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Wirephoto

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Wirephoto
Belinograph BEP2V wirephoto machine by Édouard Belin, 1930
Process typePhysical,Analogue
Industrial sector(s)Wire Service,Photojournalism
Main technologies or sub-processesTelegraph,Telephone,Photography
Product(s)Fax,photography
Leading companiesWestern Union,AT&T,Associated Press,others
Year of invention1920s

Wirephoto,telephotographyorradiophotois the sending ofphotographsbytelegraph,telephoneorradio.

History[edit]

Édouard Belinand his Belinograph

Technologically and commercially, the wirephoto was the successor toErnest A. Hummel'sTelediagraphof 1895, which had transmitted electrically scannedshellac-on-foil originals over a dedicated circuit connecting theNew York Heraldand theChicago Times Herald,theSt. Louis Republic,theBoston Herald,and thePhiladelphia Inquirer.[1][2]

Édouard Belin's Bélinographe of 1913, which scanned using aphotocelland transmitted over ordinary phone lines, formed the basis for the Wirephoto service. In Europe, services similar to a wirephoto were called a Belino.

Western Uniontransmitted its first photograph in 1921.AT&Tfollowed in 1924,[3]and RCA began sendingRadiophotosin 1926.[4]

1926 illustration of how photos are cabled across the Atlantic Ocean

The first wirephoto systems were slow and did not reproduce well. In 1929,Vladimir Zworykin,an electronics engineer working for Western Electric, came up with a system that produced a better reproduction and could transmit a full page in approximately one minute.[5]

In the 1930s, wirephoto machines of any reasonable speed were very large and expensive and required a dedicated phone line. News media firms likeAssociated Pressused expensive leased telephone lines to transmit wirephotos. In the mid-1930s a technology battle began for less expensive portable wirephoto equipment that could transmit photos over standard phone lines.

TheAssociated Pressbegan its Wirephoto service in 1935 and held atrademarkon the term "AP Wirephoto" from 1963 to 2004. The first AP photo sent by wire depicted the December 1934 crash of a small plane in New York'sAdirondack Mountains.[6][7]

The first illustration transmitted via AP Wirephoto was Noel Sickles's conceptual drawing of the crash of the USSMacon.

When the U.S. Navy airshipUSSZRS-5crashed into thePacific Oceanoff the coast ofCalifornia,the AP Wirephoto transmitted its first drawing — a conceptual sketch by staff artistNoel Sicklesof the crash and search for survivors. According to Sickles, the Wirephoto staff initially did not want to transmit the drawing because it was not a photo.[8]The New York Times'sWide World News Photo Service had just installed a prototype photo transmitting machine inSan Franciscothe day of the crash. A photo was taken of theMacon'ssurvivors when they came ashore and quickly transmitted toNew York Cityover regular phone lines for publication the following morning.[9]By 1936, a wirephoto copier and transmitter that could be carried anywhere and needed only a standard long-distance phone line was put into use byInternational News Photos.[9]

During the United States'sleaflet dropping campaignover theEmpire of Japannear the end ofWorld War II,Honoluluwould transmit some radiophoto images toSaipandepicting proposed leaflet messages for theprinting presson Saipan to produce.[10]

After World War II athaute coutureshows in Paris, Frederick L. Milton would sketch runway designs and transmit his sketches via Bélinographe to his subscribers, who could then copy Parisian fashions.[11]In 1955, four major French couturiers (Lanvin,Dior,Patou,andJacques Fath) sued Milton for piracy, and the case went to theAppellate Division of the New York Supreme Court.[12]Wirephoto enabled a speed of transmission that the French designers argued damaged their businesses.[13]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^Cook, Charles Emerson (April 1900)."Pictures by Telegraph (HTML transcription)".Pearson's Magazine.Retrieved2010-06-30.
  2. ^"From Pearson's Magazine, April 1900 Pictures by Telegraph".Retrieved2010-06-30.
  3. ^"1924: Fax Service".AT&T Labs timeline.Retrieved2010-06-30.
  4. ^Hotaling, Burton L. (June 1948)."Facsimile Broadcasting: Problems and Possibilities".Journalism Quarterly.25(2): 139–144.doi:10.1177/107769904802500204.ISSN0022-5533.S2CID67332802.
  5. ^"Photo Letters Sent in a Minute by Radio".Popular Science.September 1929. p. 62.Retrieved2012-04-28– via Google Books.
  6. ^Tramz, Mia (January 1, 2015)."Celebrating 80 Years of Associated Press' Wirephoto".Lightbox.Time.eISSN2169-1665.ISSN0040-781X.OCLC1311479.Archived fromthe originalon January 3, 2015.The first AP Wirephoto with original caption affixed: 'The wreckage of a small plane lies in a wooded area near Morehousville, N.Y., on Dec. 31, 1934.'
  7. ^"AP History 1901-1950: The Modern Cooperative Grows".Associated Press.Archived fromthe originalon 2005-04-17.Retrieved2010-06-30.
  8. ^Canwell, Bruce (2011-10-16)."'Macon' Something of It ".The Library of American Comics.Archived fromthe originalon 2015-09-09.
  9. ^abSchnurmacher, Emile C (July 1937)."Wire That Photo".Popular Mechanics.pp. 392–395, 128A–133A.Retrieved2012-04-28.
  10. ^The Information War in the Pacific, 1945 Paths to Peace, Josette H. Williams.
  11. ^Grumbach, Didier (2015).History of international fashion.Northampton, MA: Interlink Publishing Group. pp. 101–3.ISBN978-1-56656-076-4.OCLC921187802.
  12. ^Nathaus, Klaus (2016-01-22).Made in Europe: The Production of Popular Culture in the Twentieth-Century.Routledge. p. 85.ISBN978-1-317-63742-4.
  13. ^Goncourt, Edmond de; Goncourt, Jules de (1956).Records and Briefs New York State Appellate Division.New York. p. 136.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Further reading[edit]

  • "Pictorial Telegraphy,"Literary Digest,vol. 10, no. 19 (March 9, 1895), pg. 14.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wirephoto&oldid=1223529116"