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Post by marquessa on Sept 24, 2022 19:27:20 GMT
He all,
I hope I'm on the right page for this question. My story is set on the island of Corfu, Greece in the year 1980. The protagonist has recognised someone he suspects is a former Nazi war criminal. He has a photo of the suspect and wishes to send an image to an investigator in the UK. The corrupt head of Corfu police told to him to get off the island within 3 days or face arrest. My question is: did ordinary people have access to such as Telex image sending machines, or other facilities of sending an image internationally instantly in 1980? Telex machines I believe were only used by editors and reporters in newspaper publishing, or could anyone get access to one via say, the post office service? The story can't be a simple one of the protagonist going to the Consulate to report the suspect as he has reason to believe he has friends there who would target him. The other alternative is: What was the fastest postal method in 1980? Could a letter be sent from Corfu and received in the UK within 3 days? Was there a special delivery service back then. I do remember that UK newspapers were available in Greece in 1980, but these were about 2 days out of date, so the facility was there, but was it available to the ordinary person wanting to send an urgent letter?
Thanks in advance, I've googled these questions and can't get a definitive answer, just a lot of ads and history, but nothing that directly answers my question.
Cheers
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sirram
Senior Printer
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money
Posts: 269
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Post by sirram on Sept 24, 2022 20:15:47 GMT
Telex machines were common-place in the 1980s. In my own office (head office of a multi-national corp.) our own operator was Tony. I can't recall his surname as he was always known in the office as "Tony Telex". His fingers were a blur as he sent telexes to our various offices around the world - using one of those old clattering keyboards and paper-tape.
My recollection is that Telex machines (certainly ours) could only send text. Tony recorded the message on paper tape in advance and then hit "send" to transmit it in the shortest possible time (I think because of saving bandwidth).
But it could only send text. I certainly never saw a Telex machine that could send images. That sounds more like an early fax (facsimile) machine which could transmit scanned images.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Sept 24, 2022 20:34:09 GMT
It would be a not-so-early fax machine [as Xerox introduced the 80s version of the fax machine in the 1960s]. faxauthority.com/fax-history/A company on Corfu with a fax machine in the early 1980s would have been able to transmit a picture to a fax machine located in another country. |
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Sept 25, 2022 22:08:58 GMT
The NHS in the UK still use fax machines, even though they spent billions on computer systems.
One interesting claim is that it was fax machines that helped bring down the Berlin Wall. It allowed people in the West to transmit things to the Russian people they would not normally have access to.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Sept 25, 2022 22:11:07 GMT
Oh, even nowadays many domestic printers can be used as fax machines.
It's rumoured that someone who had run out of fax paper asked a friend to fax him some ...
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Post by marquessa on Sept 26, 2022 18:57:52 GMT
Thanks for replying everyone. My story is in 1980, no later. I know fax machines were early in development and not in widespread use then, so my question was, was there any facility for an ordinary member of the public to send an image, ie: copy of a photograph instantly from Corfu to the UK in that year? Failing that, what was the quickest post available back then? Was there a postal delivery service available that could get a letter or card from Corfu to the UK overnight? I know FedEx was in existence then, but could an ordinary member of the public use them for overnight delivery of a letter or parcel? In 1980, that is.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Sept 26, 2022 21:29:38 GMT
Thanks for replying everyone. My story is in 1980, no later. I know fax machines were early in development and not in widespread use then, so my question was, was there any facility for an ordinary member of the public to send an image, ie: copy of a photograph instantly from Corfu to the UK in that year? Failing that, what was the quickest post available back then? Was there a postal delivery service available that could get a letter or card from Corfu to the UK overnight? I know FedEx was in existence then, but could an ordinary member of the public use them for overnight delivery of a letter or parcel? In 1980, that is. Fax machines were well into development by 1980, since the modern fax machine was developed in the 1960s.
Fedex began overnight delivery in 1973.
Courier services have been delivering roughly overnight for decades.
An ordinary person who had the money to pay for a service could find a way to get something from one country to another quickly, even in 1980.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Sept 26, 2022 23:02:51 GMT
Thanks for replying everyone. My story is in 1980, no later. I know fax machines were early in development and not in widespread use then, so my question was, was there any facility for an ordinary member of the public to send an image, ie: copy of a photograph instantly from Corfu to the UK in that year? Failing that, what was the quickest post available back then? Was there a postal delivery service available that could get a letter or card from Corfu to the UK overnight? I know FedEx was in existence then, but could an ordinary member of the public use them for overnight delivery of a letter or parcel? In 1980, that is. |
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Sept 27, 2022 15:14:07 GMT
Incidentally, the Moon Landings used a method of developing and scanning photos and broadcasting them from the Moon. They actually used a fax signal. On realising that, Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope in the UK, got hold of a secondhand fax machine, and printed off the images, and sent them to newspapers to be published, and becoming the first images from the Moon actually published. And of course they even had TV cams up there which I think also used a fax signal.
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