) IBM ASCC Mark I (1944 USA) BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer) (1946-1949 USA) ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) (1946 USA) Dead mainframes. Dead personal computers: Altair 8800, Amiga 500, Amiga 1000, Amstrad Apple I, II, II+, IIc, IIe, IIGS, III Apple Lisa, Apple Lisa MacXL, Apricot Atari 400 and 800 XL, XE, ST, Atari 800XL, Atari 1200XL, Atari XE Basis 190, BBC Micro, Bondwell 2, Cambridge Z-88 Canon Cat, Columbia Portable Commodore C64, Commodore Vic-20, Commodore Plus 4 Commodore Pet, Commodore 128 CompuPro "Big 16," Cromemco Z-2D, Cromemco Dazzler, Cromemco System 3, DOT Portable, Eagle II Epson QX-10, Epson HX-20, Epson PX-8 Geneva Exidy Sorcerer, Franklin Ace 500, Franklin Ace 1200 Gavilan, Grid Compass, Heath/Zenith, Hitachi Peach Hyperion, IBM PC 640K, IBM XT, IBM Portable IBM PCjr, IMSAI 8080, Intertek Superbrain II Ithaca Intersystems DPS-1, Kaypro 2x Linus WriteTop, Mac 128, 512, 512KE Mattel Aquarius, Micro-Professor MPF-II Morrow MicroDecision 3, Morrow Portable NEC PC-8081, NEC Starlet 8401-LS, NEC 8201A Portable, NEC 8401A, NorthStar Advantage, NorthStar Horizon Ohio Scientific, Oric, Osborne 1, Osborne Executive Panasonic, Sanyo 1255, Sanyo PC 1250 Sinclair ZX-80, Sinclair ZX-81 Sol Model 20, Sony SMC-70, Spectravideo SV-328 Tandy 1000, Tandy 1000SL, Tandy Coco 1, Tandy Coco 2 Tandy Coco 3, TRS-80 models I, II, III, IV, 100, Tano Dragon, TI 99/4, Timex/Sinclair 1000 Timex/Sinclair color computer, Vector 4 Victor 9000, Workslate Xerox 820 II, Xerox Alto, Xerox Dorado, Xerox 1108 Yamaha CX5M etc. etc. etc. Dead computer languages. Fortran I, II and III, ALGOL 58 and 60, Lisp 1 and 1.5 COBOL, APT, JOVIAL, SIMULA I and 67 JOSS, PL/1, SNOBOL, APL Dead operating systems. Dead Internet techniques. We are actively hunting data in all these categories and also hunting for more categories. Bruce Sterling July 10, 1996 Subject: Dead Media Working Notes, 1-20 0.01. The Incan quipu 0.02. Chaucerian virtual reality 0.03. The Incan quipu 0.04. Kid media: viewmasters, filmstrips, portable projectors, Teddy Ruxpin 0.05. Dead personal computers 0.06. Dead mainframes; early computation devices 0.07. The cyrograph 0.08. The scopitone 0.09. Dead computer languages 01.0 The magic lantern 01.1 The magic lantern 01.2 Clockwork radio 01.3 The magic lantern 01.4 The term "Dead" 01.5 Silent film, the diorama, the panorama 01.6 The magic lantern 01.7 The Comparator; the Rapid Selector 01.8 Bibliography: Magic lanterns, Photography, Optical Toys, Early Cinema 01.9 The Experiential Typewriter 02.0 The magic lantern Dead Media Necronauts: Trevor Blake Paul Di Filippo Stefan Jones Bradley O'Neill Dan Rabin Bruce Sterling Alan Wexelblat Dead Media Working Note 00.1 Dead medium: The Inca Quipo Source: "History of the Inca Empire: An account of the Indians' customs and their origin together with a treatise on Inca legends, history and social institutionsÓ by Father Bernabe Cobo Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton University of Texas Press 1979 Third reprinting 1991 This book is an excerpt from "Historia del Nuevo Mundo" a much larger manuscript completed in 1653 by Bernabe Cobo, a Peruvian Jesuit p 252: "In place of writing they used some strands of cord or thin wool strings, like the ones we use to string rosaries; and these strings were called *quipos.* By these recording devices and registers they conserved the memory of their acts, and the Inca's overseers and accountants used them to remember what had been received or consumed. A bunch of these *quipos* served them as a ledger or notebook. The *quipos* consisted of diverse strings of different colors, and on each string there were several knots. These were figures and numbers that meant various things. Today many bunches of very ancient *quipos* of diverse colors with an infinite number of knots are found. On explaining their meaning, the Indians that know them relate many things about ancient times that are contained in them. There were people designated for this job of accounting. These officials were called *quipos camayos,* and they were like our historians, scribes, and accountants, and the Incas had great confidence in them. "These officials learned with great care this way of making records and preserving historical facts. However, not all of the Indians were capable of understanding the *quipos;* only those dedicated to this job could do it; and those who did not study *quipos* failed to understand them. Even among the *quipo camayos* themselves, one was unable to understand the registers and recording devices of others. Each one understood the *quipos* that he made and what the others told him. There were different *quipos* for different kinds of things, such as for paying tribute, lands, ceremonies, and all kinds of matters pertaining to peace and war. And the *quipo camayos* customarily passed their knowledge on to those who entered their ranks from one generation to the next. The *quipo camayos* explained to the newcomers the events of the past that were contained in the ancient *quipos* as well as the things that were added to the new *quipos;* and in this way they explain everything that that transpired in this land during all the time that the Incas governed. These *quipos* are still used in the *tambos* to keep a record of what they sell to travellers, for the *mitas,* for herders to keep track of their livestock, and for other matters. And even though many Indians know how to read and write and have traded their *quipos* for writing, which is without comparison a more accurate and easier method, still, in order to show the great subtlety of this method of preserving history and keeping accounts for people who had no writing and what they achieved with it, I wish to give the following example of what happened in our times. "Two Spaniards left together from the town of Ica to go to the city of Castro Virreina, and arriving at the *tambo* of Cordoba, which is a day's travel from Ica, one of them stayed there and the other continued his trip; at this *tambo* this latter traveller was given an Indian guide to accompany him to Castro Virreina. This Indian killed the Spaniard on the road and returned to the *tambo.* After some time passed, since the Spaniard was very well known, he was missed. The governor of Castro Virreina, who at that time was Pedro de Cordoba Mejia, a native of Jaen, made a special investigation to find out what had happened. And in case the man had been killed, he sent a large number of Indians to look for the body in the puna and desert. But no sign of him could be found, nor could anyone find out what had become of him until more than six years after he had been killed. "By chance the body of another Spaniard was found in a cave of the same desert. The governor ordered that this body be brought to the plaza so that it could be seen, and once it was brought, it looked like the one the Indian had killed, and, believing that it was he, the governor continued witht he investigation to discover the killer. Not finding any trace or evidence against anybody, he was advised to make an effort to find out the identity of the Indian who was given to the deceased as a guide at the *tambo* or Cordoba. The Indians would know this in spite of the fiact that more than six years had passed because by means of the record of the *quipos* they would have kept memory of it. With this the governor sent for the caciques and *quipo camayos.* After they were brought to him and he continued with the investigation, the *quipo camayos* found out by their *quipos* the identity of the Indian who had been given as a guide to the aforementioned Spaniard. The Indian guide was brought prisoner immediately from his town, called Guaytara, and, having given his declaration in which he denied the crime, he was questioned under torture, and at once confessed to having killed the man, but explained that the wrong body had been brought. However, he would show them the place where he had killed the man and where the body was located. Police officers went with him to the puna, and they found the body where the Indian guide had hidden it, and it was in a cave located some distance from the road. With the great cold and dryness of the paramo, the body had not decomposed, but it had dried out, and thus it was whole. The first body that was brought was never identified, nor was the killer. The extent of the achievement of the record and memory of the *quipos* can be appreciated by this case." Dead Media Working Notes 00.2 Dead medium: "Chaucerian Virtual Reality" Source: Popular Entertainments Through the Ages by Samuel McKechnie London, Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd GV 75 M35 MAIN UT library (1937?) pp 10-11-12: "Many of the minstrels were conjurers. These entertainers probably reached their greatest popularity in the fourteenth century, when they were known as tregetours. Some of their tricks were generally attributed to an understanding between the performer and the devil, this view being held by James 1. Accordingly, the tregetours were frequently classed with magicians, sorcerers and witches. They often travelled about in companies, and it is to be assumed that they carried with them the various contrivances necessary for the performance of tricks which did not depend on the most precious accomplishment of the conjurer, then as today -- sleight of hand. In 'The Frankeleyns Tale' Chaucer descries some of the tricks. Among them were the appearance, in a hall, of water and a barge, a lion, flowers, a vine, a castle of lime and stone -- all of which vanished as mysteriously as they had appeared: For ofte at festes have I wel herd seye, That tregetours, with-inne an halle large, Have maad come in a water and a barge, And in the halle rowen up and doun. Sometyme hath semed come a grim leoun; And somtyme floures spring as in a mede; Somtyme a vyne, and grapes whyte and rede; Somtyme a castle, al of lyme and stoon; And whan hem lyked, voyded it anoon. Thus semed it to every mannes sighte. He also tells how there appeared wild deer, some being slain by arrows and some killed by the hounds. Falconers were seen on the bank of a river, where the birds pursued herons and slew them. Knights jousted on a plain. The amazed spectator saw himself dancing with his lady: Doun of his hors Aurelius lighte anon, And