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So…let’s say you have an old modem, but you want to get on the web. Sucks to be you, 56k dialup is painfully slow, end of story — right? Well, normally that’d be the case. But here’s a video of a guy with a really, really old modem: a Livermore Data Systems Model A 300bps Acoustic Coupler Modem, circa 1964, a handmade device in a beautifully crafted wooden box (complete with dovetailed joints and leather handle). Can you surf the web using this thing? Exactly how painful would it be? Why not watch this awesome video and find out? (If you’re impatient and/or don’t care about the technical details, skip to around 7 minutes in to see a demo of loading the Wikipedia homepage via the lynx browser.) This is quite possibly the oldest modem still in use (though if you have something older, please speak up!):
Discussed: the provenance of this particular modem; voltage of RS-232 serial ports; hearing modulation as you hit keys on the keyboard; how to connect a completely analog 45-year-old modem to a modern laptop; exactly how slow it is to load a page (even just a text page)
(Via Waxy.org.)
Comments (20)
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I am such a nerd, but that was freaking cool!
posted by Troy H. on 5-27-2009 at 6:44 pm
I started out using a 300 baud modem back in the days of “The Source” and GEnie. When I upgraded to a 2400 it seemed too fast because I couldn’t read everything in real time as it scrolled by.
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 5-27-2009 at 7:25 pm
That’s amazing that it still worked! I remember surfing the web the first year that I could using an Atari ST with vt100 terminal cartridge and a Hayes 1200 baud modem. I actually made my first eBay purchase using that computer/modem combination. Before that, I did use some BBSes with an Apple IIc and a 1200.
posted by Dave on 5-27-2009 at 7:48 pm
My first modem was a 1200 and I’m afraid to watch to the video because it might give me painful flashbacks of slow connect and load times!
Of course, I wasn’t surfing the web back then, yet, but haunting local BBSs.
I do remember when I was using Prodigy when it first got chat and I also remember when I installed my super cool 14.4. Wow, that was speed!!!!!!
posted by Sarah in CA on 5-27-2009 at 8:02 pm
I used something similar to this in the late 70s when I was still at school. We had a teletype (a big clunky machine like an electric typewriter, for everyone under the age of 35) which we connected, via an acoustic coupler like the one above, to a PDP-11 at the local polytechnic. The GPO who ran the ‘phone network in Britain at the time wouldn’t let you connect anything other than their ‘phones directly to the network.
I don’t know what baud rate we got, but since we were only sending characters up and down the line, the physical speed of the teletype and the workload on the PDP-11 were far more significant limitations than the connection rate.
Watching this took me back a few years…
posted by Paul on 5-28-2009 at 5:03 am
Ok, first modem stories galore!. Mine was a 300 bps Direct Connect Modem Pak as used in the Tandy Color Computer, circa 1988. Soon graduated to a 2400 bps capable Hayes spinoff used on the same computer… blazing fast upgrade :-)
posted by Rogelio on 5-28-2009 at 5:15 am
I used to have one! Then I upgraded my 300bps for an external Hayes 2400bps: 450$ Yikes.
posted by hal9000 on 5-28-2009 at 6:12 am
Mine was one of the first 2400 baud, at that time the fastest possible bitrate through a normal voice line (3000Hz), given Shannon’s theorem…
What I remember very well is this strong feeling of connecting to things that were really remote, this pleasant feeling of distance and ubiquity. Not like nowadays where everything seems to be local, in our own computers.
posted by evoisard on 5-28-2009 at 6:37 am
Mine was one of the first 2400 baud. At that time the fastest possible bitrate through a normal phone line (3000Hz), given Shannon’s theorem.
What I remember very well is this strong feeling of connecting to things that were really remote. This pleasant feeling of distance and ubiquity. No like nowadays where everything seems to be local, in our own computers…
posted by evoisard on 5-28-2009 at 6:44 am
Mine was a cartridge type 300 for a Commodore 64. I used to get on prodigy with it. Ahhh such memories…
posted by Bobulele on 5-28-2009 at 8:58 am
I had a 300 baud modem back in 1983. I would download text files from Compuserve and read them as they were downloading. I then purchased a US Robotics 1200. That changed everything, I could not read that fast.
