1877 December 14

Punch's Almanack for 1878: Predictions for the telephone

Source: Terra Media Archives

British humorous weekly magazine Punch publishes a set of cartoons by George du Maurier predicting the future of the new-fangled telephone. Although the details of the technology may be inaccurate—the cartoon at top left has multiple devices in the manner of speaking tubes—the notions of on-line entertainment programming (at the very least presaging Théodore Puskás's 'telephoned newspaper' idea of 1882 that led to the Telefon Hirmondó service of 1894, not to mention cable channels), and stored electronic recordings. Edison had only just made the first prototype hand-cranked cylinder phonograph.

See the individual cartoons:
1
2
3
4

 

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1878