Technology and Fairytales

A device seldom listened to in today’s society dramatically changed the history of the world and the lives of the people in it…including our very own!!!  If I gave you a hint and said, this man’s machine could not have been invented without the known technologies used in the telegraph and the telephone would you know to whom I referred or the type of technology this man patented?

Nikota Tesla is now credited as being the first person to have patented radio technology which owes its development to two other inventions: the radio and the telephone.  He and Nathan Stufflefield took out patents for wireless radio transmitters.

Radio waves are electronic waves which have the capacity to transmit music, speech, pictures, and other data invisibly through the air.  Many of today’s devices work through the use of this technology: microwaves, cordless telephones, remote controlled toys, television broadcasts and any more such devices.

During the 1860’s, as America was engaged in a civil war, a Scottish physicist by the name of James Clerk Maxwell predicted the existence of radio waves.

About twenty years later, in 1886 to be exact, a German physicist, Heinrich Rudolph Hertz proved that it was possible to project rapid variations of electric current into space in the form of radio waves similar to those of light and heat.

The first known instance of wireless aerial communication was made by an American dentist in 1866.  Mahlon Loomis was able to make a meter connection from one kite to another kite making the second kite move.

 

Marconi's 1897 Ark Gap Transmitter

An Italian inventor by the name of Guglielmo Marconi proved that radio communication was possible when he sent and received the first radio signal in Italy in 1895.  In 1899 he flashed the first wireless signal across the English Channel and two years later, in 1902, he received the letter “S” telegraphed from England to Newfoundland.  This was the first transatlantic radiotelegraph message.  In 1943 the Supreme Court overturned Marconi’s patent in favor of Tesia.

Poulsen's Arc 1 MW Transmitter

A number of ocean liners accepted and installed the new wireless technology.  Then in 1899, the United States Army established wireless communications with a lightship off Fire Island, New York.  Two years later the Navy replaced its visual system of homing pigeons and visual signaling with wireless communications. In 1905, the naval battle of Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese war was reported by wireless.

Robert E. Perry

Then in 1909, Robert E. Perry, artic explorer, radiotelegraphed, “I found the Pole.” And indeed, nothing has ever been the same again.

For instance, how many of you remember snuggling down to listen quietly whenever someone began a sentence by saying, “Once upon a time?”

Can you remember when you first heard that term?   Are you one of the lucky ones who can even remember when that occasion occurred and who said it? 

 All nations of the world have had revered folk who were known as “story tellers.”  From the earliest days in world history this was considered an “honored profession” which was just not open to anyone because “storytellers” were the guardians of a nation’s past or in other word’s the “storytellers” were the guardians of a nation’s history.  And in this capacity it was necessary for them to possess a quick wit, have excellent recall and to be able to memorize easily. It was necessary for them to have total recall, being able to recite long sagas of events in a manner which encouraged living folk to be quiet and to make intelligent decisions based upon the storyteller’s guidance. 

Butterfly winged Fairy by Arthur Rackman

About the same time that radio waves were discovered some of the world’s best illustrator’s lived. The world had stumbled upon the idea of using these unique people’s talents to illustrate events, literature and the wonderful stories that were deemed to be a part of a nation’s treasure.  William Morris, Aubrey Beardsley, Walter Crane, Arthur Rackman and Edmund Dulac were four of the best known worldwide.

 

Edmund Dulac 1882-1953

A prominent English publishing company by the name of William Heinemann signed Arthur Rackman to illustrate a gift-book edition of Washington Irving’s book, Rip-Van Winkle.  This book contained fifty-five color plates and was a marvelous success for both artist and publisher.  Heinemann’s biggest competitor was Hodder and Stoughton who decided to compete on this new level by signing Edmund Dulac in an unusual arrangement with Liecester Galleries.  Dulac went on to produce gift books for them for the next ten years. 

The Real Princess or The Princess and the Pea byEdmund Dulac.

Edmund Dulac who was born in 1882 in Toulouse, France was the perfect artist to illustrate those fabulous tales of Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Sinbad, The Arabian Nights, and Blue Beard as well as bringing to life the tales of Hans Christian Andersen. 
 

Cinderalla by Edmund Dulac

 May you enjoy many years of sharing these charming stories with your loved ones and may all who hear  them hold them dear in  their hearts.