[HN Gopher] Telefon Hirmondo
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Telefon Hirmondo
Author : csense
Score : 74 points
Date : 2025-08-04 17:50 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
| csense wrote:
| It's quite fascinating that this was not only possible with
| 1800's technology, but formed the basis of a successful business:
| "Vacuum-tube amplification would not be developed until the
| 1910s, so there were limited means for producing signals strong
| enough to be heard throughout the system. Therefore, for
| transmitting the news, announcers with especially loud voices --
| known as stentors -- were hired and instructed to speak as
| forcefully as possible into specially designed double-receivers."
|
| Wikipedia also talks about their sub growth: "Telefon Hirmondo
| began operations in 1893 with 60 subscribers, a total that grew
| to 700 in 1894, 4915 in 1895, 7629 in 1899, around 6200 in 1901,
| and 15,000 by 1907...The annual subscription price of the service
| was 18 krones (the price of 10 kg sugar or 20 kg coffee in
| Budapest at that time)."
|
| Claude says retail for 20kg of coffee is $360 today. Assuming
| that's accurate, it would be equivalent to a service today
| selling at $30 / month. Some quick research shows Netflix's most
| expensive Premium plan costs $25 / month.
|
| It's pretty interesting that in 1893 they could run the business
| sustainably (it survived until radio) at essentially the same
| price point as modern day, given they were producing all their
| own content (all live) _and_ providing customers with hardware.
| Although I suppose they weren 't building _completely_ from
| scratch, they were using the existing telephone network for the
| actual physical layer connectivity.
| ttoinou wrote:
| Although I suppose they weren't building completely from
| scratch, they were using the existing telephone network for the
| actual physical layer connectivity.
|
| Very impressive indeed (although maybe Coffee and Sugar were
| rarer back then), especially given that according to the
| article they did built their own infrastructure unidirectional
| lines at some point
| johnisgood wrote:
| I am Hungarian and "Telefon Hirmondo" translated to English is
| "Telephone News Teller" (or rather News-Teller, i.e. someone who
| is telling the news), not "Telephone Herald".
| jhbadger wrote:
| That's what a herald is in the literal sense - someone who is
| telling the news. Of course these days it is generally used
| metaphorically.
| Sniffnoy wrote:
| I might have gone with "crier" rather than "herald". That
| seems a little closer in terms of what the actual job
| consists of?
| rbanffy wrote:
| "Screamer" would work as well.
|
| My Hungarian tells me "announcer" would be closer. It's
| literally someone who says the news.
| holycrapwhodat wrote:
| The verb "to herald" means to be a sign of something that is
| imminent.
|
| But the noun "herald" literally means "official who tells the
| news"
|
| So this still definitely checks out.
| johnisgood wrote:
| I have to be honest I have never heard of the word "herald"
| and I have been in many settings since I was a kid. I bet
| many natives are in my shoes.
| antonvs wrote:
| If you're a native English speaker you've probably seen it,
| even if you didn't know what it meant.
|
| A common context in which it's used is in the idiom "herald
| a new era" - here's a search:
| https://www.google.com/search?q="heralds+a+new+era" which
| shows that it's pretty common.
|
| It's also used in the names of many newspapers around the
| world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herald_(newspaper)
|
| There's also the Christmas carol, "Hark! The Herald Angels
| Sing":
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hark!_The_Herald_Angels_Sing
|
| But I suppose if you don't already know the word "herald"
| you might just put that down to weird religious language.
| johnisgood wrote:
| I am getting down-voted (for saying I did not know of
| this word, which is wild), but I asked a couple of people
| from the US and UK and they could not tell what it means,
| not without a dictionary.
|
| It is a small sample, but you could ask your family and
| friends.
|
| Plus, I still prefer something that most if not all
| people know: news-teller over herald, so I would have
| translated it to that.
| Sniffnoy wrote:
| I might have gone with "crier" rather than "herald". That
| seems a little closer in terms of what the actual job
| consists of? But I agree that "herald" seems fine.
| xunil2ycom wrote:
| Electrically.
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