forth with this magicien is he gon Hoom to his hous, and made hem wel at ese. Hem lakked no vitaille that mighte hem plese; So wel arrayed hous as ther was oon Aurelius in his lyf saugh never noon. He shewed him, er he went to sopeer, Forestes, parkes ful of wilde deer; Ther saugh he hertes with hir hornes hye, The gretteste that ever were seyn with ye. He saugh of hem an hondred slayn with houndes. And somme with arwes blede of bittre woundes. He saugh, whan voided were thise wilde deer, Thise fauconers upon a fair river, That with hir haukes han the heron slayn. Tho saugh he knightes justing in a playn; And after this he dide him swich plesaunce, The he him shewed his lady on a daunce, On which him-self he daunced, as him thoughte. And whan this maister, that this magik wroughte, Saugh it was tyme, he clapped his handes two, And farewel! al our revel was ago. And yet remoeved they never out of the hous, Whyl they saugh al this sighte merveillous. These were undoubtedly magic lantern effects, yet the lantern itself is usually thought to have been invented by Athanasius Kircher in the middle of the seventeenth century. The explanation, however, is that in the fourteenth century there were glass lenses which gave good telescopic and microscopic effects." Dead Media Working Notes 00.3 medium: the Inca Quipo aka Quipu Source: Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society David Crowley and Paul Heyer, eds. Longman, New York and London, 1991 ISBN 0-8013-0598-5 From the article: "Civilization Without Writing -- The Inca and the Quipu" by Marcia Ascher and Robert Ascher (also authors of "Code of the Quipu: A Study in Media, Mathematics and Culture", publisher and date unknown) "A quipu is a collection of cords with knots tied in them. The cords were usually made of cotton, and they were often dyed one or more colors. When held in the hands, a quipu is unimpressive; surely, in our culture, it might be mistaken for a tangled old mop. (...) "Quipus probably predate the coming to power of the Incas. But under the Incas, they became part of statecraft. (....) "There are several extremely important properties of quipus.... First of all, quipus can be assigned horizontal direction. (...) Quipumakers knew which end was which; we will assume that they start at the looped aends and proceed to the knotted ends. Quipus can also be assigned vertical direction. Pendant cords and top cords are vertically opposite to each other with pendant cords considered to go downward and top cords upward. (...) Quipus have levels. Cords attached to the main cord are on one level; theur subsidiaries form a second level. Subsidiaries to these subsidiaries form a third level, and so on. Quipus are made of cords and spaces between cords. (...) Larger or smaller spaces between cords are an intentional part of the overall construction. (...) "As well as having a particular placement, each cord has a color. Color is fundamental to the symbolic system of the quipu. (...) Basically, the quipumaker designed each quipu using color coding to relate some cords together and to distinguish them from other cords. (...) Additional cord colors were created by spinning the colored yarns together. Two solid colors twisted together gives a candy cane effect, two of these twisted together using the opposite twist direction gives a mottled effect, and the two solid colors can be joined so that part of the cord is one color and the rest of it is another color. (...) "For the most part, cords had knots tied along them and the knots represented numbers. But we are certain that before knots were tied in the cords, the entire blank quipu was prepared. The overall planning and construction of the quipu was done first, including the types of cord connections, the relative placement of cords, the selection of cord colors, and even individual decorative finishings. (...) The quipumaker's recording was nonlinear. (...) A group of strings occupy a space that has no definite orientation; as the quipumaker conmnected strongs to each other, the space became defined by the points where the strings were attached. (...) Essentially then, the quipumaker had to have the ability to conceive and execute a recording in three dimensions with color." Dead Media Working Notes 00.4 Dead medium: Children's Dead Media From SeJ@aol.com (Stefan Jones) A lot of the Dead Media examples Bruce provided are from the deep dark past. Here are some from a more recent epoch . . . kid media from when I was growing up, now dead and forgotten. Noninteractive Multimedia for Kids ------------------------- Film Loops ---------- A proto-VCR contraption, developed for schools. The media was a film cartridge: An endless loop of super 8mm film in a sealed, asymmetrical transparent plastic case. The player was about the size of a carousel- type slide projector. Operation was marvelously simple; the operator merely jammed the cart into a slot in the side of the projector and hit play. I seem to remember a reverse and still frame setting. There was no sound; running time was about five minutes. My high school had a few dozen of these; the ones I remember involve demonstrations of biological processes (cell division, metamorphosis, reptile homeostasis). There was also one of "Galloping Girdy," the bridge in Washington state that wiggled itself to death. Major flaws: Bulbs burned out frequently; my teachers took about five tries to get the cartridge inserted properly. Kiddie Film Strip Projector --------------------------- When I was a kid, a cousin got a swell visual storytelling gadget for christmas. The projector was a TV-shaped box with a rear-projection screen up front and a turntable up top. The media was a 35mm film strip enclosed in a stiff plastic holder; I seem to remember these "sticks" having gear teeth along one side. Each stick was accompanied by a 45 RPM (?) record. There may have been nine or ten slides per "show." Operation was not quite foolproof. The stick was inserted in a slot up top, and the corresponding record queued up; lots of leeway for error and accidental breakage, there. Once inserted properly, the stick descended into the machine, one frame height at a time; this in itself was fun to see. I don't know what synchronized the sound and pictures, but it worked quite well. The stories were kid stuff: Raggedy Ann & Andy, etc. The one that interested me most at the time was a quickie adaption of Doyle's _The Lost World_. Very dramatic. The "production values" of the stories were pretty good: Nice narration and music, plus brightly colored cartoon artwork. ViewMaster Knockoffs -------------------- I was going to describe the Viewmaster here, but I recently learned that the things are still in production! Indeed, gift shops at historical landmarks and scenic wonders still carry Viewmaster reels for touristas to bring home. I find this really remarkable. Who would buy the things, in this age of Game Boys and cynical, post-literate youngsters? Perhaps they've become "old fashioned" enough to be acceptable to Amish families. (After all, the classic Viewmaster ran on ambient light, and the reels were strictly rated G.) While the Viewmaster struggles on, its many variants and knockoffs have passed on. Here are a few: -- Viewmaster itself released a "talking" version when I was a kid; I think it had small strips of magnetic tape next to each slide. The viewer was a beast, from what I remember; it had to contain a tape player, batteries and loudspeaker. -- I remember a friend getting a knock-off of the viewmaster. The media were rectangular cards, and inserted into the viewer vertically. Notches along the edge allowed the advance mechanism to get a grip on the card. This strikes me as a much saner scheme than the Viewmaster proper, which had circular reels. -- Another knockoff, which I remember being advertised on TV under the name "Captain Stereo", also had rectangular cards. This variant had no slides; the color pictures that formed the stereo pairs were simply printed on the card! I imagine the viewer somehow projected light on the front of the card. Portable Film Viewers --------------------- At least one company offered a kiddie film viewer when I was a youngster. Light was provided by the sun or a handy light bulb; the film was advanced by a hand crank. The carts, each about the size of a had a minute or so's worth of 8mm film. The only one I remember was an excerpt from a Mickey Mouse cartoon. I've asked some friends to think about Dead Media. I'm getting some interesting feedback. Someone mentioned Teddy Ruxpin, the animatronic story-telling bear (who had two chances at life before snuffing it, and whose mechanism is still begging to be hacked and exploited for dadaist purposes), and QXL, the quiz robot. Both of these casette droids are _toast_, and these are just two of a growing legion of interactive dolls, video-watching puppies, and space fighters that react to stuff on cancelled TV shows. These things are _really_ dead; unlike, say, an orphan computer platform, there's no audience of obsessed users willing to churn out new software for these. If this trend continues, we'll no doubt someday see semi-sapient robot robot things, perhaps in the form of animals with pee and spit-up proof plush shells, languishing unused in closets for lack of new programs. Or, maybe, covered in green vinyl and reprogrammed to do yardwork. *************** Somewhere between live media and dead media is ephemeral media, something that might deserve a passing comment, if only to contrast it to the really dead stuff. Example: I've been working for a multimedia company. I get lots of trade junk mail. Every once in a while I get a thick envelope with a folding cardboard and plastic filmstrip viewer . . . a really nifty item. But after looking at the attached film strip once (I've seen 'em advertise things like monitors, virus removers and data conversion services) the thing's garbage. The thing's too simple to become "dead," but its usefulness is pfft! ****************************************************** Subject: Dead Media Working Notes 00.5 Dead medium: Dead Personal Computers Source: Historical Computer Society's "Historically Brewed" magazine Historically Brewed: Our First Year, $14.95 editor David Greelish Available from: HCS Press, 1994 2962 Park Street #1 Jacksonville Florida 32205 The staggering speed