https://kottke.org/24/03/how-photos-were-transmitted-by-wire-in-the-1930s go to homepage KOTTKE DOT ORG go to homepage go to homepage go to homepage go to homepage go to homepage go to homepage KOTTKE DOT ORG [ ] MENU Member Login * Home * Membership * Newsletter * Goods * Archive + Tags * About/Contact dark mode light mode Advertise here with Carbon Ads Stay Connected * Newsletter * RSS Feed * Threads * Mastodon * Bluesky * Tumblr * Facebook This site is made possible by member support. [?] Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support. When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site! kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998. [?] posted Mar 12 @ 01:19 PM by Jason Kottke * gift link How Photos Were Transmitted by Wire in the 1930s I didn't know what to expect from this 1937 video explanation of how wire photos were transmitted to newspapers, but a double stunt sequence featuring an airplane and a death-defying photographer was not anywhere on my bingo card. This starts kinda slow but it picks up once they get into the completely fascinating explanation of how they sent photographs across the country using ordinary telephone lines. The whole setup was portable and they just hacked into a wire on a telephone pole, asked the operator to clear the line, and sent a photo scan via an analog modem. Ingenious! The Wikipedia page about wire photos is worth a read -- French designers argued that the technology was responsible for an early form of fast fashion. After World War II at haute couture shows in Paris, Frederick L. Milton would sketch runway designs and transmit his sketches via Belinographe to his subscribers, who could then copy Parisian fashions. In 1955, four major French couturiers (Lanvin, Dior, Patou, and Jacques Fath) sued Milton for piracy, and the case went to the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court. Wirephoto enabled a speed of transmission that the French designers argued damaged their businesses. (via the kid should see this) * fashion * journalism * photography * science * telephony Share Discussion 2 comments Pesta 2024-03-13T03:03:06Z Hi, journalist here, this wild technology was still in use into the early 90s at least. I remember working at a little paper in South Carolina when AP rolled out an early way to see photos on a computer screen instead of waiting for the wacky old spinning drum machines to spit out prints, one by one, that you'd physically thumb through. It felt like magic. But truth be told, the spinning drum thing was also magic. Reply Share Jason KottkeMOD 2024-03-13T16:48:54Z You can read more about wire photos on Tedium: Pushing Photos Through Wires. Reply Share x Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site, you can explore your options here. Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership. Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me! x In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. Check out your options for renewal. x Change your display name [ ] [ ] [Change] This is the name that'll be displayed next to comments you make on kottke.org; your email will not be displayed publicly. I'd encourage you to use your real name (or at least your first name and last initial) but you can also pick something that you go by when you participate in communities online. Choose something durable and reasonably unique (not "Me" or "anon"). Please don't change this often. No impersonation.. Note: I'm letting folks change their display names because the membership service that kottke.org uses collects full names and I thought some people might not want their names displayed publicly here. If it gets abused, I might disable this feature. x If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it. Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site, you can explore your options here. Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership. Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!