![](\"https:\/\/cdn8.openculture.com\/2019\/10\/01223716\/theatrophone-27c.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Every liv\u00ading adult has wit\u00adnessed enough tech\u00adno\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal advance\u00adment in their life\u00adtime to mar\u00advel at just how much has changed, and dig\u00adi\u00adtal stream\u00ading and telecom\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtions hap\u00adpen to be areas where the most rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion\u00adary change seems to have tak\u00aden place. We take for grant\u00aded that the present resem\u00adbles the past not at all, and that the future will look unimag\u00adin\u00adably dif\u00adfer\u00adent. So the nar\u00adra\u00adtive of lin\u00adear progress tells us. But that sto\u00adry is nev\u00ader as tri\u00adumphant\u00adly sim\u00adple as it seems.<\/p>\n
In one salient coun\u00adterex\u00adam\u00adple, we find that not only did livestream\u00ading music and news exist in the\u00ado\u00adry long before the inter\u00adnet, but it exist\u00aded in actu\u00adal practice\u2014at the very dawn of record\u00ading tech\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy, tele\u00adpho\u00adny, and gen\u00ader\u00adal elec\u00adtri\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion. First devel\u00adoped in France in 1881 by inven\u00adtor Clement Ader<\/a>, who called his sys\u00adtem the Th\u00e9\u00e2tro\u00adphone, the device allowed users to expe\u00adri\u00adence \u201cthe trans\u00admis\u00adsion of music and oth\u00ader enter\u00adtain\u00adment over a tele\u00adphone line,\u201d notes the site Bob\u2019s Old Phones<\/a>, \u201cusing very sen\u00adsi\u00adtive micro\u00adphones of [Ader\u2019s] own inven\u00adtion and his own receivers.\u201d<\/p>\n The pre-radio tech\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy was ahead of its time in many ways, as Michael Der\u00advan explains at The Irish Times<\/em><\/a>. The Th\u00e9\u00e2tro\u00adphone \u201ccould trans\u00admit two-chan\u00adnel, mul\u00adti-micro\u00adphone relays of the\u00adatre and opera over phone lines for lis\u00adten\u00ading on head\u00adphones. The use of dif\u00adfer\u00adent sig\u00adnals for the two ears cre\u00adat\u00aded a stereo effect.\u201d Users sub\u00adscribed to the ser\u00advice, and it proved pop\u00adu\u00adlar enough to receive an entry in the 1889 edi\u00adtion of The Elec\u00adtri\u00adcal Engi\u00adneer<\/em> ref\u00ader\u00adence guide<\/a>, which defined it as \u201ca tele\u00adphone by which one can have soup\u00e7ons<\/em> of the\u00adatri\u00adcal decla\u00adma\u00adtion for half a franc.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1896 \u201cthe Belle Epoque pop artist Jules Cheret immor\u00adtal\u00adized the the\u00adat\u00adro\u00adphone,\u201d writes Tanya Basu at Men\u00adtal Floss<\/a>, \u201cin a lith\u00ado\u00adgraph fea\u00adtur\u00ading a woman in a yel\u00adlow dress, grin\u00adning as she pre\u00adsum\u00adably lis\u00adtened to an opera feed.\u201d Vic\u00adtor Hugo got to try it out. \u201cIt\u2019s very strange,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt starts with two ear muffs on the wall, and we hear the opera; we change ear\u00admuffs and hear the French The\u00adatre, Coquelin. And we change again and hear the Opera Comique. The chil\u00addren and I were delight\u00aded.\u201d<\/p>\n Though The Elec\u00adtri\u00adcal Engi\u00adneer<\/em> also called it \u201cthe lat\u00adest thing to catch [Parisians\u2019] ears and their cen\u00adtimes,\u201d the inno\u00adva\u00adtion had already by that time spread else\u00adwhere in Europe. Inven\u00adtor Tivador Puskas cre\u00adat\u00aded a \u201cstream\u00ading\u201d sys\u00adtem in Budapest called Tele\u00adfon Her\u00admon\u00addo (Tele\u00adphone Her\u00adald), Bob\u2019s Old Phones points out, \u201cwhich broad\u00adcast news and stock mar\u00adket infor\u00adma\u00adtion over tele\u00adphone lines.\u201d Unlike Ader\u2019s sys\u00adtem, sub\u00adscribers could \u201ccall in to the tele\u00adphone switch\u00adboard and be con\u00adnect\u00aded to the broad\u00adcast of their choice. The sys\u00adtem was quite suc\u00adcess\u00adful and was wide\u00adly report\u00aded over\u00adseas.