The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe > Podcast Episodes
Episode #368
Steven Novella:
Interview with Brian Wecht
This Day in Skepticism: First Fax
News Items: Superstition Fund, Curiosity's Sky Crane, Anti-Fluoridation News Fail, Bat-Winged Monkey Bird
Who's That Noisy
Science or Fiction
Trinoc:
Thanks folks. I'm not going to try to answer WTN this week, but looking up "strange musical instruments" on YouTube turns up some interesting stuff (though not this one, so far).
synsei:
My guess for WTN: a serpent, also known as church serpent.
Thanks for the episode.
BenBurch:
On the history of FAX - utterly wrong.
FAX was invented by a Scotsman (a true one!) named Alexander Bain in 1843. Seriously. And there was a commercial FAX service from Paris to Lyon in 1860. More on that particular machine here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantelegraph
A mechanical device passed a wiper over a paper which you wrote on with a chemical ink, and the electrical impulses and a clock signal were sent to another machine which moved a wire over a patten with acid-treated paper which darkened when a spark passed through it between the wire and the patten.
(I see they used a different chemical, not an acid, but others used acid. You can show the effect yourself if you write on paper with lemon juice, and then expose the paper to heat.)
seaotter:
Thanks for the podcast.
"you guys can suck it." Steve
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