re: #35 Anymouse
We also had Telex and telegraphs. /old person
And faxes! /probably even more Old (1952 vintage)
Anecdote: (you know us Olds!): in the late ’60s, my father’s brokerage firm invested in one those science-fictiony gadgets known as a “facsimile transmitter”. The office typed* up stock lists (or whatever) on a sheet of paper, wrapped it around a metal cylinder on the transmitter; dialed (on a rotary dial, no less) the number in New York: and, after 90 seconds or so of connection protocol (today’s 7-second “handshake”), the thing would rotate away, scanning and transmitting the image across country in the then-amazing time of only 10 minutes for a standard 8-1/2 x 11 page. Wow! Technology!
* On a “typewriter”, i.e. what we would now call a “manually actuated impact printer”