of technological obsolescence in personal computing makes this perhaps the single most challenging area in dead media studies. The following list, garnered from several issues of "Historically Brewed," a computer collectors' fanzine, does not even begin to count the casualties. There is no pretense of accuracy or exhaustiveness here, although this is the best list I've seen to date. These machines were created for the American, British, and Japanese markets, with no mention at all of, for instance, Soviet Bloc computers. Nor are there any listings of workstations, mainframes, dedicated game computers or arcade console machines. The lacunae here are very obvious and I hope that knowledgeable Dead Media Illuminati will help to close those gaps. I was deeply disquieted to learn that the Historical Computer Society has a sister group known as IACC which specializes in collecting defunct calculators. A further wrinkle suggests itself when one surmises that the true "dead medium" in dead computation is not dead platforms (such as those listed here) but dead operating systems (for which I have no list at all). An editorial note: The Dead Media Mailing List is now emanating from fringeware.com, who were kind enough to offer us their services gratis. The Dead Media Mailing List is not an interactive list or discussion group. That may come at some later time -- I welcome advice on the subject of a possible "alt.dead.media." Currently this mailing list is solely a means of distribution of edited articles and research minutiae. Only the most sober, lugubrious, and scholarly commentary will pass the eagle eye of the DMML editor, ie. bruces@well.com. Hopefully this will keep traffic down to the point where we can all actually get some work done. Dead Personal Computers (the first draft): Altair 8800 Amiga 500 Amiga 1000 Amstrad Apple I, II, IIc, IIe, II+, IIgs, III Apple Lisa Apple Lisa MacXL Apricot Atari 400 Atari 800 Atari 520ST Atari 1200XL Basis 190 BBC Micro Bondwell 2 Cambridge Z-88 Canon Cat Columbia Portable Commodore 128 Commodore C64 Commodore Vic-20 Commodore Plus 4 Commodore Pet CompuPro "Big 16" Cromemco Z-2D Cromemco System 3 DOT Portable Eagle II Epson QX-10 Epson HX-20 Epson PX-8 Geneva Exidy Sorcerer Franklin Ace 500 Franklin Ace 1200 Gavilan Grid Compass Heath/Zenith Hyperion IBM PC 640K IBM XT IBM Portable IBM PCjr IMSAI 8080 Intertek Superbrain II Ithaca Intersystems DPS-1 Kaypro 2x Linus WriteTop Mac 128, 512, 512KE Mattel Aquarius Micro-Professor MPF-II Morrow MicroDecision 3 Morrow Portable NEC PC-8081 NEC Starlet 8401-LS NorthStar Advantage NorthStar Horizon Ohio Scientific Oric Osborne 1 Osborne Executive Panasonic Sanyo 1255 Sanyo PC 1250 Sinclair ZX-80 Sinclair ZX-81 Sol Model 20 Sony SMC-70 Spectravideo SV-328 SuperBrain II QD Tandy 1000 Tandy 1000SL Tandy Coco 1 Tandy Coco 2 Tandy Coco 3 Tano Dragon TRS-80 TI 99/4 Timex/Sinclair 1000 Timex/Sinclair color computer Vector 4 Victor 9000 Workslate Xerox 820 II Xerox Alto Xerox Dorado Xerox 1108 Yamaha CX5M Possible sources of further insight: A Collector's Guide to Personal Computers and Pocket Calculators by Dr Thomas F Haddock $14.95 from: Books Americana, Inc P O Box 2326 Florence, Alabama 35360 History of the Personal Computer by Stan Veit $16.95 from: Historical Computer Society 2962 Park Street #1 Jacksonville, Florida 32205 Encyclopedia of Computer History by Mark Greenia Lexikon Publishing (??) Dead Media Working Note 00.6 From: bruces@well.com (Bruce Sterling) Dead Medium: Dead computational platforms, dead mainframes, and their dates Sources: Bruce P. Watson, Dr Kenneth E. Knight, assorted scrounging on World Wide Web "computer history" sites abacus (circa 500BC Egypt) saun-pan computing tray (200 AD China) soroban computing tray (200 AD Japan) Napier's bones (1617 Scotland), William Oughtred's slide rule (1622 England) Blaise Pascal's calculating machine (1642 France) Gottfried Liebniz's calculating machine (1673) Charles Babbage's Difference Engine (never built) (1822 England) Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine (never built) (1833 England) Scheutz mechanical calculator (1855 Sweden) Hollerith tabulating machine (1890) Vannevar Bush differential analyzer (1925 USA) Konrad Zuse's Z1 computer (1931 Germany) Atanasoff-Berry Computer (1939 USA) Turing's Colossus Mark 1 (1941 England) Zuse's Z3 computer (1941 Germany) Colossus Mark II (1944 England) IBM ASCC Mark I (1944 USA) BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer) (1946-1949 USA) ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) (1946 USA) Dead Mainframes afcno KEKno Manufacturer Computer Name Introduced ----- ----- -------------------------- ---------- * Zuse Z4 (mechanical relays) 1939 * Atanasoff/ABC Oct 1939 ? * Colossus Mark I (declassified 1970) 1943 1 Harvard Mark I 1944 * Colossus Mark II (declassified 1970) 1944 2 Bell Labs Computer Model IV Mar 1945 3 ENIAC (first vacuum tube) 1946 4 Bell Labs Computer Model V Late 1947 5 Harvard Mark II Sep 1948 6 BINAC (first stored program?) Aug 1949 * Cambridge Edsac (first stored program?) 1949 * IBM SSEC 1949? 7 IBM CPC 1949 8 Bell Computer Model III 1949 9 National Bureau of Standards SEAC May 1950 10 MIT Whirlwind I Dec 1950 11 Eckert-Mauchley UNIVAC 1101 Era 1101 Dec 1950 12 IBM 607 1950 13 AVDIAC 1950 * National Physics Labs/ACE May 1950 14 Harvard ADEC Jan 1951 15 Burroughs Lab Calculator Jan 1951 16 NBS SWAC Mar 1951 17 Eckert-Mauchley UNIVAC I Mar 1951 18 ONR Relay Computer May 1951 19 Fairchild Computer Jun 1951 * General Electric 100 ERMA 1951 20 National 102 Jan 1952 21 IAS Mar 1952 22 MANIAC I Mar 1952 23 ORDVAC Mar 1952 24 EDVAC Apr 1952 25 Teleregister Spec Purpose Dig Data Jun 1952 26 U. of Illinois ILLIAC Sep 1952 27 Elcom 100 Dec 1952 28 Harvard Mark IV 1952 29 ALWAC II Feb 1953 30 Logistics Era Mar 1953 31 OARAC Apr 1953 32 ABC May 1953 33 RAYDAC Jul 1953 34 MIT Whirlwind II Jul 1953 35 National 102A Sum 1953 36 Consolidated Eng. Model 36-101 Sum 1953 37 Jaincomp C Aug 1953 38 FLAC Sep 1953 39 Oracle Sep 1953 40 Sperry Rand UNIVAC 1103 Sep 1953 41 UNIVAC 1102 Dec 1953 42 UDEC 1 Dec 1953 43 National Cash Register NCR 107 1953 44 MINIAC Dec 1953 45 IBM 701 (first comm large scale) 1953 46 IBM 604 1953 47 AN/UJQ-2(YA-1) 1953 48 Rand JOHNNIAC Mar 1954 * Bell Labs LEPRECHAUN ???? 49 DYSEAC Apr 1954 50 Elecom 120 May 1954 51 Circle Jun 1954 52 Burroughs 204 & 205 Jul 1954 53 MODAC 5014 Jul 1954 54 ORDFIAC Jul 1954 55 Electro Data Datatron Aug 1954 56 MODAC 404 Sep 1954 57 Lincoln Memory Test Dec 1954 58 TIM II Dec 1954 59 UC Berkeley CALDIC 1954 * CSC-46 1954 60 UNIVAC 60 & 120 Nov 1954 61 IBM 650 Nov 1954 62 WISC 1954 63 NCR 303 1954 64 Mellon Inst. Digital Computer 1954 65 IBM 610 1954 66 ALWAC III 1954 67 IBM 702 Feb 1955 68 Monrobot III Feb 1955 69 NORC Feb 1955 70 MINIAC II Mar 1955 71 Monrobot V Mar 1955 72 UDEC II Oct 1955 73 Radio Corp of Amer RCA BIZMAC I & II Nov 1955 74 PENNSTAC Nov 1955 75 Technitral 180 1955 76 National 120D 1955 77 Monrobot VI 1955 78 MODAC 410 1955 79 MIDAC 1955 80 Elcom 125 1955 81 Burroughs E 101 1955 82 Bendix G15 Aug 1955 83 ALWAC III E Nov 1955 84 J.B. Rea Co. Readix Feb 1956 85 IBM 705, I, II Mar 1956 86 UNIVAC 1103 A Mar 1956 87 AF CRC Apr 1956 88 Guidance Function Apr 1956 89 IBM 704 Apr 1956 90 IBM 701 (CORE) 1956 91 NAREC Jul 1956 92 Royal McBee LGP-30 Sep 1956 93 Madac 414 Oct 1956 94 Underwood Elecom 50 1956 * Soviet Strela (Arrow) 1956 95 UDEC II Mar 1957 96 George I Sep 1957 97 UNIVAC File O Sep 1957 98 Lincoln TXO Aut 1957 99 UNIVAC II Nov 1957 100 IBM 705 II Lat 1957 101 Teleregister Telefile Lat 1957 102 Autonetics Recomp I Lat 1957 103 IBM 608 1957 104 Mistic 1957 105 MANIAC II 1957 106 IBM 609 1957 107 IBM 305 Dec 1957 108 Corbin 1957 109 Burroughs E 103 1957 110 AN/FSQ 7 & 8 1957 111 Alwac 880 1957 * Pegasus 1957 112 UNIVAC File I Jan 1958 113 Linclon CG24 May 1958 114 IBM 709 Aug 1958 115 UNIVAC 1105 Sep 1958 116 Lincoln TX2 Fal 1958 117 Philco 2000-210 Nov 1958 118 Autonetics Recomp II Dec 1958 119 Burroughs 220 Dec 1958 120 Mobidic 1958-1960 121 Philco CXPO 1958 122 Monrobot IX 1958 * NBS PILOT 1958 123 General Electric GE 210 Jun 1959 124 Cyclone Jul 1959 125 IBM 1620 Oct 1959 126 NCR 304 Nov 1959 127 IBM 7090 Nov 1959 128 RCA 501 Nov 1959 129 RW 300 Nov 1959 130 RPC 9000 1959 131 Librascope Air Traffic 1959 132 Jukebox 1959 133 Datamatic 1000 1959 134 CCC Real Time 1959 135 Burroughs E 102 1959 136 Burroughs D 204 1959 137 AN/TYK 6V BASICPAC 1959 138 Control Data Corp CDC 1604 Jan 1960 139 Librascope 3000 Jan 1960 140 UNIVAC Solid State 80/90 I Jan 1960 * Bunker-Ramo 300 Jan 1960 141 Philco 2000-211 Mar 1960 142 UNIVAC Larc May 1960 143 Libratrol XI May 1960 144 Monrobot XI May 1960 145 IBM 7070 Jun 1960 146 CDC 160 Jul 1960 147 IBM 1401 (Mag Tape) Sep 1960 148 AN/FSQ 31 & 32 Sep 1960 149 Merlin Sep 1960 150 IBM 1401 (Card) Sep 1960 151 Mobidic B Fal 1960 152 CDC RPC 4000 Nov 1960 153 Digital Equipment Corp PDP-1 (M.T.) Nov 1960 154 DEC PDP-1 (P.T.) Nov 1960 155 Packard Bell 250 (PT) Dec 1960 156 Honeywell 800 Dec 1960 157 General Mills AD/ECW-57 Dec 1960 * Bunker-Ramo 330 Dec 1960 158 Philco 3000 Lat 1960 159 MANIAC III Lat 1960 160 Sylvania 59400 Lat 1960 161 Target Intercept Lat 1960 162 Westinghouse Airborne 1960 163 RCA 300 1960 164 Mobidic CD & 7A AN/MYK 1960 165 Litton C7000 1960 166 Libratrol 1000 1960 167 GE 312 1960 168 Diana 1960 169 DE 60 Feb 1960 170 Burroughs D107 1960 171 AN/USQ 20 1960 172 AN/TYK 4V COMPAC 1960 * CSC-160 1960 173 General Mills APSAC Jan 1961 174 UNIVAC Solid State 80/90 II Jan 1961 175 Bendix G20 & 21 Feb 1961 176 RCA 301 Feb 1961 177 BRLESC Mar 1961 178 GE 225 Mar 1961 179 CCC-DDP 19 (Card) May 1961 180 CCC-DDP 19 (MT) May 1961 181 IBM Stretch (7030) May 1961 182 NCR 390 May 1961 183 Honeywell 290 Jun 1961 184 Autonetics Recomp III Jun 1961 185 CDC 160A Jul 1961 186 IBM 7080 Aug 1961 187 RW 530 Aug 1961 * Bunker-Ramo 530 Aug 1961 * CDC 924/A Aug 1961 188 IBM 7074 Nov 1961 189 IBM 1410 Nov 1961 190 Honeywell 400 Dec 1961 191 Rice University Dec 1961 192 UNIVAC 490 Dec 1961 * Bunker-Ramo 130 Dec 1961 193 AN/TYK 7V 1961 194 UNIVAC 1206 1961 195 UNIVAC 1000 & 1020 1961 196 ITT Bank Loan Process 1961 197 George II 1961 198 Oklahoma University Ear 1961 199 NCR 315 Jan 1962 200 NCR 315 CRAM Jan 1962 201 UNIVAC File II Jan 1962 202 HRB-Singer SEMA Jan 1962 203 UNIVAC 1004 Feb 1962 * IBM 1710/1720 Feb 1962 * Linc Mar 1962 204 ASI 210 Apr 1962 205 UNIVAC III Jun 1962 206 Burroughs B200 Series-B270 & 280 Jul 1962 * GE 412 Jul 1962 207 Scientific Data Systems SDS 910 Aug 1962 208 SDS 920 Sep 1962 209 DEC PDP-4 Sep 1962 210 UNIVAC 1107 Oct 1962 211 IBM 7094 Oct 1962 * Collins Radio 8400 Nov 1962 212 IBM 7072 Nov 1962 213 IBM 1620 MOD III Dec 1962 214 Burroughs B5000 Dec 1962 215 ASI 420 Dec 1962 216 Burroughs B2000 Series-Card Sys. Dec 1962 * CDC LPG-21 Dec 1962 217 TRW 400 (AN/FSQ 27) 1962 * AN/GYK-3(V) (Honeywell D825) 1962 218 CDC 3600 Jun 1963 219 IBM 7040 Apr 1963 * English Electric KDF 9 Apr 1963 220 IBM 7044 Jul 1963 221 RCA 601 Jan 1963 222 Honeywell 1800 Nov 1963 223 Philco 1000 TRANSAC S1000 Jun 1963 224 Philco 2000-212 Feb 1963 225 Librascope L 3055 Dec 1963 226 H.W.Electronics 15K Feb 1963 227 GE 215 Jun 1963 228 DDP-24 Jun 1963 229 CDC 3600 Jun 1963 * Bunker-Ramo 230 Jun 1963 * Westinghouse 510/580 Jun 1963 * Honeywell 610/620 Aug 1963 230 UNIVAC 1050 Sep 1963 231 UNIVAC 1004 Sep 1963 232 DEC PDP-5 Oct 1963 * Bunker-Ramo 340 Oct 1963 * CSC-636 Oct 1963 233 IBM 1460 Oct 1963 * GE Datanet-30 Oct 1963 234 IBM 1440 Nov 1963 235 Honeywell 1400 Dec 1963 236 ASI 2100 Dec 1963 237 SDS-93C0 Dec 1963 238 Burroughs 273 Jan 1964 239 GE-235 Jan 1964 240 IBM 7010 Jan 1964 * PDS 1020 Feb 1964 * IBM 7700 Mar 1964 241 Burroughs B 160-180 Apr 1964 242 CDC 160G Apr 1964 243 IBM 7094 II Apr 1964 244 CDC 3200 May 1964 245 GE 415 May 1964 * CDC 8090 May 1964 246 UNIVAC 1004 II, III Jun 1964 247 SDS-930 Jun 1964 248 GE 425 Jun 1964 * Beckman Instruments 420 Jun 1964 * Bunker-Ramo 133 Jun 1964 * CDC 8092 Jun 1964 249 GE 205 Jul 1964 250 Honeywell 200 Jul 1964 251 RCA 3301 Jul 1964 252 DEC PDP-6 Jul 1964 * Varian 610 Jul 1964 * Adage Ambilog-200 Aug 1964 * GE 4040 Aug 1964 * Westinghouse Electric 50 Aug 1964 253 CDC 6600 Sep 1964 254 UNIVAC 41B Sep 1964 255 NCR 315-100 Nov 1964 256 GE 635 Nov 1964 257 CDC 3400 Nov 1964 258 Burroughs B5500 Nov 1964 * Digital Electronics 3080 Dec 1964 * DECSYSTEM 10 PDP-6 1964 259 SDS 925 Feb 1965 260 SDS 92 Feb 1965 261 CDC 3100 Feb 1965 262 ASI 6020 Mar 1965 263 DDP-224 Mar 1965 264 DDP-116 Apr 1965 265 GE 625 Apr 1965 266 DEC PDP-8 Apr 1965 267 DEC PDP-7 Apr 1965 268 IBM 360/40 May 1965 269 IBM 360/30 May 1965 * EA 8400 Jun 1965 * GE 4060 Jun 1965 270 NCR 315 RMC Jul 1965 * ASI 6040 Jul 1965 271 UNIVAC 1108 II Aug 1965 272 GE 435 Aug 1965 273 IBM 360/50 Sep 1965 274 IBM 1130 Sep 1965 275 NCR 590 Sep 1965 * Systems Engineering Labs 810-A Sep 1965 * Varian Data Machines 611/612 Sep 1965 276 ASI 6240 Oct 1965 277 UNIVAC 491 & 492 Oct 1965 278 RCA Spectra 70/15 Oct 1965 279 Raytheon 520 Oct 1965 * ASI 6070 Oct 1965 * SCC 660 Oct 1965 280 IBM 360/75 Nov 1965 * Bailey Meter 756 Nov 1965 * Philco 102 (CPS) Nov 1965 * SEL 840 Nov 1965 * Varian 620 Nov 1965 281 Honeywell 2200 Dec 1965 282 CDC 3800 Dec 1965 283 RCA Spectra 70/25 Dec 1965 284 Friden 6010 Jan 1966 285 CDC 6400 Jan 1966 286 DDP-124 Jan 1966 287 Honeywell 1200 Jan 1966 288 IBM 360/20 Jan 1966 289 UNIVAC 1005 II, III Feb 1966 290 UNIVAC 1005 I Feb 1966 291 Honeywell 120 Feb 1966 * ASI 6050 Feb 1966 * Honeywell H-21 Feb 1966 * IBM 1800 Feb 1966 292 IBM 360/65 Mar 1966 293 UNIVAC 494 Mar 1966 294 SDS 940 Apr 1966 * CDC 1700 May 1966 * SCC 670 May 1966 * CCD 516 Jun 1966 295 RCA Spectra 70/55 Jul 1966 296 RCA Spectra 70/45 Jul 1966 297 RCA Spectra 70/35 Jul 1966 * GE 645 Jul 1966 * SEL 810-A Aug 1966 * SEL 840-A Aug 1966 298 Philco 200-213 Oct 1966 299 IBM 360/44 Oct 1966 * Data Mate ECP-18 Nov 1966 * Hewlitt-Packard 2116-A Nov 1966 * GE 4050 Dec 1966 * CDC 6416 1966 300 Honeywell 4200 May 1967 301 SDS Sigma 7 Dec 1966 302 DEC PDP-8/S Linc-8 Sep 1966 303 DEC PDP-9 Dec 1966 * Business Information Technology 80 Dec 1966 * SCC 650 1966 304 SDS Sigma 2 Jan 1967 305 Burroughs B 2500 Feb 1967 309 Burroughs B 6500 Feb 1967 * GE 4020 Feb 1967 306 Burroughs B 3500 May 1967 * SCC IC6000 May 1967 * Interdata 3 May 1967 307 UNIVAC 9300 Jun 1967 308 UNIVAC 9200 Jun 1967 * IBM 1401-H Jun 1967 * Electronics Assoicates, Inc 640 Jun 1967 * Xerox Sigma 5 Aug 1967 310 CDC 3500 Sep 1967 * Westinghouse 250 (S-2) Sep 1967 * Digital Electronics 3080-C Oct 1967 * ASI 6130 Oct 1967 * SEL 840-MP Oct 1967 * Raytheon Computer 703 Oct 1967 * IBM 360/90 Series Nov 1967 * HP 2115-A Nov 1967 * Honeywell 125 Dec 1967 * DECSYSTEM 10 KA10 1967 * DEC 20 ???? * AGU (Apollo CM guidance computer) ???? * (Apollo LM computer) ???? * IBM (Saturn V IMU computer) ???? * General Automation SPC-8 Jan 1968 * Honeywell 1648 Jun 1968 * Computer Automation 808 Jun 1968 * Motorola Instrumentations MDP-1000 Jun 1968 * Interdata 2 Jul 1968 * Redcor RC-70 Jul 1968 * Honeywell 1250 Aug 1968 * Interdata 4 Aug 1968 * Honeywell 110 Sep 1968 * NCR Century 100 Sep 1968 * SCC IC4000 Sep 1968 * HP 2116-A Sep 1968 * Varian 520 1 Sep 1968 * IBM 360/25 Oct 1968 * HP 2114-A Oct 1968 * RCA Spectra 70/46 Nov 1968 * Burroughs B500 Nov 1968 * DEC PDP-9/L Nov 1968 * HP 2000-A Nov 1968 * Honeywell 632 Dec 1968 * Bailey Meter 855 Dec 1968 * Computer Automation 816 Dec 1968 * Dynamic Research DRC-44 Dec 1968 * Honeywell CCD 416 Dec 1968 * SEL 810-B Dec 1968 * DEC PDP-8/I Apr 1968 * DEC PDP-8/L Nov 1968 * CDC 7600 Jan 1969 * Interdata 15 Jan 1969 * Micro Systems 800 Jan 1969 * Micro Systems 810 Jan 1969 * Honeywell 8200 Feb 1969 * Data General Nova Feb 1969 * GE 105 Mar 1969 * Lockheed Electronics MAC-16 Mar 1969 * Raytheon Computer 704 Mar 1969 * Sanders 200 Mar 1969 * Burroughs B8500 Apr 1969 * DEC PDP-12 Apr 1969 * GE 30 Apr 1969 * SCC 4700 Apr 1969 * UNIVAC 9400 May 1969 * Data Craft 6024-1 May 1969 * Raytheon Computer 706 May 1969 * SCC DCT-132 May 1969 * Varian Data R620 i May 1969 * GE 615 Jun 1969 * NCR Century 200 Jun 1969 * SCC IC7000 Jun 1969 * Burroughs B6500 Jul 1969 * Computer Automation 208 Jul 1969 * General Automation GA-18/20 Jul 1969 * Honeywell CCD 316 Jul 1969 * Xerox Data CE-16 Jul 1969 * Sprias Systems 65 Aug 1969 * Westinghouse Electric 2000 Aug 1969 * Tempo Computers 1/1-A Sep 1969 * Xerox Data CF-16 Sep 1969 * IBM 360/85 Oct 1969 * CDC 6700 Oct 1969 * Data Mate DM-16 Oct 1969 * GE 58 Nov 1969 * Computer Logic CLS-18 Nov 1969 * HP 2114-B Nov 1969 * SCC DCT-32 Nov 1969 * UNIVAC 1106 Dec 1969 * Xerox Sigma-3 Dec 1969 * Business Information Technology 483 Dec 1969 * Micro Systems 812 Dec 1969 * CDC 7600 1969 * General Automation SPC-12 1969 * U. of Illinois/ILLIAC IV Ear 1970 * IBM System/3 Jan 1970 * GE 120 Jan 1970 * DEC/PDP-15 Jan 1970 * GRI Computer 909 Jan 1970 * Recor RC-77 Jan 1970 * Honeywell 3200 Feb 1970 * Rolm 1601 Feb 1970 * DEC/PDP-11/20 Apr 1970 * Data General Super Nova Apr 1970 * Viatron 2140 Apr 1970 * Viatron 2150 Apr 1970 * SEL 86 May 1970 * Computer Automation 216 Jul 1970 * RCA Spectra 70/60 Sep 1970 * Mini Comp Multi-Term Sep 1970 * SEL 88 Nov 1970 * GE 53 1970 * Clary-Datacomp 404 1970 * Data Craft 6024-1 1970 * ASI 6120 1970 * RCA Spectra 70/61 Feb 1971 * IBM 360/195 (Was this ever delivered?) Mar 1971 * GE 655 Mar 1971 * DEC PDP-8/E Mar 1971 * Honeywell 6045 ???? * IBM 370/155 Aft 1971 * IBM 370/165 Aft 1971 * IBM 370/145 Aft 1971 * IBM 370/168 Aft 1971 * DEC PDP-8/M Jun 1972 * DEC PDP-11/05 Jun 1972 * DEC PDP-11/45 Jun 1972 * DEC PDP 11/45 (Fl point and mem man) 1972 DECSYSTEM 10 KI10 1972 * DEC PDP-8/M Jun 1972 * DEC PDP-11/05 Jun 1972 * DEC PDP-11/45 Jun 1972 * DEC PDP-11/40 Jan 1973 * Unidata 7720 Jan 1974 * DEC PDP-11/40 Jan 1973 * Unidata 7720 Jan 1974 * Burroughs ILLIAC IV 1974 * Naked Mini LSI 1 1974 * Naked Mini LSI 2 1974 * Honeywell 60 1974 * CDC STAR-100 1974 * Texas Instruments ASC 1974 * Alphamicro 1000 A ???? * HP 9000/730 ???? * Goodyear Aerospace STARAN 1974 * DEC PDP-8/A Jan 1975 * MITS Altair 8800 (first micro kit) Jan 1975 * DEC PDP-11/70 Mar 1975 * MITS Altair 680b ???? * Osbourne 1 ???? * DEC PDP-11/03 Jun 1975 * DEC PDP-11/04 Sep 1975 * IBM 5100 1975 * IBM System 32 1975 * DECSYSTEM 10 KL10 1975 * AN/UYK-44 ???? * Prime 500 bef 1982 * Prime 550 ???? * AN/AYK-14 ???? * DEC PDP-11/34 Mar 1976 * DEC PDP-11/55 Jun 1976 ---------------------------------------------------------------- This list is based two articles by Dr. Kenneth E. Knight in DATAMATION: "Changes in Computer Performance", Sept. 1966 and "Evolving Computer Performance 1963-1967", Jan. 1968. His study evaluated cost vs performance and is not necessarily meant to be a history of the computer. His criteria for inclusion to the list were: 1. General purpose digital computers; 2. One configuration chosen of memory size, IO, arithmetic and control; 3. Important modifications affecting performance added at a later date considered a separate computer. AFCno refers to a serial number which will be assigned when additions to the list have ceased. For now an (*) will denote a machine not on the Knight list. KEKno refers to the serial number assigned to each computer type by Dr. Knight. The dates of introduction are defined as that when the completed computer passed a minimal acceptance test. I have added some which may or may not fit Knight's criteria or were unknown to him. I have attempted to continue the list past 1967. Thanks for additions and corrections to Tony Duell (aduell@isis.cs.du.edu). ================================================================= Bruce P. Watson | bwatson@isis.cs.du.edu or wats@scicom.Alphacdc.com ================================================================== Subject: Dead Media Working Note 00.7 Dead Medium: The Cyrograph From: danrabin@a.crl.com (Dan Rabin) Mr. Sterling, I just attended your talk at Apple, and I thought I'd try to get this to you before you get home. The Dead Medium in question is the CYROGRAPH. It was a form of authentication for duplicate documents used in the Middle Ages. The document was written in duplicate on a piece of vellum (or parchment); the copies were cut apart and retained by two different parties. Sometimes the cut was deliberately irregular in order to make spurious matches unlikely. In addition, lettering would be placed where the cut was to be made so that both the shape of the cut and the lettering would have to match in order to authenticate the copies. References (from Library of Congress online catalog): 92-131963: Brown, Michelle. A guide to western historical scripts : from antiquity to 1600 / London : British Library, 1990. 138 p. : ill. ; 29 cm. LC CALL NUMBER: Z114 .B87 1990 92-160830: Brown, Michelle. Anglo-Saxon manuscripts / Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, 1991. 