Telecar (Jan, 1952)
Telecar
BALTIMORE messengers are pulling their telegrams out of thin air. The city where Sam Morse sent the first telegraphic message over 100 years ago now has six Telecars, roving station wagons each equipped with two-way radio and a Telefax printer. When a message arrives, the dispatcher radios the driver to speed to the address. Then he wraps the message around a cylinder in the transmitter and facsimile is received in car en route.
For the life of me I don’t know why they used a FAX transmission from the front office. Teletypes at that time were reliable though clunky machines that worked just fine of an FSK (frequency shift keying) signal with the right converter. Western Union was behind the times even with their own technology.
They could have literally typed the silly thing out quicker, considering your average message was not all that many words.
FAX even today is a finicky process – witness how often you get scrambled pictures of poor quality.
Alan
So basically, a guy drives to your house and hands you an email.
Telecar!
You aren’t the Telecar you’re that Land Shark!