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When the history of the last century is written, ample space should be reserved for
the telephone. Sure, these days, the ever-present intrusion of someone's
cell phone might make us consider the ubiquitous telephone a nuisance — but
back in the early 1900s, telephones offered the first glimpse of a
future that we're actually living today. Telephones, you see, were
used not only for making phone calls, but also for such things as news
and entertainment — why there was even an effort to provide a
telephone subscription service that broadcast news 24 hours a day — sound
familiar?
Just over ten years ago, while traveling through Hungary, I had the chance to stay the
night in an ex-government official's apartment Budapest in, directly
across the bridge from the castle. While there, I asked if I could
make a call, and walked right over to something that looked like two
single headphones in the wall. The owner of the apartment watched me
pick up these strange looking things and started to laugh. He told
me I wouldn't be able to use that phone to call anyone — since
it hadn't worked for the last fifty years.
He could tell that I was puzzled, and then told me that his family kept it as an historical
artifact — a reminder of the glory days of Budapest — it
was, he said, a kind of radio. Though I remember feeling surprised,
I wasn't as blown away as I should have been. If I'd known then, what
I've learned about radio since, I would have asked more questions.
I don't think I even asked him what they called that kind of telephone
programming — and so I didn't know until I researched this article
that it was called Telefon Hirmondó.
Why is Telefon Hirmondo relevant to us today? Well, because sometimes the dust of big ideas
becomes the stuff of the future's reality. In other words, in 1911,
after a few American entrepreneurs first heard of "radio via telephone," they
tried to set it up in the U.S. as it had also been tested in Paris
and England. They planned to test it in Newark, NJ first, and then,
if successful, make a run of it in New York City. They called it the
New Jersey Telephone Herald Company. Their plan, and this should start
to sound remarkably familiar, was to use the telephone radio as a kind
of subscription news service that would run around the clock — or
at least till 11 PM. For a set price, well-connected families in well-connected
homes would be able to pick up the receiver and get the news before
it made the morning paper. They could also tune in to children's stories,
stock reports, and sporting news. It was a brilliant idea that anticipated
not only news and talk radio but even television broadcasts like CNN,
and the like.
Still, as brilliant as the idea was, it just didn't make it. Customers liked getting the
information so easily, but they didn't like having to keep their ears
pressed against the headphones. Eventually so many customers cancelled,
and the difficulty of producing a satisfactory speaker became burdensome
enough to convince the company to close its doors in 1912.
Sometimes I can't help but be stunned at the eerie way so much of our modern technology — stuff
that seems so separate and unrelated — actually shared a history
in the development of radio. Fax machines, telephones, computers, satellites,
remote controls, and flashlights (there's an LED connection)
all seem to share common ancestry in the modest radio. It is just remarkable.
To learn more about Telefon Hirmondo check out this remarkable article dating back to 1901:
http://www.ipass.net/~whitetho/telenew1.htm
To view our telephone items, please visit our Telephone
Index Page.
To view our past articles, please visit our What's
in the News Archives.
As always, please e-mail me with any comments or
article suggestions you might have. If you have a customer service or technical question, please
send to ccraneco@aol.com or call 1-800-522-8863.
If you are interested in using C. Crane’s articles on your own Web site,
please let me know. I’d be happy to take a look at your Web site and
see what we can do. Good-bye for now, Carlos. About
the author.
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