80 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm. LC CALL NUMBER: Z8.G72 E53 1991 Enjoy, -- Dan Rabin (danrabin@a.crl.com) Subject: Dead Media Working Note 00.8 Dead Medium: the Scopitone From: ac038@osfn.rhilinet.gov (Paul Di Filippo) Source: Request Magazine October 1995 p 10; James Sullivan, reporter; Sam Wasserman, Scopitone collector The Scopitone was a precursor of the rock video, a visual jukebox introduced in France in 1963. It was a coin-operated large-screen device intended for the bar and nightclub market, showing brief 16mm color films of such period popstars as Lesley Gore, Dion, the Tijuana Brass and Nancy Sinatra. These devices were essentially extinct by 1968 -- "victims of slot-machine racketeers and censorial prudes," according to Request magazine writer James Sullivan. San Francisco's Roxie Cinema has run three Scopitone festivals in recent years. Sam Wasserman is a Scopitone collector, owning six Scopitone players and "thousands" of their films. He has been transferring his Scopitone reels to VHS cassettes and will send a catalog of his prizes for a self-addressed stamped envelope. His address is P. O. Box F, Daly City CA 94017. Subject: Dead Media Working Note 00.9 Dead medium: dead computer languages From: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) Source: Wexelblat, Richard (ed.) "History Of Programming Languages" Academic Press (HBJ), ISBN 0-12-745040-8 Dead computer languages covered in "History of Programming Languages" Fortran I, II and III ALGOL 58 and 60 Lisp 1 and 1.5 COBOL (the dead-ness of this language may be debatable) APT JOVIAL SIMULA I and 67 JOSS PL/1 SNOBOL APL (ditto) Also: check out http://www.indiana.edu/~sharp It's nominally the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (ie books), but also has links to some older (dead) book-related tech, including papyrus, illuminated manuscripts, and medieval blockbooks. Alan Subject: Dead Media Working Note 01.0 Dead Medium: The Magic Lantern From: bruces@well.com (Bruce Sterling) I have recently come into happy possession of "Peck and Snyder's Price List of Base Ball, Gymnasium, Boating, Firemen, Cricket, Archery, Lawn Tennis and Polo Implements, Guns, Skates, Fishing Tackle. Manly Sporting Goods, Novelties, &c." This catalog was published in 1886. In 1971 it was re- released by the "American Historical Catalog Collection" of the Pyne Press at Princeton (LC# 75-24886, ISBN 0-87861-094-4). This catalog is a veritable brass mine of dead media, offering startling insights into an entirely vanished nineteenth- century media environment. It offers for commercial sale to the public several media devices I have never heard of, plus over 40 different commercial varieties of "magic lantern." I think it is well to have Mssrs. Peck and Snyder speak for themselves, in the first of what will doubtless turn out to be a long series of Working Notes. My commentary will be included in (((triple parens))). The Peck & Snyder full-page ad is reproduced in its entirety. THE ELECTRO RADIANT No. 2. The Most Popular Magic Lantern Ever Introduced (black and white woodcut illustration -- "this cut represents No. 2 Electro Radiant Magic Lantern. PATENTED.") The body of the ELECTRO RADIANT is a cone-shaped reflector which gathers each divergent ray of light and concentrates them all on the main reflector, whence the whole mass of brilliancy illuminated and projects the picture with startling clearness. No combination of lenses, however ingenious, has ever been known to produce equal effects with the light used. *The ELECTRO RADIANT No. 2 projects on screen a picture 8 feet in diameter.* The No. 2 Lantern is made entirely of metal. Including the smoke-stack, it stands over 16 inches high when ready for use, but when taken apart it goes into a box 11x9x12 -- *small enough to carry in the hand.* (((Imagine disassembling, by hand, a fire-driven slide projector made entirely of (red-hot) metal. Yes, the Electro Radiant Magic Lantern features a smoke-stack -- a domestic, personal smoke-stack for your parlor.))) The removable parts are the base, the reflector, the lens tubes, the smoke-stack and the lamp. The entire base being removeable, *allows the use of any kind of light,* whether oil, gas, calcium or electric. (((Calcium??))) A large door at the side gives ample room for manipulating the light. The Slide Box will take in slides 4 1/2 inches wide with a 3-inch picture. It is very unusual that slides are made with pictures over 3 inches, and when they are they are for special purposes, and Lanterns have to be made to accommodate them. Therefore our No. 2 Lantern will show the *largest* of the regulation size slides as well as the *smallest* and *intermediate* sizes, whether made by ourselves or others here or in Europe. (((I note here that Magic Lantern ware comes in several different size formats and from a variety of manufacturers and distributors, who apparently could not agree on a standard.))) There are 12 slides with 2 3/4 inch pictures packed with each No. 2 Lantern and included in the price. (((The traditional "bundled software" or "first taste is free" marketing approach.))) There are many persons who are able and willing to pay for *luxuries* -- such things as are no better for practical uses, but add to the convenience and perfection of life. The sentiment is commendable, and, for those who can afford it, is not only a proper but a wise indulgence. (((The infant consumer society still required moral lectures at this point.))) For that class (((appeals to snobbery were useful also))) we have constructed our * Electro Radiant Lanterns,* with fittings of various kinds, which, though they make the picture on the screen very little if any better, add very much to the convenience of handling and the the general appearance of an outfit, and increase the cost accordingly. (((Today this is known as "ergonomics" and "industrial design." In 1886 this practice required an apologia.))) For instance, the price of OUR MOST POPULAR LANTERN, No. 2, is $12; but with additional conveniences the price is $15.00, $20.00 and $24.00, respectively. The $15.00 Lantern is fitted with Colt's patent Brass Spun Thread Focussing Tube, with lenses to make an eight to nine foot picture. This focussing tube is the best improvement that has been made in years. It is perfect in working, adjustable by simple turning; there is no loss of light through uneven fitting, it does not catch or hitch, and is as easily and nicely adjustable as the highest price Rack and Pinion Tube made. (((One cannot help but marvel as this sudden revelation of an entire peripherals industry for Magic Lanterns. Could this be the same "Colt" who created the Colt revolver?))) For use with a nine-foot screen we recommend the $15.00 No. 2 LANTERN ABOVE ALL OTHERS. The $20.00 No. 2 Lantern may be used with a twelve or fifteen foot screen, and therefore may be operated in a room that will hold more people. The $24.00 Magic Lantern is precisely the same as the $20.00 one, except that it has the lenses set in a rack and pinion focussing tube, made of heavy cast brass with milled head adjusting connection, which makes a very stylish and handsome appearance. *Price List of No. 2 Electro Radiant Magic Lanterns No. 2. With Piano Convex Lenses.........$12.00 No. 2A. With Piano Convex Lenses in Colt's Pat Spun Thread Focussing Tube...........................$15.00 No. 2B, Double Achromatic Lenses in Colt's Pat Spun thread tube $20.00 No. 2C, Double Achromatic Lenses in heavy brass rack and pinion focussing tube..........$24.00 12 Slides are packed with each No. 2 Lantern. P E C K & S N Y D E R, 126, 128 & 130 Nassau Street, New York. Importers and Dealers in English, French and German Magic Lanterns, at prices from $2.00 to $50.00 each, and also in those of the best American make, prices $5.00 to 75.00 each. (((It must be noted in concluding that the "Electro Radiant," illustrated with a burning gas lamp, has nothing "electro" about it. The Electro is entirely rhetorical, a futuristic fillip for a cutting-edge device which has already killed off the unlucky "Electro Radiant No. 1."))) Subject: Dead Media Working Note 01.1 Dead Medium: The Magic Lantern From: bruces@well.com (Bruce Sterling) Source: Peck and Snyder's Catalog (aka "Price List of Out & Indoor Sports and Pastimes") 1886, reprinted 1971 by Pyne Press (LC# 75-24886, ISBN 0-87861-094-4) Mssrs Peck and Snyder offered at least 47 distinct varieties of magic lantern (as well as the Polyopticon and the Megascope, intriguing variants of magic lantern technology). The large variety of Peck and Snyder's own product rose from clever recombination of the magic lantern's basic elements: the body, the base, the reflector, the condenser, the lens tube, the smoke-stack and the lamp. The materials could be cheap japanned tin, or luxuriant brass; the lenses cheap or precise; the lamps powerful and dangerous, or weak and relatively safe. Some few magic lanterns were imported: "Wrench's Celebrated London Make Magic Lanterns", the "Favorite German Lantern," and the "New Style French Magic Lantern." The following sample excerpts from Peck and Snyder advertising copy will show how these manufactured variants addressed different purposes and different demographic slices of the magic lantern media market. My commentary is in (((triple parens))). (((The Professional's Model))) Electro Radiant Lantern, No. 10. The construction of this lantern is such as to especially commend it to exhibitors. (...) A set of Achromatic Object Glasses, as used in No. 10 Lantern, is made up of four lenses of the finest and most accurately ground *Crown* and *Flint Glasses,* a *concave* lens of *Flint* with a convex lens of *Crown* glass are paired in cells and placed at the proper distance apart in the focusing tube. The effect on the screen is to bring out a very sharp and well-defined image, free from blurred edges, prismatic color, etc., which invariably accompany the use of plano, or concavo- convex lenses. (...) It accommodates slides of all makes now in vogue and is thoroughly well-adapted for dissolving effects. ((("Dissolving effects" or "dissolving views" required the use of dual magic lanterns, projecting two images into the same circle on the screen. With "a simple mechanical arrangement," two different