MovieChat Forums > The Day of the Jackal (1973) Discussion > How did they get along without faxes and...

How did they get along without faxes and computers?

posted 11 years ago by patrick-180-667941
4 replies | jump to latest

Someone in one of the reviews asked « how did they get along without faxes and computers? »

Well, in 1963, faxes of a kind had existed for some time...

Around 1900, German physicist Arthur Korn invented the Bildtelegraph, widespread in continental Europe especially, since a widely noticed transmission of a wanted-person photograph from Paris to London in 1908, used until the wider distribution of the radiofax in the 50s. Its main competitors were the Bélinographe by Édouard Belin first, then since the 1930s the Hellschreiber, invented in 1929 by German inventor Rudolf Hell, a pioneer in mechanical image scanning and transmission.

Computers were indeed far and between, but they did exist although I doubt they were used by the French police by then. In 1954, a French insurance company was the first to use a computer in Europe.

http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/colan_1268-7251_1968_num_19_1_5041

[–] muzilon 11 years ago

Reminds me of the scene in Almost Famous (set in 1973) where the characters talk about a "mojo" - "It's a very modern machine that transmits pages over the telephone. It only takes 18 minutes per page!"

[–] darryl-tahirali 11 years ago

Reminds me of the scene in Almost Famous (set in 1973) where the characters talk about a "mojo" - "It's a very modern machine that transmits pages over the telephone. It only takes 18 minutes per page!" - muzilon

I got a kick out of that. Almost Famous is based on Cameron Crowe's experiences at Rolling Stone in the 1970s. I've read a lot of Hunter S. Thompson, who also wrote for RS in the 1970s, and HST used to moan about needing to feed the "mojo wire" with his overdue copy.
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"This isn't a hospital--it's an insane asylum!" - "Hot Lips" Houlihan

[–] PhillipNoir 11 years ago

There's an excellent example of 1940s fax technology demonstrated at the end of Henry Hathaway film, Call Northside 777 (1948) (used to prove the innocence of the Richard Conte character).

[–] darryl-tahirali 11 years ago

There's an excellent example of 1940s fax technology demonstrated at the end of Henry Hathaway film, Call Northside 777 (1948) (used to prove the innocence of the Richard Conte character). - PhillipNoir

Potential spoiler: Indeed. And the waiting for the photograph to appear only adds to the suspense. Fine film.

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"This isn't a hospital--it's an insane asylum!" - "Hot Lips" Houlihan