"It can´t be done Tom! It can´t be done!" - Eine kleine Bildergeschichte des Bildtelefons
Die erste Darstellung eines Video Telefons im Film, die noch an Utopie grenzte, wurde im Stummfilmklassiker "Metropolis" realisiert. Auf switched.com haben wir eine kleine Galerie weiterer Darstellungen gefunden.
Wir möchten sie ergänzen um "Tom Swift and his Photo Telephone" :
"Tom Swift looked over at his father, who was seated in an easy chair in the library. The elderly gentleman--his hair was quite white now--slowly shook his head, as he murmured again:
It can't be done, Tom! It can't be done! I admit that you've made a lot of wonderful things--things I never dreamed of--but this is too much. To transmit pictures over a telephone wire, so that persons cannot only see to whom they are talking, as well as hear them--well, to be frank with you, Tom, I should be sorry to see you waste your time trying to invent such a thing.[...]"
...und George du Mauriers Cartoon einer "Elektrischen Camera-Obscura" von 1878!:
Text: EDISON’S TELEPHONOSCOPE (TRANSMITS LIGHT AS WELL AS SOUND).
"Every evening, before going to bed, Pater- and Materfamilias set up an electric camera-obscura over their bedroom mantel-piece, and gladden their eyes with the sight of their Children at the Antipodes, and converse gaily with them through the wire.) Paterfamilias (in Wilton Place). “Beatrice, come closer. I want to whisper.” Beatrice (from Ceylon). “Yes, Papa dear.” Paterfamilias. “Who is that charming young Lady playing on Charlie’s side?” Beatrice. “She’s just come over from England, Papa. I’ll introduce you to her as soon as the Game’s over!”
Quellen
www.gutenberg.org:Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone or the Picture That Saved a Fortune
www.switched.com: Video Phones Throughout Time
www.precinemahistory.net:ELECTRIC CAMERA OBSCURA?