projected images could apparently dissolve into and emerge from one another. This impressive gimmick led Peck and Snyder to sell their magic lanterns, including the No. 10, in matched pairs. As the unknown copywriter rhapsodized, "The most beautiful effects that can possibly be produced... The effect is indescribably impressive.")) (((The Art Model.))) (((The Electro Radiant Sketching Lantern pursued an application for the artists' market. It was essentially identical to the No. 10 model, but came without any bundled lanternware.))) "Artists can save many hours of work and attain great accuracy of expression by using in connection with our Sketching Lantern a photographic negative of the subject to be produced. (...) The picture may be thrown onto the paper or canvas, anywhere from miniature to twice life size. (...) The sketching may be done by a boy or girl, saving the artists' time and talent (...) If the artist is not a photographer, an arrangement can generally be made with some photographer to furnish at a low figure a negative plate." (((The Kid Media Model. Note the free-and-easy attitude toward child employment.))) ELECTRO RADIANT MAGIC LANTERN NO. 3. This Lantern was designed Especially for Youths, not only for its remarkable effects on the screen, but also for its limited effects on the pocket. (...) With a No. 3 Lantern a boy may amuse a party of friends, or he may, by charging a small admission fee, earn considerable for any object he may set his heart on. (...) An ingenious boy will have tickets of admission, programmes, music of some sort and numberless little devices to heighten the theatrical, magical and mysterious effect. (...) All devices he will execute himself, filling leisure hours in writing out his tickets and programmes and making other arrangements to make his exhibition a success. (...) Parents and friends should not ignore the instruction and other beneficial effects, and should by all means make their young people owners of a Lantern. (((The No. 3 cost only eight dollars. The very similar No. 4 model was sold without a smokestack or chimney burner for a mere six dollars, though this must have increased the fire hazard considerably.))) (((The Luxury Model))) THE IMPROVED TRIPLEXICON, 100 CANDLE POWER. Price Complete in a Strong Wooden Box, $35.00 The chimney, which connects with the flame chamber, is made in two parts, one sliding into the other, telescope fashion. This allows of the most exact regulation of the current of air supplied to the flame to effect perfect combustion. (...) The body of the lantern (...) may be handled as comfortably, after being two hours in operation, as at the beginning of the exhibition. The reservoir, which will hold enough oil for two and a half hours' work, is *completely* out of reach of the heat. (...) *Particular* care has been taken in the mounting of the lenses to allow for their expansion by heat, thus avoiding the liability of breakage (...) a brilliance and clearness of outline to be surpassed only be the best limelight stereopticons. (((To the modern skeptical eye these oily assurances of comfort and safety conjure up dire vistas of soot- blackened parlors, badly scorched boy-entrepreneurs, and audiences explosively drenched in sheets of flaming kerosene.))) I believe this to be a complete list of Peck and Snyder's magic lantern models as offered in the 1886 catalog: The Electro Radiant No. 2, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10. The New Improved Duplex Magic Lantern, Nos. 1 and 2. Magic Lantern 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 26, 30, 32, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48. Wrench's Celebrated London Make Magic Lantern. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8. The Favorite German Lantern. New French Style Magic Lanterns Nos 814, 815, 816, 817, 818, 819. The Improved Triplexicon. The Gem Magic Lantern. The wonder of it is that Peck and Snyder must have had a great many competitors. This catalog offers only a glimpse of what must have been an enormous market. Subject: Dead Media Working Notes 01.2 Newborn medium: Clockwork Radio From house127@teleport.com (Trevor Blake) (((It's not "dead media" but it's too amazing not to think about. -- bruces))) Source: Facts paraphrased from memory of 'All Things Considered' for 31 October 1995 on National Public Radio, USA. Trevor Bailes (pronounced Bail-Es) of England was listening to the radio one morning when he heard a news broadcast on AIDS in Africa. Many people there could not get health information over radio because they could not afford batteries. He went into his workshop and produced a clockwork radio: two minutes of winding produce fourteen minutes of reception. There is now a factory for production (staffed entirely by the handicapped) in Africa, with more planned in other countries. Bailes said his next project was to do the same for computers. Further information most welcome! - Trevor (no relation) Blake 127 House - An Independent Archive of Systematic Ideology Post Office Box 2321 Portland OR 97208-2321 United States house127@teleport.com - http://www.teleport.com/~house127 (((Update added by scarmike@well.com (Seth Carmichael), editor of the Dead Media Collectors' List))) Anyone interested in clock-work radios: I have managed to get the contact info in the UK. The people you need to contact are called BAYGEN, and they're at BAYGEN POWER EUROPE 2ND FLOOR 13 KING HENRY TERRACE SOVEREIGN CLOSE LONDON E1 9HE tel 44 171 702 3247 fax 77 171 702 3248 Musician Brian Eno says: "The radio is really good by the way. I have a preproduction model which has a rather noisy spring, but I think that problem is unique to mine. But do get a radio! You'll love it. I think they are just starting to sell them in America." Stay tuned for lots more collectors information and feel free to share your own! Subject: Dead Media Working Note 01.3 Dead Medium: the Magic Lantern From: bruces@well.com (Bruce Sterling) Source: THE HISTORY OF MOVIE PHOTOGRAPHY by Brian Coe, Eastview Editions, Westfield NJ, 1981, ISBN 0-89860-067-0 Brian Coe was (is?) the Curator of the Kodak Museum in Harrow, Middlesex. He was also narrator of an 8-part BBC television series, "Pioneers of Photography." Coe's HISTORY OF MOVIE PHOTOGRAPHY boasts many high-quality color illustrations of museum-quality hardware. It has a great deal of highly detailed dead-mediana concerning "the bewildering diversity of optical toys which flooded the laboratories and drawing rooms of the early nineteenth century." Truly a wonderful book. The following, reproduced from Coe's book, is the complete text of a playbill for a travelling American magic lantern show, circa 1880. The playbill is apparently designed for poles, columns or door lintels,.as it is very long and narrow. It has a wide, spreadeagle variety of lavish circus fonts in different sizes. Empresario, Mr. B. A. Bamber. Price of the show, ten cents. (((my remarks in triple parens))) 5th ANNUAL TOUR ================ B. A. BAMBER'S ---GREAT---- DIME SHOW New Attractions and Better Than Ever Before Travels, Art, History. Astronomy, Fun, Electricity. (((a dashing woodcut of the balding, heavily mustached B. A. Bamber))) GRAND STEREOPTICAL DISSOLVING VIEWS SCENES IN MANY LANDS FROM GREENLAND'S ICY MOUNT, TO INDIA'S CORAL STRAND THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD. THE BEAUTIES OF THE WORLD. Read Carefully Every Word of the Following Programme PART I. THE PLANETARIUM Will be exhibited and explained. This is an instrument (lately invented) for showing the Planets of the Solar System in their annual motion around the Sun; it also shows their relative size and distance from the Sun, the cause of Tides, Eclipses, Change of Seasons and Signs of the Zodiac. This part will be a lasting benefit to all who desire to know more about the wandering stars that reflect the Sun's light upon us by night. After this instrument has been exhibited Telescopic Views of the larger Planets will be reflected upon the canvas. PART II. NATURAL SCENERY Comprises Views of the most Prominent Objects of Interest in both the Old and New World. All cannot travel and see these places, but whoever attends this Entertainment will see them reflected on canvas with a glow of beauty never to be forgotten. PART III. THE ILL-FATED SHIP Comprises a series of Paintings, showing the sunshine and shadow of a Sailor's life. SCENE 1. -- Ship at dock in Liverpool Harbor, passengers leaving their native country. SCENE 2. -- Just out of the harbor, sailing on the blue waters of the Irish Sea. SCENE 3. -- A Storm arises, which rapidly increases the furling and reefing of sails. SCENE 4. -- Height of the Storm, rolling on the boundless deep and struck by lightning. SCENE 5. -- Horrible calamity at sea; ship on fire; most on board perish in the flames. SCENE 6. -- The few who make their escape on a raft are now afloat on the wide Ocean. PART IV. The Highland Lover's Courtship for Marriage Showing how it is done, also the result which usually follows; a caution to those about to embark on this kind of a ship. PART V. STATUARY A Magnificent Collection of Statuary from the Centennial Art Gallery will be exhibited, besides other noted works of Sculpture, the beauty of which cannot be described; they must be seen to form any idea of their real beauty and grandeur. Among the many we mention "Flight of Mercury," "Ophelia," "Evening," "Forced Prayer," Council of War," &c, &c. PART VI. MISCELLANEOUS These embrace a large collection of Paintings, Artistic Gems, Dissolving Views and Transformation Scenes, which have been procured at great expense, and for faithfulness in perspective and beauty in design, they stand unrivalled. The whole will be enlivened with NUMEROUS COMIC SCENES Electricity Without Extra Charge A very fine Galvanic Battery is provided for any who may wish to try it. This is an excellent remedy for Rheumatism, Neuralgia and Headache. Be sure to come before the show begins if you want to try it. Positively Everything Advertised on this Bill will be Shown REMEMBER, THE PRICE OF ADMISSION IS ONLY *10* CENTS FOR ANYBODY AND EVERYBODY Doors Open at 7 O'Clock. Begins at 8 O'Clock. (((Travels, Art, History, Astronomy, Fun & Electricity -- Bamber's Dime Show was entertainment shovelware to rival CD-ROM. First a weird gizmo (the so-called planetarium, presumably an orrery). Then astronomical slides, no doubt accompanied by a proto-Saganesque cosmic narrative from Bamber. Then telepresence -- "all cannot travel," but a virtuality is beautiful and cheap. Then a melodramatic disaster -- the repeated mentions of "rolling," "sailing" and "reefing" strongly suggests these so-called "paintings" were partially animated. Magic lantern slides were often quite mechanically complex. (((A bit of mild bawdry and ethnic humor in part four. Then the statuary -- their placement in the show seems odd and anticlimactic, unless the statuary included female nudes, which might make sense as the children have probably left by this time. Then, "miscellaneous" or basically the leftover contents of the professor's trunk from the previous four tours, with a bang-up ending of eye-boggling "dissolving views."))) (((Bamber also boasts an interesting sideline in voltaic placebo snake-oil -- "Electricity Without Extra Charge." People can be impressed by gadgets, entertained by gadgets, forced to laugh or weep by gadgets. The truly daring charlatan can even cure the sick by gadgets. The "magic" of the magic lantern was closer to the healing magic of the witch doctor than we might credit today.))) Subject: Dead Media Working Notes 01.4 Theoretical disquisition: The term "Dead" From house127@teleport.com (Trevor Blake) Blake's "Vital Signs Checklist for Dead Media": (a work in progress -- comments and amendments welcome) 1. Is the device still manufactured? 