Photography…mostly.

Communications 107 years ago – atoms not electrons

We found an old postcard sent from a friend to an ancestor at 9:30am on 22nd April 1910 – 107 years ago today. It depicts a football match between Scotland and England played twenty days earlier at Hampden Park, Glasgow. The score was 2-0 to Scotland, yes we used to play and win football matches against the ‘auld enemy’! The attendance was 106,206 which raised £4,427 in gate money, but this is not what’s cool.

The sender was informing the addressee that they would pay them a visit the next day. Imagine back in the toddler stage of 20th century Britain when Internet or mobiles did not exist and the telephone was new fangled and rare. The only form of communication possible was handwritten postcard, taken to the nearest Post Office, payed with a half penny stamp then dropped into the clutches of the state’s postal service to deliver on time.

One hundred and seven years later I doubt that same postcard would reach its destination in time with the same confidence. However we can communicate over telephone, mobile phone, email, text message. Heck you can summon the muscles of Apple et al to hold a live two-way video call wherever you are right now…cool!

What will ‘they’ use in 2124? (by then Scotland might be ready to win again).

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