I like looking at old technology in movies. I couldn't help notice a fax machine type of device that the police were using. THe cool thing was that it reproduced the sender's handwriting. Any idea what this thins was called?
Just my $.02
Facsimiles (they didn't call them "fax" machines in those days) are not particularly new... newspapers have been using photographs delivered by facsimile since 1935, when the Associated Press started its Wirephoto service. I'd imagine that police agencies quickly discovered the usefulness in using the technology to transmit mug shots of wanted criminals and the like.
shareYes, but facsimilies, if my recollection is correct, did not reproduce handwriting with what appeared to be an auto-pen -- a machine like what the White House uses to sign the president's signature, which differs from the president's actual signature.
Just my $.02
Also, remember the photo-sending machine used in "BULLITT"?
Quite a high-tech machine for the time but so obsolete now.
There's a scene in Almost Famous about fax machines from the 70's, and it makes a funny point about how long it will take to transmit.
I miss copy machines from that era. They were beautiful.
The machine you describe was called a TelAutograph. Google it. Fascinating. Thanks for the flash from the past.
shareExcellent. Thank you very much. That was the response I was looking for. Anyone else interested, here is the wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telautograph
Just my $.02
[deleted]
Faxes have been around, as someone said, since the 30's. Ditto the signing machines. In fact, Thomas Jefferson had a device with two pens so he could write a letter and have a copy for his files at the same time...or presumably - he could write the same letter to two people and only write in the "Dear So-and-so" for the different recipients.
shareYou want to talk tech?
As recent as the 1970s it took a while to transmit a small computer tape from one site to another over a phone line you set it up get it going and walk away.
Nowadays we send mass amounts of data across lines or off a satellite in a matter of seconds.
See some stars here
http://www.vbphoto.biz/