Robot Messenger Displays Person-to-Person Notes In Public (Aug, 1935)
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1935
| Buy on Ebay
In the mid ’30s everything was a robot.
Robot Messenger Displays Person-to-Person Notes In Public
TO AID persons who wish to make or cancel appointments or inform friends of their whereabouts, a robot message carrier has been introduced in London, England.
Known as the “notificator,” the new machine is installed in streets, stores, railroad stations or other public places where individuals may leave messages for friends.
The user walks up on a small platform in front of the machine, writes a brief message on a continuous strip of paper and drops a coin in the slot. The inscription moves up behind a glass panel where it remains in public view for at least two hours so that the person for whom it is intended may have sufficient time to observe the note at the appointed place. The machine is similar in appearance to a candy-vending device.
Inventions that haven’t lasted…
This one is for samma. Here are some things that don’t belong on the inventor spot website I don’t think. Quite an amusing and interesting collection!…
Trackback by Anonymous — June 21, 2006 @ 8:28 pm
What about a version for instant messaging? Two or more people would stand beside each other and write notes like crazy. Automatic chat log and user-defined emoticons too. What more could you ask for?
Actually the system of writing publicly visible notes to specific people is still being used to some degree at conferences. For sure the scope is so much more limited, but except that a machine is not used, the communication method as such is still being used.
Comment by Anders Borg — July 24, 2006 @ 6:16 am
[...] de vos amis autour d’un feu de camp sur le bord d’un lac. [ via Pasta&Vinegar, Modern Mechanix [...]
Pingback by LaBlogAtoire » Archive du blog » L’ancêtre de Twitter — June 25, 2007 @ 8:39 pm
[...] los orÃgenes de Twitter: en el Londres de 1935, el “notificator“, un aparatito tipo máquina de vending con un rollo de papel continuo en el que la gente [...]
Pingback by Los orÃgenes de Twitter » El Blog de Enrique Dans — June 25, 2007 @ 11:57 pm
[...] Modern Mechanix blogs a robotic message display for person-to-person notes in public from the 1930s. Write a note, pay a small fee and the message moves up behind the window to be on display for 2 hours. I love the name, “the notificator”. [...]
Pingback by In a New Box. » — June 26, 2007 @ 1:21 am
[...] Texto completo de la imagen. [...]
Pingback by TISCAR .:. Periodismo -:- Blogs -:- Educación » El Twitter analógico de los años 30 — June 27, 2007 @ 1:15 am
Ye olde timey robot message board …
The Notificator, featured in the August 1935 issue of Modern Mechanix, was designed for installation in public spaces so that individuals may leave messages for each other. In a short MobHappy post, Russell Buckley briefly puts it in the context of to…
Trackback by Boing Boing — July 5, 2007 @ 9:43 am
[...] microblogging in the 30s: this “robotic†messenger display aims at “TO AID persons who wish to make or cancel appointments or inform friends of their [...]
Pingback by digital in London » Blog Archive » Twitter 1930’s style — September 20, 2007 @ 8:40 am
[...] Via: EnriqueDans.com / ModernMechanix.com [...]
Pingback by Twitter nacio en Agosto de 1935 — December 15, 2007 @ 1:45 pm
[...] Modern Mechanix – Robot Messenger Displays Person-to-Person Notes In Public TO AID persons who wish to make or cancel appointments or inform friends of their whereabouts, a robot message carrier has been introduced in London, England.. the new machine is installed in public places where individuals may leave messages for friends” (tags: history twitter retro robots communication asynchronous messaging via:roome) [...]
Pingback by links for 2008-01-19 — January 18, 2008 @ 4:35 pm
What’s wrong with a cork board and thumbatacks, or a random wall spot and some tape?
If you offer a pay service, it’s essential not to duplicate a free one…
Comment by nlpnt — January 31, 2008 @ 4:57 pm
[...] came across this story this morning about a person-to-person messenger invented in 1935 and filed under "useless technology". In those days people who knew one [...]
Pingback by Who needs Twitter? by Stormhoek — April 15, 2008 @ 5:35 am
[...] What a difference 73 years of technology makes! Some UX improvements: Twitter is now free, location-independent, and messages can be viewed longer than two hours! via: Modern Mechanix [...]
Pingback by The Notificator: What Twitter was like in 1935… | SensoryMetrics: re-inventing the User eXperience — July 3, 2008 @ 11:43 am
[...] Robot Messenger Displays Person-to-Person Notes In Public (Modern Mechanix, August 1935) [...]
Pingback by Robot Messenger Displays Person-to-Person Notes In Public (Modern Mechanix, August 1935) — omglog — August 13, 2008 @ 12:38 pm
Two hours and three minutes and My mother married the wrong man.
Comment by mike — December 7, 2008 @ 3:07 am
[...] Larger Image: Modern Mechanix [...]
Pingback by Notificator: the original Twitter from 1935 | Renegade Futurist — March 4, 2009 @ 3:50 pm
Charlie – this page (credited to your blogsite) was featured in the “Insight” section of today’s Toronto Star. They referred to it as “The Original Twitter.”
Comment by Dread Pirate Roberts — May 3, 2009 @ 7:49 pm
DPR: Cool, thanks for letting me know!
Comment by Charlie — May 3, 2009 @ 11:31 pm
[...] OK, I don’t really have a stack of 1930’s magazines – I spotted it on this blog. [...]
Pingback by The Original Twitter — May 15, 2009 @ 8:21 am
[...] Source: Modern Mechanix [...]
Pingback by Twitter’s 1935 Version « techTalks — May 17, 2009 @ 9:49 am
[...] Het tijdschrift ‘Modern Mechanix‘ heeft hierover een bericht geplaatst in de editie van augustus 1935. Hieronder het originele artikel: [...]
Pingback by Annunaki » Leuk » Twitter al in 1935 uitgevonden — May 22, 2009 @ 8:46 am
[...] Visto en el blog de Modern Mechanix. [...]
Pingback by Notificator (el bisabuelo del twitter) | Maikelnai's blog — June 4, 2009 @ 11:57 am
[...] Twitter in 1935 (Via Maikelnai’s Blog) [...]
Pingback by Twitter in 1935 | dv8-designs — June 22, 2009 @ 8:41 pm
[...] Twitter in 1935 (Via Maikelnai’s Blog) [...]
Pingback by Twitter in 1935 | Design Website — June 22, 2009 @ 9:12 pm
[...] Twitter in 1935 (Via Maikelnai’s Blog) [...]
Pingback by Twitter in 1935 | Design Website Easy — June 22, 2009 @ 9:20 pm
[...] Twitter in 1935 (Via Maikelnai’s Blog) [...]
Pingback by Twitter in 1935 — June 22, 2009 @ 10:01 pm
[...] Modern Mechanix tweetmeme_url = ‘http://ramblings.luismedel.com/2009/06/twitter-en-1935/’;tweetmeme_source = [...]
Pingback by Twitter en 1935 | Medel's ramblings — June 23, 2009 @ 2:46 am
[...] BoingBoing points out a great story from the archives of Modern Mechanix magazine, a description of a device known as the Notificator: The user walks up on a small platform in front of the machine, writes a brief message on a continuous strip of paper and drops a coin in the slot. The inscription moves up behind a glass panel where it remains in public view for at least two hours so that the person for whom it is intended may have sufficient time to observe the note at the appointed place. The machine is similar in appearance to a candy-vending device. LINK [...]
Pingback by The Notificator Beat Twitter by Over 70 Years | mymediamusings — June 23, 2009 @ 1:08 pm
[...] Robot messenger displays person-to-person notes in public. Post a comment | Trackback URI [...]
Pingback by The notificator. < the tweney review — June 23, 2009 @ 8:06 pm
[...] make the pithy comparison and add this 1950’s update to your history of Twitter (see also: Robot Messenger Displays Person-to-Person Notes In Public, Aug, 1935), when what do you suppose [...]
Pingback by Kitsch Slapped » Blog Archive » Twitter Of 1950 — June 28, 2009 @ 2:50 am
[...] From the August 1935 edition of Modern Mechanix: [...]
Pingback by Typeboard — July 1, 2009 @ 11:52 am
[...] is Twitter het laatste nieuwe op internetgebied? In de jaren ‘30 was er al een “Notificator”, een robotachtige machine waar je een bericht op een papierrol kunt achterlaten. Dit bericht blijft [...]
Pingback by Twitter is bijna 75 jaar oud | Digitality Weblog — July 4, 2009 @ 9:55 am
Maybe the invention was real, but I’m dubious about this news article. In 1935, hot type — individually cast lead letterforms arranged by hand in typesetting carriages — did not yield such wonderfully uniform text as displayed in this sample. The baseline (the imaginary line upon which the bottom of each letter rests) is perfectly straight. The kerning (the spacing between the letters) is absolutely uniform. The inking betrays not a hint of variation. Such typographic perfection was nigh impossible with hot type.
Comment by JT — September 21, 2009 @ 8:02 pm
Hear that Charlie? Now you’re forging articles!
Comment by Firebrand38 — September 21, 2009 @ 8:48 pm
Who said Modern Mechanix was typeset that way?
Most magazines of that era were Linotype, I’d bet, like newspapers. Monotype hot type was mainly used for books.
I don’t notice any full kerning in the article, by the way. Just the classic “fi” and “ff” double characters that were common with Linotype.
Comment by Toronto — September 21, 2009 @ 9:27 pm
That’s just a fine how do you do from JT. Charlie takes the time to scan his collection in and if we don’t get some Lt Columbo suspecting Photoshop in the 1930’s we get Colonel Mustard here saying that this article was typed recently. Gee whiz, Sherlock! I hope you aren’t trying to make a living as an investigative reporter because you suck at it.
Comment by Firebrand38 — September 21, 2009 @ 10:58 pm
No, Toronto and Firebrand38, I think that JT is onto something. I suggest that he should ask Konrad Kujau about the article.
Comment by Randy — September 23, 2009 @ 1:16 pm
And you can tell it really wasn’t a robot because it was named “The Notificator” and not “R. Notificator”. Now, R. Sammy, he was a *real* robot messenger.
Comment by Randy — September 23, 2009 @ 1:44 pm
That’s why there were so few robot pirates.
R. Blackbeard?
Arr.
Everyone got confused.
Comment by R.Toronto — September 23, 2009 @ 7:16 pm
No guys, he’s right. I’ve been faking the articles all this time. Wasn’t it obvious from my Picard homage?
Comment by Charlie — September 23, 2009 @ 10:19 pm
OMG, it is true, Charlie! You photoshopped a screenshot from The Big Goodbye I can tell by some of the pixels and from having seen quite a number of shops in my day.
Comment by R.Andy — September 24, 2009 @ 3:07 am
Rotary presses and phototypesetting had replace most of the hot type presses for large volume print jobs by the 1930’s.
I swear kids today. They have no clue as to what was possible or common place prior to the date of their own birth.
Comment by JMyint — September 24, 2009 @ 10:56 am
I worked for a printing company while in college in the late 1970’s. They were (and are) a major printer of law journals and also did the state’s lawbooks. Although they had an early computerized phototypesetter for making webpress plates, they still used a Linotype machine (in its own room–it was very noisy) for certain jobs.
Comment by Randy — September 24, 2009 @ 11:49 am