but what would they send? Its killing me - i need to know. Probably something like "is Seymour there? Seymour Butts" (figuring the fax back in the 1800s was text only and not an image, otherwise its just samurai's faxing pictures of their butts all over the world). No way would those guys be sending something serious like a haiku
Fax is all and only pictures (scanned). They could have sent him a haiku in Japanese calligraphy.
The only trouble with that theory is that the trans-pacific cable company wasn't founded until 1901. Might have been possible to route using wireless, but that didn't get into wide use until the first world war, and probably couldn't reach across the pacific either.
They could have sent a fax to a local ship, and have the ship deliver it as mail, but that does rather nobble the story.
Terry Pratchett's novel Going Postal had the Grand Trunk Company that operates a system of visual telegraph towers known as "clacks" which could send text as images. The climax involves a race between the postal carrier and these clacks to deliver a message. If anyone hasn't read them I would give a big thumbs up to the Discworld series. Good news is the series is finished if you worry about completion and they have all been published.
ahhh Terry Pratchett. He has reached those hallowed halls of top 5 "wish they were still here shining a light on our stupidity". I think he jostles for first place with John Clarke.
At the risk of raising some minor points of pedantry - that assumes that the telegraph was available in and with Japan soon after its invention. And that your average samurai knew, or cared, who Lincoln was. I’d imagine those are pretty optimistic assumptions.
According to some historical interwebz site I found, listed below (I’m not a history buff, so cannot vouch for its accuracy), the first internal network in Japan didn’t get going until 1869 - 4 years after Lincoln’s death. That link also outlines some interesting aspects the Japanese had to overcome - e.g. language & characters. Also, no prior knowledge of electricity or magnetics. They dissembled one of the early machines gifted to them, but couldn’t put it back together.
I didn’t find any info on when Japan was connected to international networks - I gave up on first page on search results, so this comment leaves some big assumptions on the table.
But if we’re talking alternate histories, or Hollywood plots, naturally this pedantry disappears into irrelevance.
but what would they send? Its killing me - i need to know. Probably something like "is Seymour there? Seymour Butts" (figuring the fax back in the 1800s was text only and not an image, otherwise its just samurai's faxing pictures of their butts all over the world). No way would those guys be sending something serious like a haiku
Fax is all and only pictures (scanned). They could have sent him a haiku in Japanese calligraphy.
The only trouble with that theory is that the trans-pacific cable company wasn't founded until 1901. Might have been possible to route using wireless, but that didn't get into wide use until the first world war, and probably couldn't reach across the pacific either.
They could have sent a fax to a local ship, and have the ship deliver it as mail, but that does rather nobble the story.
Terry Pratchett's novel Going Postal had the Grand Trunk Company that operates a system of visual telegraph towers known as "clacks" which could send text as images. The climax involves a race between the postal carrier and these clacks to deliver a message. If anyone hasn't read them I would give a big thumbs up to the Discworld series. Good news is the series is finished if you worry about completion and they have all been published.
ahhh Terry Pratchett. He has reached those hallowed halls of top 5 "wish they were still here shining a light on our stupidity". I think he jostles for first place with John Clarke.
I want my series where an English Dandy, a Cowboy, a French Pirate, and a Samurai all go off on an adventure together.
At the risk of raising some minor points of pedantry - that assumes that the telegraph was available in and with Japan soon after its invention. And that your average samurai knew, or cared, who Lincoln was. I’d imagine those are pretty optimistic assumptions.
According to some historical interwebz site I found, listed below (I’m not a history buff, so cannot vouch for its accuracy), the first internal network in Japan didn’t get going until 1869 - 4 years after Lincoln’s death. That link also outlines some interesting aspects the Japanese had to overcome - e.g. language & characters. Also, no prior knowledge of electricity or magnetics. They dissembled one of the early machines gifted to them, but couldn’t put it back together.
I didn’t find any info on when Japan was connected to international networks - I gave up on first page on search results, so this comment leaves some big assumptions on the table.
But if we’re talking alternate histories, or Hollywood plots, naturally this pedantry disappears into irrelevance.
https://www.telegraphy.eu/pagina/artikels/The%20Morse%20Code%20for%20Japanese%20Characters%201%20MAY%202022.pdf
Boo! Spoil sport! You and your "facts" messing with our flights of fancy! ( Just funning with you 😜)
😂 - all good.
Well that's a kernel of a plot that's screaming to be developed 🤔
Lincoln didn't speak Japanese
Also probably didn't read it.
The last US civil pension recipient died in 2020