1964 Modem

[Shao Feng-Li]

And it works: http://gizmodo.com/5272376/dear-modem-from-1964-welcome-to-the-internet

[Icarus]

And that, my friends, is what's known as "Awesome."

[Warrior4Christ]

The fact that it didn't have any digital circuitry in it is probably the reason it's still working. XD
You can even notice the delay when it receives the HTML tags...

[shooraijin]

Side note: I hate Gizmodo's page layout. It takes forever to load.

The modem was almost worth it. I've used an acoustic coupler before, and they work better than you would think. But this was back in the 300bps days.

[F.M Disciple]

That is amazing.

I heard stories from my father that the internet has been around since the sixties. However it was only used by the military and some research facilities at the time.

It was still cool just to see the equipment that made it all possible
and it still works, that's just remarkable.

[Mithrandir]

Wow. That brought back a veritable TON of memories. I was listening to the tone and thinking something wasn't right. Then when he hooked up the RS232 cable, I laughed. I never used a "portable" modem like that.

Thanks for the post! That was great.

[shooraijin]

That is amazing.

I heard stories from my father that the internet has been around since the sixties. However it was only used by the military and some research facilities at the time.

It was still cool just to see the equipment that made it all possible
and it still works, that's just remarkable.

Someone needs to bring the old IMPs back.

[ich1990]

That is amazing that he got it to work. I have a friend who used to use a modem of similar type when he worked at a railroad company decades ago. To be honest, I always suspected that he was joking with me. I guess not.

[Roy Mustang]

Reading about this, makes me wish that I still had by 14 page paper about the history of the internet. It covered from the start of the ARPANET group to the ALOHA and TCP/IP.

I have a friend who used to use a modem of similar type when he worked at a railroad company decades ago. To be honest, I always suspected that he was joking with me. I guess not.

Not too much of a surprise that railroads had modems back then. One of the first signal system for railroads was Centralized traffic control signals that were place in the late 1950's. The system let a dispatcher control the signals by a switch on a panel in the office. They had some style of packet switching at the time, until modems came around in the 1960's. Then a computer system was set up in the 70's that let a dispatcher control the signals by a push of a key or button in a central localization.

Now a days, its all done by with a mouse or touch screen. Railroads were some of the first to put fiber optic wiring in the ground as well.

[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[Bobtheduck]

That is pretty cool. I was wondering what the two speakers were for... I never even thought of that. That's crazy... I bet documents got corrupted all the time by random noise... I still remember when I'd be online and someone would pick up the phone and shout "WHAT IS THIS NOISE? I CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING!" and I'd get disconnected.

I thought I was an old internet resident, having gotten online in '94 or '95, but...

[Whitefang]

I think that's why the box can close, to prevent random noise from messing it up. It's actually a very cool design, I kind of want to know what my computer would look like if electronics had continued to follow that aesthetic.

[ClosetOtaku]

Take the phone off the hook. Dial the number. Listen for the carrier tone. Quickly, now, put it on the modem and watch the screen. Don't miss or fumble! If you were too slow, you get nuthin'. Otherwise, the UNIX box at the other end starts talking to you, and you're on your way. Don't bump the modem, or you'll have to start all over again. Sometimes, if somebody tried to call the telephone you were using, it would also kill the session. If you got bumped too many times, you'd have a bunch of processes that you had to "kill -9"....

[Warrior4Christ]

I think that's why the box can close, to prevent random noise from messing it up. It's actually a very cool design, I kind of want to know what my computer would look like if electronics had continued to follow that aesthetic.

http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/humidorpc/

Take the phone off the hook. Dial the number. Listen for the carrier tone. Quickly, now, put it on the modem and watch the screen. Don't miss or fumble! If you were too slow, you get nuthin'. Otherwise, the UNIX box at the other end starts talking to you, and you're on your way. Don't bump the modem, or you'll have to start all over again. Sometimes, if somebody tried to call the telephone you were using, it would also kill the session. If you got bumped too many times, you'd have a bunch of processes that you had to "kill -9"....

That reminds me of a song...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fow7iUaKrq4
(language warning... it's rap...)

[ST. Attidude]

I wonder if Livermore Data Systems made computers out of wood, too? X)