Topic: How wire photos were made in 1926

[Francois]

Has anyone ever wondered how photos were sent overseas through the wire service in the pre-computer days?
Well, I have (sounds surprising) and I had found an explanation a few years ago. But it wasn't nearly as satisfying as this!

http://petapixel.com/2013/07/01/how-they-sent-photos-across-the-ocean-back-in-1926/

Just check out the original infographics that they made to explain this to the readers of the paper!

[Ed Wenn]

Bl**dy hell. Absolutely fascinating.

[Terry]

Very cool stuff, Francois.  This parallels the early TV research going on at the same time.  The idea of breaking down pictures into a grid of dots is basic to all TV imaging, and the idea of making multiple exposures is how Arri (in 2013) would get a high-res video chip to overcome its inherent exposure latitude limitations.  We haven't really come very far in, oh, a hundred years except to make the dots smaller!

[tkmedia]

Bollocks! I used to do the job right before the printing press step.

[LT]

Brilliant. Let's all pat ourselves on the back - not bad for a bunch of randomly generated & environmentally shaped carbon based lifeforms.

[Francois]

Brilliant. Let's all pat ourselves on the back - not bad for a bunch of randomly generated & environmentally shaped carbon based lifeforms.

Definitely!
When we think our brains were essentially made to run around with clubs to try and knock out  long tooth tigers, it never ceases to amaze me when I see stuff like that.

And for some reason, all those clever mechanical things always amaze me more than high tech electronics wizardry. For some reason, it feels like people actually worked hard to dream these things up... something which isn't the case with computers. I know that pushing electrons with a stick takes a lot of hard work, but the results is always so simple looking that we forget all that went into it.

[sapata]

Wow... simply amazing!