Back then we never would have guessed we would have broadband connections in the home. Dialup Bulletin Boards were the only ones with broadband T1 connections. And that speed was shared with several hundred connections.
Oh the good old days (NOT).
posted by Perry on 5-28-2009 at 9:45 am
That actually makes me nostalgiac… I miss the community one got at BBSes… these were local people, living somewhere -near- you … and occasionally, we’d hold a GT (Get Together) — a bbq or something for all the users of a given BBS.
Ahh, well — showing my age. :)
posted by Simon on 5-28-2009 at 10:31 am
Some years before I encountered my first mainframe typesetting device and hardcopy terminal (which is when I got into technical writing), I worked for a life insurance company.
We would show up at a potential client’s place with a portable computer (thermal paper model) with the telephone lugs on the top. We would then place a long-distance call (at our expense) to a mainframe some 400 miles away.
We would then ask the mark (sorry, client) a series of questions, and input the responses. The computer would then cogitate for a bit, then transmit back a fully personalized insurance solution.
The client was then supposed to be all impressed by this technology, and sign an application for insurance immediately. This seldom happened.
The company folded after about a year. Each session lasted about two hours.
posted by Spud Lite on 5-28-2009 at 10:40 am
I started on a Commodore 64 with a 300 baud cartridge, that could either dial with pulse dialing, or, with a special cable that connected the computer’s sound output to the modem, use touchtone dialing by playing the DTMF tones through the sound chip. (Since it just routed all sound to the modem, I could also call up my friend and play my SID music over the phone. Wow, that was cool.)
I had a terminal program where you could manually input the baud rate and change it on the fly. I found, when I was connected to a lot of BBSes, that I could set my 300 baud modem up to anywhere between 420 and 450 baud and maintain a pretty reliable connection, just getting an occasional garbage character here or there.
Ah, memories… :D
posted by Yakko Warner on 5-28-2009 at 11:03 am
haaa
300bauds should be enough for everyone…
I started using a US Robotics at 14.400b, which was enough for picking up girls on chats!!!!
(or what I supposed were girls)
posted by Jesus on 5-28-2009 at 11:59 am
Acoustic coupler modems were a dodge to get around the AT&T monopoly on hardware that actually connected electrically to the Bell network. (Yes, there was a time when *all* legal telephone equipment in the US was rented — not bought — from The Phone Company). I used (and still have) the only non-acoustic 300-baud modem of that era: a Bell 103, complete with rotary-dial handset.
Given how bulletproof Bell System hardware was, I have no doubt it would still work if I plugged it in.
(I used to have an automatic answering machine from the same era. It had a solenoid-operated paddle to mechanically lift the handset to “answer” the phone, since it couldn’t connect electrically to the network.)
posted by Jordin on 5-28-2009 at 12:25 pm
I remember 75 baud teletype communications in the 70’s…now that was slow.
posted by Helpless Little Kitten on 5-29-2009 at 12:51 pm
I used a 1200. “Best thing” was that I actually got off my butt a did stuff ( like wash the dishes or clean the sink, etc. ) while downloads were in progress sinse it made the time go quicker than just staring at the screen. Now I’m much more of a “web potato” with my fast connection and comfotable chair.
posted by Brian on 5-31-2009 at 6:50 am
Started out with a 300 Baud Mastermodem. It was not only painfully slow, but it was completely uncontrollable. It would just type random characters on the screen. When I started work and had to go oncall I had once of those massive portable terminals with 1200 baud. that’s why it took hours to fix even the smallest problem :)
posted by TheBear on 6-1-2009 at 3:20 pm
I love old kit like this, I used to have a variety of old modems, all sadly gone in recent clear outs. My favourite hack with old kit was back in the eighties when a friend gave me a Creed 7B teletype (at the time printers were expensive. I connected the RS232 tx line of my trusty Nascom (CP/M based) to the teletype using the tx line to drive a tranister switching circuit with a 25-0-25 transformer. Had to program the uart to work at 50 baud and build a translation table to convert 8 bit ascii to 5 bit baudot (many ascii chars just translated to an asterix). The 7B eventually went to a radio ham pal for RTTY use. The Creed 7B dated from the early fifties and had a brass plate bearing the legend “Manufactured in the British Empire. Patented in all important countries.”, ha ha.
posted by JudgeDread on 9-16-2009 at 10:39 am