Accoustic coupler

[sebbel]

Hi,
I never took time to share this one. I got a donation for my collection. Not a phone per say but phone related. DavePEI was asking about it the other day since it appears in a picture I posted. Its a Livermore model B acoustic coupler. I was surprised when I saw it since I have never seen one in a wooden box. Ièm not sure why the went with wood either since by 1964/5 that would have been an odd choice.

Just out a curiosity does anyone else have one and what would that be worth?

[Phonesrfun]

I remember these, both with a cover and without.  The cover was to help keep noise out.  I only remember metal covered couplers.  I have not seen wood.

[twocvbloke]

Silly question, but, erm, what does it do?

[Phonesrfun]

It's an early modem

[Phonesrfun]

The earliest ones were 300 110 baud.  That's about fast enough to keep up with the mechanism of an IBM Selectric typewriter mechanism.

We thought they were fast around the year 1967.

[twocvbloke]

It's an early modem

Ah, yeah, now I see, I've seen old modems from the 80's that you could put a handset into to connect to whatever...

[sebbel]

See it in action. The demo here show Wikipedia loading in text mode on a Linux Machine. Pretty cool stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9dpXHnJXaE

[gpo706]

That is AWESOME!

[Owain]

if phreakmonkey's email address on the video still works perhaps you could get your Livermore modems working back-to-back!

His site is here

That modem is older than I am.

In the UK, modem services from the Post Office went under the catchy name of Datel.

[Phonesrfun]

Let's not forget the Bell System Dataphone.

[dpaynter1066]

before the internet, we used these coupler modems to network into a nationwide BBS system.   People would run  buletin board system software on a spare computer,  sort of like this forum,  and get calls from people all over the country.  Periodically, one bbs would call another bbs and disseminate the anything new in order to stay current.

Some BBs boards like Cecil's Night owl in Palm Beach had a plain vanilla front end but if you were an illuminati, you could gain acces to be pirate board underneath the public layer and do a lot of interesting things.   I'd say more, but my lawyer advises me not to answer any more questions.

Then public subscription services bbs sprang up like AOL and GEnius who offered local numbers to dial in instead of paying $300 phone bulls from calling long distance to the BBS systems.

Then direct connect modems became available and the World Wide Web was opened up to non University members and the BBs systems withered on the vine.

[DavePEI]

Then public subscription services bbs sprang up like AOL and GEnius who offered local numbers to dial in instead of paying $300 phone bulls from calling long distance to the BBS systems.

Then direct connect modems became available and the World Wide Web was opened up to non University members and the BBs systems withered on the vine.

Ahh, the good old days! Using your computer on a party line, and having to use it after midnight because the last time you did it during the day, it got a whole bunch of people in the area reporting they had overheard Aliens talking on the phone.

My genealogy page originally went on in 1991, prior to the Internet being available, and ran on a dial-up BBS. It soon became obvious that people were using it from the other end of the continent from comments left on the Guestbook - even calls from relatives in BC and California.

Over the years, I enjoyed the speed increases available in the Hayes modems from 110 baud all the way up to a searing 2400 baud. What a laugh compared to what we get today!

It wasn't until 1996 when we got easy access to the Internet, and I moved the site over to the Internet. Now, 20 years later, I fondly remember the old days!

The fun daze!

Dave

[twocvbloke]

I love reading about the pre-internet days, documentation with old computers and games I have all have phone numbers (in the states usually) for BBS access, I do occasionally wonder if such things are still in place for some people, either for nostalgia or for actual uses...

[dpaynter1066]

I would be surprised if there werent a few dial up bbs systems around for private use somewhere.   all you need is freeware software and a modem and your in business.  Most BBS didnt have a dedicated line, the owner would post a schedule for use while at work or asleep and take it offline when they were home.

I  remember reading the plans for the first personal computer, the altair 8800. It was a kit you had to build. Then the first assembled ready to go computer was the apple, which didnt look like much to me so I passed. eventually I bought a trs 80. You could buy magazines with program listings you could key in over several hours but there was no interconnectivity with other computers untll the bbs systems started up.   I at first preffered my 300 baud modem over the newer 2400 baud as I could read the text as fast as it came in line by line at a comfortable reading pace. the faster modem just shot a block of text at you too fast to read it all at once and you had to bother scrolling up and down to read it.

[rtp129495]

Ahh yes, the reasons I got into computers and phones in the first place!!!

I had an "IBM Compatible" as they were called in the 1980s with MS-DOS Verison 3.30 (no windows at that time). it was an Intel 80286(loosely based on the intel 8080 8086, 8088 and 8800) just a faster version running at a whopping 12 MHz!!! with a 16 BIT data bus lol wow it was fast lol. It was top of the line then.

We had a 2400 modem in it and while it wasn't the type here it certianly isn't far from it. We plugged the modem into the second line my dad had in the house. It was a pulse only line served by an ESS switch from the CO. I still remember the sounds it would make. The pulse dialing, the ringing and the all too familiar connect handshake sounds it would make. All to connect to a BBS' I dialed from a printed out list from an old san diego magazine that was free called "computer edge" that you got at local computer stores(not frys, not best buy, not compusa etc.. none of those existed yet) they were small time computer repair places.

After that it was "the prodigy service" the first time I ever used e-mail in the early 90s. After prodigy it was "the AOL Service" then AOL provided internet later and became an ISP. Then cable modems and modern internet.

But i'll tell you text based BBS using modem software amazed me a lot as a teenager and yet they are considered so primative now. I had completely forgotten about them till i read this post. back then you could also build your own computers and learn a lot. it certianly wasn't the "lets sell as much as we can to them and keep the upgrade cycle going" which is sadly too common now in the computer realm.

My how times have changed!!!!