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Twitter's old hat if you've used The Notificator
Social networking, 1935-style
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Twitter's old hat if you've used The Notificator | Technology | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/20.../the-notificator-precursor-of-twiitter

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Twitter's old hat if you've used The Notificator

Social networking, 1935-style

the notificator
The Notificator… 'To aid persons who wish to inform friends of their whereabouts.' Photograph: Guardian

For those who are just getting comfortable with text messaging and Facebook, Twitter can seem dauntingly cutting-edge. And yet, as a page from the August 1935 edition of Modern Mechanix magazine reveals, there are some great-grandparents out there to whom micro-blogging looks positively old-fashioned. They probably remember The Notificator.

Like Twitter, the Notificator enabled people to post short messages on an ever-rolling public display. First patented in 1932, it was inspired by similar machines in Japanese railway stations and was designed "to aid persons who wish to cancel appointments or inform friends of their whereabouts".

Essentially, it was a very simple device: a large mechanical paper scroll sits behind a sheet of glass with a hatch at the bottom. By inserting two pennies, any passerby could open the hatch, write a message on the exposed paper, and close it again, causing the mechanism to ratchet the whole scroll up another notch. As with Twitter, the size of these messages was limited, but what they might say was not.

The Notificator is not the only example of an idea that seemed to arrive decades ahead of schedule. The April 1933 edition of Modern Mechanix describes a new German "amplifier which boosts both the incoming and outgoing voice" just like your hands-free button on your phone. And incredibly, the July 1934 edition of Popular Science details the miraculous invention of the "Sound Pen", which took minutes to convert a radio signal into a sketch of a small cartoon. Ah, fax machines . . . remember them?

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<div id="article-header"><div id="main-article-info"><h1>Twitter's old hat if you've used The Notificator</h1> <p id="stand-first" class="stand-first-alone">Social networking, 1935-style</p> </div> <ul id="content-actions" class="share-links"> <li class="third-party-tool digg"> <a title="Digg this article" id="share-link-digg" href="http://digg.com/gadgets/The_Notificator_Social_Networking_1935_Style" onclick="if(true) {omnitureTrackShareLinks(this, 'Digg')}"> <img src="http://static.guim.co.uk/static/91076/common/styles/wide/images/icon_digg.gif" alt="Digg it"> (53)</a> </li> <li class="third-party-tool buzz"> <a title="Buzz up" id="share-link-buzz" href="http://uk.buzz.yahoo.com/buzz?publisherurn=the_guardian665&amp;targetUrl=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jun/15/the-notificator-precursor-of-twiitter&amp;summary=%3Cstrong%3ELeo+Benedictus%3C%2Fstrong%3E+explains+social+networking%2C+1935-style&amp;headline=%20Twitter%27s%20old%20hat%20if%20you%27ve%20used%20The%20Notificator%20%7C%20Technology%20%7C%20The%20Guardian%20" onclick="if(true) {omnitureTrackShareLinks(this, 'Buzz')}"> <img src="http://static.guim.co.uk/static/91076/common/styles/wide/images/icon_buzz.gif" alt="Buzz up"> </a> </li> <li class="third-party-tool facebook edge"> <a title="Share on Facebook" id="share-link-facebook" href="http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Ftechnology%2F2010%2Fjun%2F15%2Fthe-notificator-precursor-of-twiitter" onclick="if(true) {omnitureTrackShareLinks(this, 'Facebook')}"> <img src="http://static.guim.co.uk/static/91076/common/styles/wide/images/icon_facebook.gif" alt="Share on facebook"> <span class="share-count">(24)</span></a> </li> <li class="tweet b3"> <a class="tweet-link" title="Tweet this" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=http%3A%2F%2Fgu.com%2Fp%2F2hyj7%2Ftw" id="share-link-twitter" onclick="if(true) {omnitureTrackShareLinks(this, 'Twitter')}"> Tweet this </a><a class="topsy-count" href="http://topsy.com/tb/www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jun/15/the-notificator-precursor-of-twiitter"><span class="share-count">(180)</span></a> </li> </ul> </div> <div id="content"> <ul class="article-attributes multi-pub"> <li class="byline"> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/leobenedictus">Leo Benedictus</a> </li> <li class="publication"> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a>, <time datetime="2010-06-15T19:59BST" pubdate="">Tuesday 15 June 2010 19.59 BST</time> </li> <li class="history"><a class="rollover history-link" id="history-link-byline" href="#history-link-box">Article history</a></li></ul> <div id="article-wrapper"> <figure> <img src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2010/6/15/1276624896348/the-notificator-006.jpg" alt="the notificator" width="460" height="276"> <figcaption>The Notificator&#x2026; 'To aid persons who wish to inform friends of their whereabouts.' Photograph: Guardian</figcaption> </figure> <p>For those who are just getting comfortable with text messaging and <a href="http://facebook.com" title="Facebook">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com" title="Twitter">Twitter</a> can seem dauntingly cutting-edge. And yet, as a page from the August 1935 edition of Modern Mechanix magazine reveals, there are some great-grandparents out there to whom micro-blogging looks positively old-fashioned. They probably remember The Notificator.</p><p>Like Twitter, the Notificator enabled people to post short messages on an ever-rolling public display. First patented in 1932, it was inspired by similar machines in Japanese railway stations and was designed "to aid persons who wish to cancel appointments or inform friends of their whereabouts".</p><p>Essentially, it was a very simple device: a large mechanical paper scroll sits behind a sheet of glass with a hatch at the bottom. By inserting two pennies, any passerby could open the hatch, write a message on the exposed paper, and close it again, causing the mechanism to ratchet the whole scroll up another notch. As with Twitter, the size of these messages was limited, but what they might say was not.</p><p>The Notificator is not the only example of an idea that seemed to arrive decades ahead of schedule. The April 1933 edition of Modern Mechanix describes a new German "amplifier which boosts both the incoming and outgoing voice" just like your hands-free button on your phone. And incredibly, the July 1934 edition of Popular Science details the miraculous invention of the "Sound Pen", which took minutes to convert a radio signal into a sketch of a small cartoon. 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