2. Does the company still exist? 3. Is technical support or documentation still available? 4. Is anyone anywhere still using or supporting the thing? 5. Does the (social, economic, political, artistic, archival) function that it served still exist? Does it still do what it was supposed to do? 6. Does the society that invented it still exist? 7. Are there other and newer things that serve the same function with more speed, efficiency, or glamor? 8. Was the thing the victim of planned obsolescence? 9. Does it employ some basic technology generally considered no longer up to the task? 10. Does it require storage or power devices that are no longer used or manufactured? 11. Is it inherently dangerous? 12. If it were invented today, would it be declared illegal by occupational, safety & health people? 13. How many of them will I see at a Goodwill, garage sale or junkshop in a year, or ever? Will I ever see one anytime anywhere? 14. How utterly has it disappeared from the history books and popular consciousness? 15. Is it collected? 16. Would I take someone out to dinner so I could borrow one? Would I be hard pressed to actually pay money for one, even as a curiosity? 17. Are there clubs or user's groups for them? 18. Could I make one in my spare time if I wanted? Committing these factors to screen, I note my idea of dead tech relies as much on my personal relation with the thing as what the thing is. Hmmm. Best, - Trevor Blake Subject: Dead Media Working Notes 01.5 Dead Media: Silent Film, Diorama, Panorama From: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) Source: VIEWING POSITIONS: WAYS OF SEEING FILM, Linda Williams (ed.), Rutgers University Press 1995 ISBN 0-8135-2133-5, 1995. This collection of essays deals with the philosophy, theory, and sociology of film viewing. Of particular interest to necronauts are a couple of essays on "Historians View Spectators:" In "An Aesthetic of Astonishment: Early Film and the (In)Credulous Spectator" Tom Gunning takes on the myth that early film audiences ran in fear from a film of a train apparently coming at them. He discusses several of the (now dead) technologies that immediately preceded film and shows how they were used/presented in such a way as to achieve maximum amazement. He shows that while audiences may have been amazed by the new moving images, they were not apt to confuse these images for reality. An important debunking of popular mythology. In "Cinematic Spectatorship before the Apparatus: The Public Taste for Reality in Fin-de-Siecle Paris," Vanessa Schwartz discusses Parisian's methods of self-amusement in the immediate pre-film period. Flanerie (the taking in of sights while strolling/shopping) translated itself into a bizarre entertainment spectacle whereby the Paris Morgue because a medium of reality display. Bodies of crime victims were put on display, ostensibly so the public could identify the people but in fact for entertainment. Her description of the many-days display of the corpse of a child is particularly interesting. She also discusses a couple of other dead techs -- the diorama and the panorama -- and talks about how the newspapers of the day combined 'true crime' stories and serial novels. Alan Wexelblat, http://wex.www.media.mit.edu/people/wex/ Subject: Dead Media Working Note 01.6 Dead Medium: the Magic Lantern From: bruces@well.com (Bruce Sterling) Magic Lanternware: Slide mechanisms Sources: THE HISTORY OF MOVIE PHOTOGRAPHY by Brian Coe, Eastview Editions, Westfield NJ, 1981, ISBN 0-89860-067-0 Peck and Snyder's Catalog (aka "Price List of Out & Indoor Sports and Pastimes") 1886, reprinted 1971 by Pyne Press (LC# 75-24886, ISBN 0-87861-094-4) ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE CINEMA by C. W. Ceram, Harcourt Brace and World (1955?), LC # 65-19106 To the modern eye a magic lantern most resembles a kerosene-fired slide projector. This preconception overlooks the slides themselves, however. Lantern slides were large, bulky, complex objects of glass, paint, wood and metal. Many had built-in mechanical features. So the lantern's projected images were not necessarily static, but could be graced with limited animation. Some slides could even create complex, constantly moving screen displays. Lantern slides came in several physical formats. Peck and Snyder's proprietary slides were 4 1/2 by 7 inches. The "usual English pattern" was 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 and the "French pattern" was 3 1/4 by 4 inches. (Brian Coe describes the standard European size as 3 1/4 by 3 1/4 inches.) But specialized slides could be over a foot long, containing gears, cranks, cogs, or even belts and pulleys. Slides were attached in front of the condensing lenses, outside the body of the lantern itself. They slid into place horizontally through metal runners at top and bottom. The following describes some of the mechanical variants of the lantern slide. Lever Action Slides. A lever protruded from one corner of the slide, attached to a second, overlapping pane of painted glass. When the lever was depressed or lifted the second glass rotated through a brief arc, resulting in a single animated movement on the lantern's screen. The Peck and Snyder catalog enthuses: "The moving effects produced on the screen are very life-like. (...) The horse is put in motion by the lever, and appears to be cantering. (...) The children go up and down as natural as can be, and the audience can hardly believe that they are not alive. The No. 2 Electro Radiant Magic Lantern reproduces these pictures 8 to 12 feet in diameter. We conside the Lever one of the very best mechanical effects." Peck and Snyder sold lever-action slides for between $1.75 and $2.25. Brian Coe's History of Movie Photography describes double and even triple lever-action slides, but the truly elaborate ones were apparently rare. Peck and Snyder does not offer any doubles or triples. Slip slides. Slip slides had two panes of glass, with a thumb-and-finger notch cut into one corner of the wooden frame. The moving pane of glass was gripped and pulled by hand, a very simple operation. Slip slides often used black patches to obscure and reveal details of the background slide. Coe describes sub-varieties of "slipping slides" that were pulled with tabs. Peck and Snyder: "Part of the picture is painted on one glass and the other on part on another glass. The two are arranged in a frame so that one glass slips over the other, and very comical effects are produced. It is a great mystery to the uninitiated, and they cannot understand how the transformations are made." Peck and Snyder retailed these for a thrifty seventy-five cents each. Mechanical Slides: Rackwork and Pulley Slides. Early rotary slides sometimes used a belt-and-pulley drive, with two brass disks turned in contrary directions by belt drives and a little hand-crank. This technique was rivalled and eventually replaced by the neater and more accurate rack-and-pinion system. A single round disk of glass with a toothed brass rim could be cranked and rotated indefinitely. This caused repeated rotary animation on the screen. Rackwork slides cost $4.25 to $5.00 in Peck and Snyder's catalog. The catalog offers no pulley slides circa 1886. Chromatropes. Says Peck and Snyder: "These are handsomely painted geometrical or other figures on two glasses, which, by an ingenious arrangement of crank pinion and gear wheels, are made to revolve in opposite directions, producing an endless variety of changes, almost equal to a grand display of fire-works." Chromatrope cranks could produce single rackwork rotation against a fixed background, or double counter-rotation of both disks of glass. Peck and Snyder's chromatropes could project various brightly colored psychedelic moire' patterns up to twelve feet across. Professional chromatrope displays in large urban theaters must have been quite mind- boggling. The Eidotrope was a chromotrope variant using counter-rotating disks of perforated metal, showing a swirling pattern of brilliant white dots on the screen. "Tinters" or colored translucent sheets could be added to tint the display. Coe describes Eidotropes, but Peck and Snyder does not offer any Eidotropes for sale circa 1886. C. W. Ceram's ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE CINEMA states that Eidotropes were powered by pulleys and "superseded" by Chromatropes. The Cycloidotrope (see Coe p 19) was a truly remarkable variant, a kind of lantern spirograph. A black disk of smoked glass rotated within the slide frame, and a stylus on a pivoted arm traced a pattern in the soot against the moving glass. This appeared on the screen as a brilliant white line tracing a regular geometric design, an increasingly complex animated display. The stylus could be re-set as the cycloidotrope rotated, producing interlocking rosettes and similar mechanical geometries. Peck and Snyder