science

Wirephoto

Wirephoto is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wirephoto rather than just read about it. In short: Wirephoto, telephotography or radiophoto is the sending of photographs by telegraph, telephone or radio. Wirephoto was often used to transmit images for news coverage, beginning in the 1930s.

Key takeaways

Wirephoto belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wirephoto to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wirephoto from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wirephoto, telephotography or radiophoto is the sending of photographs by telegraph, telephone or radio. Wirephoto was often used to transmit images for news coverage, beginning in the 1930s.

History

Technologically and commercially, the wirephoto was the successor to Ernest A. Hummel's Telediagraph of 1895, which had transmitted electrically scanned shellac-on-foil originals over a dedicated circuit connecting the New York Herald and the Chicago Times Herald, the St. Louis Republic, the Boston Herald, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Édouard Belin's Bélinographe of 1913, which scanned using a photocell and transmitted over ordinary phone lines, formed the basis for the Wirephoto service. In Europe, services similar to Wirephoto were called a 'Belino'. The Bartlane system, invented by Harry G. Bartholomew and Maynard D. McFarlane, was a technique invented in 1920 to transmit digitized newspaper images over submarine cable lines between London and New York. and was first used to transmit a picture across the Atlantic in 1921. Western Union transmitted its first photograph in 1921. Marvin J. Ferree announced a system in November 1923. His system was adopted during some months by several newspapers under the name Telepix and succeeded on 1st January 1925 with the first coast-to-coast transmission. AT&T followed in 1924, and RCA began sending Radiophotos in 1926.

The first wirephoto systems were slow and did not reproduce well. In 1929, Vladimir Zworykin, an electronics engineer working for Western Electric, came up with a system that produced a better reproduction and could transmit a full page in approximately one minute. In the 1930s, wirephoto machines of any reasonable speed were very large and expensive and required a dedicated phone line. News media firms like Associated Press used expensive leased telephone lines to transmit wirephotos. In the mid-1930s a technology battle began for less expensive portable wirephoto equipment that could transmit photos over standard phone lines. The Associated Press began its Wirephoto service in 1935 and held a trademark on the term "AP Wirephoto" from 1963 to 2004. The first AP photo sent by wire depicted the December 1934 crash of a small plane in New York's Adirondack Mountains.

When the U.S. Navy airship USS Macon (ZRS-5) crashed into the Pacific Ocean (12 February 1935) off the coast of California, the AP Wirephoto transmitted its first drawing — a conceptual sketch by staff artist Noel Sickles of the crash and search for survivors. According to Sickles, the Wirephoto staff initially did not want to transmit the drawing because it was not a photo. The New York Times's Wide World News Photo Service had just installed a prototype photo transmitting machine in San Francisco the day of the crash. A photo was taken of the Macon's survivors when they came ashore and quickly transmitted to New York City over regular phone lines for publication the following morning. By 1936, a wirephoto copier and transmitter that could be carried anywhere and needed only a standard long-distance phone line was put into use by International News Photos. During the United States's leaflet dropping campaign over the Empire of Japan near the end of World War II, Honolulu would transmit some radiophoto images to Saipan depicting proposed leaflet messages for the printing press on Saipan to produce. After World War II at haute couture shows in Paris, Frederick L. Milton would sketch runway designs and transmit his sketches via Bélinographe to his subscribers, who could then copy Parisian fashions. In 1955, four major French couturiers (Lanvin, Dior, Patou, and Jacques Fath) sued Milton for piracy, and the case went to the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court. Wirephoto enabled a speed of transmission that the French designers argued damaged their businesses.

See also Frederick Bakewell Alexander Bain (inventor) Giovanni Caselli Bain's facsimile Fax Hellschreiber Pantelegraph Slow-scan television

References

Further reading "Pictorial Telegraphy," Literary Digest, vol. 10, no. 19 (March 9, 1895), pg. 14.

External links Media related to Telephotography at Wikimedia Commons 1930s How Photographs Were Transmitted by Wire: Spot News (1937) - CharlieDeanArchives on YouTube

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wirephoto

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wirephoto claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wirephoto before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wirephoto ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wirephoto

In research: Wirephoto appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wirephoto in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wirephoto is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics History of telecommunications, Photojournalism, Telecommunication services, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wirephoto outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Wirephoto in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wirephoto means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wirephoto out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wirephoto in simple terms?

Wirephoto, telephotography or radiophoto is the sending of photographs by telegraph, telephone or radio. Wirephoto was often used to transmit images for news coverage, beginning in the 1930s.

Why does Wirephoto matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wirephoto?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wirephoto.