\u201d<\/p>\n The mech\u00ada\u00adnism was, of course, quite dif\u00adfer\u00adent from dig\u00adi\u00adtal stream\u00ading, and quite lim\u00adit\u00aded by our stan\u00addards, but the basic deliv\u00adery sys\u00adtem was sim\u00adi\u00adlar enough. A third such ser\u00advice worked a lit\u00adtle dif\u00adfer\u00adent\u00adly. The Elec\u00adtro\u00adphone sys\u00adtem, formed in Lon\u00addon in 1884, com\u00adbined its pre\u00adde\u00adces\u00adsors\u2019 ideas: broad\u00adcast\u00ading both news and musi\u00adcal enter\u00adtain\u00adment. Play\u00adback options were expand\u00aded, with both head\u00adphones and a speak\u00ader-like mega\u00adphone attach\u00adment.<\/p>\n Addi\u00adtion\u00adal\u00adly, users had a micro\u00adphone so that they could \u201ctalk to the Cen\u00adtral Office and request dif\u00adfer\u00adent pro\u00adgrams.\u201d The addi\u00adtion of inter\u00adac\u00adtiv\u00adi\u00adty came at a pre\u00admi\u00adum. \u201cThe Elec\u00adtro\u00adphone ser\u00advice was expen\u00adsive,\u201d writes Der\u00advan, \u201c\u00a35 a year at a time when that sum would have cov\u00adered a cou\u00adple months rent.\u201d Addi\u00adtion\u00adal\u00adly, \u201cthe expe\u00adri\u00adence was com\u00admu\u00adnal rather than soli\u00adtary.\u201d Sub\u00adscribers would gath\u00ader in groups to lis\u00adten, and \u201csome of the pho\u00adtographs\u201d of these ses\u00adsions resem\u00adble \u201cimages of addicts in an old-style opi\u00adum den\u201d\u2014or of Vic\u00adto\u00adri\u00adans gath\u00adered at a s\u00e9ance.<\/p>\n The com\u00adpa\u00adny lat\u00ader gave recu\u00adper\u00adat\u00ading WWI ser\u00advice\u00admen access to the ser\u00advice, which height\u00adened its pro\u00adfile. But these ear\u00adly livestream\u00ading services\u2014if we may so call them\u2014were not com\u00admer\u00adcial\u00adly viable, and \u201cradio killed the ven\u00adture off in the 1920s\u201d with its uni\u00adver\u00adsal acces\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty and appeal to adver\u00adtis\u00aders and gov\u00adern\u00adments. This seem\u00ading evo\u00adlu\u00adtion\u00adary dead end might have been a dis\u00adtant ances\u00adtor of stream\u00ading live con\u00adcerts and events, though no one could have fore\u00adseen it at the time. No one save sci\u00adence fic\u00adtion writ\u00aders.<\/p>\n Edward Bellamy\u2019s 1888 utopi\u00adan nov\u00adel Look\u00ading Back\u00adward<\/em> imag\u00adined a device very like the Th\u00e9\u00e2tro\u00adphone in his vision of the year 2000. And in 1909, E.M. Forster drew on ear\u00adly stream\u00ading ser\u00advices and oth\u00ader ear\u00adly telecom\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtions advances for his vision\u00adary short sto\u00adry \u201cThe Machine Stops<\/a>,\u201d which extrap\u00ado\u00adlat\u00aded the more iso\u00adlat\u00ading ten\u00adden\u00adcies of the tech\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy to pre\u00addict, as play\u00adwright Neil Duffield remarks<\/a>, \u201cthe inter\u00adnet in the days before even radio was a mass medi\u00adum.\u201d<\/p>\n via Ted Gioia<\/a>\/The Irish Times<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Relat\u00aded Con\u00adtent:<\/strong><\/p>\n The His\u00adto\u00adry of the Inter\u00adnet in 8 Min\u00adutes<\/a><\/p>\n Hear the First Record\u00ading of the Human Voice (1860)<\/a><\/p>\n How an 18th-Cen\u00adtu\u00adry Monk Invent\u00aded the First Elec\u00adtron\u00adic Instru\u00adment<\/a><\/p>\n Josh Jones<\/a> is a writer and musi\u00adcian based in Durham, NC. Fol\u00adlow him at @jdmagness<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every liv\u00ading adult has wit\u00adnessed enough tech\u00adno\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal advance\u00adment in their life\u00adtime to mar\u00advel at just how much has changed, and dig\u00adi\u00adtal stream\u00ading and telecom\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtions hap\u00adpen to be areas where the most rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion\u00adary change seems to have tak\u00aden place. We take for grant\u00aded that the present resem\u00adbles the past not at all, and that the future [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1069475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n