do not sell or mention this impressive but labor-intensive graphic device. Images very similar to those generated by the Eidotrope and Cycloidotrope are now quite popular in computer screen-savers. Dioramic Slides. These very elongated slides were twice as wide as normal slides, 4 1/2 by 12 or 14 inches. Peck and Snyder: "These slides are exceedingly beautiful. The painting is artistic and elaborate, and the wonder is they can be sold so cheaply. A scene is painted on fixed glass, and over this is made to pass a long procession of figures -- soldiers, vessels, trains of cars, caravans, as the case may be -- with the most pleasing and wonderful effects." The colored background image was small and square, but the pane with little figures was over a foot long. The figures slid along in front of the painted background. Peck and Snyder sold dioramic slides for $3 each. Panorama slides. These landscape-style slides were over a foot long and could be gently drawn past the condensing lenses, "panning" across the picture. Like diorama slides, they often had a procession of moving figures as well. They cost $3.35 to $4.50 from Peck and Snyder. Coe states that a London optician named J. Darker succeeded in attaching a kaleidoscope to the lens of a magic lantern in the 1860s. Says Coe: "His projection Kaleidoscope produced a remarkable effect when used to fill a large screen with a colorful, constantly changing pattern." (The Kaleidoscope itself, an optical toy which is very much alive, was invented by Sir David Brewster and patented in 1817.) Subject: Dead Media Working Note 01.7 Dead Medium: The Comparator; the Rapid Selector From: boneill@allinux1.alliance.net (Bradley O'Neill) Dear Bruce, Here's some information on pre-encryption/decryption technologies of the 1930s and 40s. These creatures were the stillbirths of Vannevar Bush's projects at MIT and OP-20-G (Naval encryption division). Most people know Bush as grandaddy of info-science, and prognosticator of hypertext (in the famous article in a 1945 edition of _Atlantic Monthly,_ Bush envisioned a hyper-linked bibliography system called MEMEX, an idealized machine that was never built). Well, when I started looking into developmental background on BOMBE decryption devices for the German ENIGMA encryption system, I stumbled onto a source examining Vannevar Bush's role in creating Rapid Selector/Tabulating machines for the Navy and private industry, all inventions that predate Bush's idea of MEMEX. This particular text is I'm citing is _Information and Secrecy: Vannevar Bush, Ultra, and the Other Memex_ by Colin Burke; Scarecrow Press, Inc. Metuchen N.J., 1994. LOC: HD9696.C772B87 1994 Dr. Burke goes in-depth on several Bush "Rapid Selector" inventions that precede the development of successful analog optic-cryptoanalytic machines of WWII. Principal among them: THE COMPARATOR: 70mm Eastman-Kodak paper-tape based electronic crypto-analytic prototype, funded by the US Navy, built mostly at MIT, first assembled in 1938. The Comparator was plagued by years of mechanical setbacks. Bush wanted a "high-speed" (projected to be 100 times faster than 1920s tabulators) parallel processing analyser that utilized photo-cell light readings to index (and thus decode) up to 50,000 character comparisons per minute. Very low memory capability caused printing/retrieval problems. Bush realized that without microfilm density, the processing speeds were also unachievable. And if microfilm was used, then the reading/recording capabilities would suffer from insufficient resolution. THE RAPID SELECTOR: Begun in 1937. Bush's MIT team first built this analyser in 1940. Funding was dropped by a disgruntled FBI and subsequently picked up by various private foundations including Eastman and NCR (Bush was apparently an undaunted spinner of techno-dreams ala Steve Jobs). The Rapid Selector went through several incarnations, but was conceived as a specialized data- retrieval system for business records or scientific research. The Rapid Selector was a microfilm-based analyser consisting of a 7' tall relay rack, housing the film drives. Like its sister,the Comparator, it used a light- sensing reader system to allow speedy retrieval of microfilmed information. The user compiled a series of punchcard notes that were indexed into microfilm storage by a system operator/librarian. The Rapid Selector would then allow the user to cross-reference other researchers' additions to the user's "specialized area" without sorting through irrelevant texts. Bush saw the Rapid Selector as an eventual replacement for card catalogues. Although Bush conquered his basic speed/retrieval problems, the required coding system to access information ultimately proved prohibitively complex. The specialized typewriter for the code-punch was also unworkable. Burke's text is full of other useful information, follies, and successes that orbit around the development of these pre-digital machines. I'll post more as I digest it. Regards, Bradley. Subject: Dead Media Working Note 01.8 Dead Media: Magic Lanterns, Photography, Optical Toys and Early Cinematic Devices (((commentary in triple parens by bruces@well.com (Bruce Sterling) ))) (((This bibliography, drawn from various sources, makes no pretense at completeness. Further submissions and corrections are welcome. This list does demonstrate the great extent of the topic, and it offers many glowing opportunities for research, especially for the growing numbers of Dead Media Lurkers in Europe. If you can hack Latin, German and/or French and you haunt used bookstores, do think of the rest of us and write us some working notes. I must apologize for the lack of accents and umlauts in ASCII.))) Alhazen (Ibn al Haitam): Opticae Thesaurus Alhazen Arabis. Basel, 1572 (((earliest known work on the camera obscura. Alhazen died 1038 AD))) Allister, Ray: Friese-Greene. Close-up of an Inventor. London, 1848 (((British cinema-projection pioneer and crank -- "must be read with caution"))) Bardeche, Maurice and Brasillach, Robert: Histoire du Cinema. English translation New York, 1938 (((original date of French publication unknown))) Blum, Daniel: A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen. New York, 1953 Bode, Walter: Das Kleine Filmlexikon. Ein Taschenbuch uber das gesamte Filmwesen. Frankfurt and Vienna, 1954 Bossert, H and Guttman, H.: Aus der Fruhzeit der Photographie 1840-70, ein Bildbuch nach 200 Originalen. Frankfurt, 1930. Brunel, Georges: La Photographie pour tous. Paris, 1894 Cameron, J. R.: Sound Motion Pictures. Cameron Publishing Company, 1959 Ceram. C. W.: Archaeology of the Cinema. Harcourt, Brace and World, New York (1964?) (((a fine work with an excellent bibliography))) Coe, Brian: The History of Movie Photography. Eastview Editions, Westfield NJ, 1981 (((a highly informative and also very pretty book))) Cornwell-Clyde. A.: 3-D Kinematography. Hutchinson, London, 1954 Croy, Homer: How Motion Pictures are Made. London, 1899 Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mande: Histoire et description des procedes du daguerrotype et du diorama. Paris, 1839 Deslandes, Jacques: Histoire Comparee du Cinema, Vol. 1, Casterman, 1966 Demeny, Georges Emile Joseph: Les Origines du cinematographe. Paris, 1909 Dickson, W. K. L. and Dickson, A: History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope and Kinetophonograph. London, 1895 Dost, Wilhelm: Vorlaufer der Photographie. Beitrag zur allgemeinen Geschichte der Photographie. Berlin, 1931 Dost, Wilhelm and Stenger, Erich: Die Daguerrotype in Berlin 1839-1860. Berlin, 1922 Duca, Lo: Hippolyte Bayard, der erste Lichtbildkunstler. Paris, 1943 (((Bayard was a French treasury official and purportedly "the first photographic artist," though completely overshadowed by Daguerre and Niepce))) Fescourt, Henry (ed.): Le Cinema des origines a nos jours. Paris, 1932 Fielding, Raymond (ed): A Technological History of Motion Pictures and Television, University of California Press, 1967 Forch, Carl: Der Kinematograph und das sich bewegende Bild. Geschichte und technische Entwicklung der Kinematographie bis zur Gegenwart. Vienna and Leipzig, 1913 Fouque, Victor: La Verite sur l'invention de la photographie. Nicephore Niepce, sa vie, ses essais, ses travaux. Paris, 1867 Freund, Gisele: Histoire de la photographie en France. Paris, 1935 Fulop-Miller, Rene: Die Phantasie-maschine. Eine Saga der Gewinnsucht. Berlin-Vienna-Leipzig, 1931. Gernsheim, H. and A.: L. J. M. Daguerre. The History of the Diorama and the Daguerreotype. London, 1956. Griffith, Richard and Mayer, A.: The Movies. The sixty-year story of the world of Hollywood and its effect on America. From pre-Nickelodeon days to the present. New York, 1957. Grimoin-Sanson, Raoul: Le Film de ma vie. Paris 1926. (((Grimoin-Sanson was the inventor of the Ballon-Cineorama, a ten-projector, audience- surrounding virtuality system that premiered at the Paris Exhibition of 1900))) Guyot, Abbe: Nouvelles Recreations physiques et mathematiques. Paris, 1770 (((optical toys?))) Hendricks, Gordon: The Edison Motion Picture Myth. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961. (((Champions W.K.L Dickson against Edison as a "pioneer." Might have interesting dirt on Edison's purported "goon squads," who are said to have threatened the lives of French cinematographe salesmen))) Hepworth, Cecil M.: The ABC of Cinematography. London, 1897 Hepworth, Cecil M.: Came the Dawn. Memories of a Film Pioneer. London, 1951 (((Hepworth was the son of a famous magic-lanternist, worked on Paul's Theatrograph and invented several cinematic lighting and developing devices))) Hooper, William: Rational Recreations. London, 1774 (((Magic lanterns))) Hopwood, H. V.: Living Pictures. Their History, Photo-Production and Practice Working. London, 1899 Jeanne, Rene and Ford, Charles: Histoire encyclopedique de cinema. Paris, 1947 Kircher, Athanasius: Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae. Rome, 1646; Amsterdam, 1671, etc (((first known description of the magic lantern. Apparently Father Kircher had a rather vague idea of how the device worked and was repeating what conjurers and tregetours may have known for centuries; see Dead Media Working Note 0.02))) Kubnick, Henri: Les freres Lumiere. Paris, 1936. (((Justly famed early filmmakers and inventors of the Lumiere cinematographe))) Liesegang, F. Paul: