[inforoots] Ah, yes, how simple it all seemed back then ...

[Richard Friedman]

I've always considered the introduction of the fax machine to be the
critical point where life as we knew it began to change.

Before faxes, we actually wrote letters. Okay, they were typed letters. Or
maybe we even used a primitive desktop publishing system (troff?)  to write
them on a printer (DECWriter, SpinWriter..?). But we did put them in
envelopes and mail them.

Then office life changed dramatically when they wheeled in a fax machine.

Fax machines existed for many years before you could buy one at the corner
electronics or office supply store. The first one I saw was in the print
shop at college, around 1961. Two very large spinning drums in a
floor-standing unit .. one for sending, the other for receiving. And it took
a very long time to send or receive a page.

But as soon as the desktop fax machine arrived, printed mail took second
place. If something arrived by fax, it was deemed much more important than
something arriving in the morning mail, and had to be acted upon
instantly... usually generating a reply fax asap.

Life seemed a bit more leisurely before then. You sent out a request for
information in the mail, expected it would be received 3 or 4 days later,
and a response sent back in another few days. Round trip was maybe two or
three weeks. Meantime, there were other things to do.

But that fax machine meant that requests could be turned around in a number
of hours, within a single day. Life became much more hectic for all of us
that day.

My wife has taken to hand writing letters to friends. And, she is amazed and
pleased when she gets a hand written letter in return. Sitting down to take
the extra time to write a letter by hand is a serious sign of high regard
for a more meaningful kind of communication.

But, how many of us, who now spend large numbers of hours using keyboard and
mouse, have seen their handwriting skills deteriorate into the illegible?

Hmm. Maybe it's time to take out that old fountain pen and practice italic.

On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 2:27 PM, David Pinto <david_e_pinto at yahoo.ca> wrote:

>
> Somewhat off-topic, but still interesting.
>
> -0-
>
> Now that I have retired, I am beginning to wade through several hundred --
> that is not an exaggeration -- back copies of Le Monde, the Paris newspaper,
> from a long way back.
>
> One of the many interesting aspects of doing something like this is that,
> occasionally, one comes across articles which now, in retrospect, seem to be
> absolutely incredible.
>
> Here is an example.
>
> On February 25, 1995, Le Monde carried a lengthy article pegged to the
> discovery that letters between individuals amounted to only 7% of the postal
> traffic in France.
>
> The article is quite long so I will not attempt to translate it.
> Essentially, though, it talks about what could be done to increase that 7%
> figure.
>
> Here's a quote: In the coming years, letters are going to have deal with a
> competitor: the fax machine.
>
> If only they had known ...
>
> Soumds like a long-ago era, doesn't it? Yet it was only thirteen years ago
> -- and look how things have changed.
>
> David Pinto
>
> ------------------------------
>

-- 
Richard Friedman
Oakland, California
http://rchrd.com/blog/
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