Thomas Edison's Kindle

harrymcc writes "In 1911, Thomas Edison bragged that he could make a 40,000-page book by printing the pages on thin pieces of metal. In the mid-1930s, newspapers experimented with transmitting special editions into homes via early fax machines. In 1956, Chrysler tried to sell Americans on buying 7-inch records that could only be played on a tiny turntable built into its cars' dashboards. Over at Technologizer, I rounded up these and a dozen other fascinating, forgotten gadget ideas that didn't work out — but which foreshadowed products and technologies that eventually became a big deal."

Comments

Re:hmmm

[Sir_Lewk]

Exactly what I was thinking. I have a feeling such a book would provide a much better shave than a read.

Thomas Edison's Kindle?

[dangitman]

Sounds kind of like Ayn Rand's slashdot.org. Oh wait, we already have that.

Re:There was an early fax machine in the 1860s

[biryokumaru]

Some of other Caselli's inventions were: an electrical marine torpedo which came back to the launching point in the event of missing the mark, an hydraulic press and an instrument that measures the speed of the locomotives.

A torpedo that comes back if it misses? What could possibly go wrong? This man was clearly a genius!

Re:hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Pages 1/20,000th of an inch thick? What exactly keeps you from lopping off your fingers?

And if you dropped it in your lap....

Re:There was an early fax machine in the 1860s

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the worst excuse for a limerick I've ever heard.

Another Idea that will not catch on (hopefully)

[icebike]

Using Slashdot to hype your own damn blog!

Re:hmmm

[danlip]

F-ck 4 blades, we're doing 40,000 blades

Re:There was an early fax machine in the 1860s

[MichaelSmith]

Some of other Caselli's inventions were: an electrical marine torpedo which came back to the launching point in the event of missing the mark, an hydraulic press and an instrument that measures the speed of the locomotives.

A torpedo that comes back if it misses? What could possibly go wrong? This man was clearly a genius!

Naturally, Australians got there first.

Re:There was an early fax machine in the 1860s

[icepick72]

On that page, the background image and faded foreground text are clearly meant to slow down reading and comprehension so we can savor the article.

Re:hmmm

[Anonymous Monkey]

I can make a tin foil hat with my feet. It's important to practice such skills because you might get handcuffed one day.

Re:There was an early fax machine in the 1860s

[D Ninja]

A torpedo that comes back if it misses? What could possibly go wrong?

Ahhh...that really lends a whole new kind of meaning to the word BOOMerang.

Mail-in mainframe access

[Brett Johnson]

Side note: Popular Science used the article to introduce a service in which readers could get access to mainframe programs by filling out forms with input data and mailing them to PopSci, which would then run [the] program and send the results back in a S.A.S.E. the reader had supplied. It may have been the least real-time approach to computing in the history of the universe.

Edward waits impatiently for the letter carrier to arrive. "Where is he?", Edward musses, checking his watch.

Every day this week, Edward had rifled through the mail as soon as it had arrived, hoping to see that special envelope. And every day this week, the postman brought only bills and grocery store circulars.

But today - certainly today - would be the day he would receive the results of his climate modeling simulation. It just had to come today!

Edward sees the postman coming down the street. His mailbag seems a bit heavier today ... Could it be? Why doesn't he walk faster!?

Finally, the mailman reaches Edward's house and pulls out a bundle of letters. Edward anxiously grabs the lot from the hands of the postman. One of the envelopes is notably thick; Edward pulls it out and checks the return address. "YES!", he exclaims, seeing it was from Popular Science. He hands back the rest of the pile and dashes up the stairs with his precious packet.

Edward gives himself a paper cut opening the envelope, but is oblivious to the pain. His mind is focused on one thing - the test results: "Is global warming real?" Surely these results will show it beyond any reasonable doubt!

Examining the first page, Edward's heart sinks...

climate.c: In function 'main':
climate.c:75: error: syntax error before '}' token

"FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...."

Re:Mail-in mainframe access

[Bluesman]

So Edward fixes the bugs in his program, and a month later, receives a similar letter. More cautious now, he opens it to find that the letter contains real output this time:

"Be sure to drink your Ovaltine."

Re:Mail-in mainframe access

[commodoresloat]

eventually, politically motivated hackers break into his mailbox and start publishing his letters to his friends talking smack about some other guy's climate modeling program....

What's The First One Gonna Be?

[The Wild Norseman]

First thought that popped into my mind when I read about the Edison book was the Orange Catholic Bible.

Which brings up a related question for me. A bible the size of the OC Bible couldn't be physically thumped, so you can't call Orange Catholics "bible thumpers." "Bible plinkers" maybe?

Re:Success is timing as much as great ideas

[Bluesman]

I thought of a device that will send video output to my TV via an ATSC 8VSB signal. That exists too.

Re:hmmm

[michaelhood]

Fusion Power Stealth

Cold weld?

[proverbialcow]

"Um..yeah, I'd like to return this book. I was making a cake, and the recipe spreads over opposite sides of a page, and as you can clearly see, the pages stick together from 'Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl' all the way through to the Book of Revelations. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until after I'd already added the brimstone and the lake of burning sulphur, and it was the worst birthday my five-year-old ever had."