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Twitter: Invented in 1935

Boris Written on August 12, 2008 – 10:52 am
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur

Lots of Twitter news today! A comment at the Twitter blog leads to a blog post by Dan Hollings who found this incredible machine from 1935 which essentially is Twitter “avant la lettre”:

Twitter Invented in 1935? Who would have thunk! - Dan Hollings' posterous

Twitter Invented in 1935? Who would have thunk! - Dan Hollings’ posterous
Robot Messenger Displays Person-to-Person Notes In Public
Source: Modern Mechanix (Aug, 1935)

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.

Wow, a coin per message? They even had a better business model than Twitter!

UPDATE: Came here from StumbleUpOn? Want to know how to hack Feedburner and add thousands of RSS subscribers in one day? Or maybe you want to know where ctrl+alt+delete came from?

I hope you like that post!

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8 comments/trackbacks to “Twitter: Invented in 1935”

  1. Aug 12, 2008: Twitter in 1935?? « Learning about (e-)learning

    [...] relationship. Well here’s the latest spoils of StumbleUpon. It brought up this little blog post on a 1935 version of a messanging system. Yes, granted, it makes even less sense than Twitter, [...]

  1. By Mathijs on Aug 12, 2008

    It was also used a lot during WWI
    check
    http://blip.tv/file/1136137/
    :)

    [Reply]

    By Matt on August 12th, 2008:

    You’re referring to WWII…

    Remarkably, the video was so funny, I’m not even irritated by your mistake.

    Thanks for sharing it.

    [Reply]

  2. By kafka on Aug 12, 2008

    Brilliant, I always thought the idea seemed all too natural.

    [Reply]

    By Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on August 12th, 2008:

    Glad you all liked it. So who came here from Stumbleupon? I updated the post with a few extra links for all those guests joining us today via Stumble…

    [Reply]

  3. By ThePete on Aug 13, 2008

    Yeah, but imagine what that thing’s Fail Whale must have looked like!

    O_O

    [Reply]

  4. By Mathijs on Aug 13, 2008

    Yep Matt, sorry of course it was number 2 typed it too quickly :)

    [Reply]

  5. By Tenth Speed Writer on Aug 16, 2008

    Huh. That’s actually a pretty nifty idea.

    Good use of the technology at the time.

    [Reply]

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