Blogging Came from Russia with Love?
MosNews has discovered that a 19th Century Russian prince predicted that one day we'd all be blogging. Prince Vladimir Odoevsky, 1803-1869, suggested in his writings that in future there would be a kind of connection between houses that would allow people to communicate quickly and easily, the way they do now via the Internet...
“Houses are connected by means of magnetic telegraphs that allow people who live far from each other to communicate,” Odoevsky wrote.
Even more interestingly, Odoevsky suggested every household would publish a kind of daily journal or newsletter and distribute it among selected acquaintances, a habit which Russian bloggers immediately recognized as blogging.
“We received a household journal from the local prime minister, which among other things invited us to his place for a reception,” one of Odoevsky’s characters tells a friend.
“The thing is that many households here publish such journals that replace common correspondence. Such journals usually provide information about the hosts’ good or bad health, family news, different thoughts and comments, small inventions, invitations to receptions.”
(Via Randy)
I dunno; it sounds like someone is pulling our legs, here. "Magnetic telegraphs"...? The telegraph itself was invented in 1837, the same year this story was supposed to have been written.
Posted by:The Sanity Inspector | Wednesday, October 12, 2005 at 03:55 PM
The first practical telegraph was patented in 1837, but the idea of communicating over long distances by manipulating magnetic forces is far older:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sfbmhtml/sfbmtelessay.html
Indeed, you could make a case that Cardinal Richilieu's magic needle was a "magnetic" communication device:
http://www.italianacademy.columbia.edu/pdfs/reeves.pdf
Posted by:john_m_burt | Saturday, October 15, 2005 at 03:07 AM