Telefon Hírmondó
Encyclopedia
Telefon Hírmondó or Telefonhírmondó (also translated into English as "Telephone Herald") was a telephone newspaper
in Budapest
. It was the longest-running telephone newspaper, and has been described by Peter Lunenfeld
as "the most sustained point-to-point telephonic
distribution system". It has also been described as an early radio
, and indeed it was radio that led to its demise. From 1893, 20 years before the invention of the radio, people could listen to news and music in Budapest daily. They could enjoy direct broadcastings from the Opera house.
(also translated as Theodore Buschgasch), an engineer and inventor, who had earlier worked with Thomas Edison
. Puskás had registered the patent
of technology behind the newspaper in 1892, in the Patent Office
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with the title "A new method of organizing and fitting a telephone newspaper". The Telefon Hírmondó service started on 15 February 1893, with around 60 subscribers. The editorial office was located near Astoria
, at 6 Magyar Street. The first message was from Puskás:
Telefon Hírmondó had been started without any formal permission from the government authorities. However, after two weeks of operation, Puskás applied for the permission to run his "newspaper", because he wanted exclusive rights for running a telephone newspaper
for five years. The contemporary press laws
did not apply to a telephone newspaper, and the government authorities were wary of the Telefon Hírmondó developing into an "important tool of power", as it could quickly spread the strategic, political, and social information. The authorities granted permission to Puskás on the condition that the Telefon Hírmondó would write down the news reports in advance, get them signed by the manager and the announcer, and send the pages to the ministries concerned every day, and to the Budapest police three times a day.
Puskás' died a month after the launch of the service, on 16 March 1893. Albert Puskás, the brother and heir to Tivadar Puskás wanted exclusive rights for the telephone newspaper for fifty years, which were not granted. Therefore, he sold the enterprise, along with the patent rights to István Popper, who accepted the authorization conditions put forward by the government authorities, on 26 September 1894. Popper created The Telefonhírmondó Joint stock company
, built up the company's own network, modernized the equipment, and broadened the range of the programmes. The service was continued by Emile von Szveties, the technical director of the newspaper.
Telefon Hírmondó divided the entire city of Budapest into twenty-seven districts, and had the rights to place wires in a way similar to the telephone and telegraph companies. When it started, the company had 43 miles (69.2 km) of wire, which increased to 372 miles (599 km) in 1901, and 1100 miles (1,770.3 km) in 1907. The main wire ran to each district, with branch wires to the houses. Twenty-seven copper wires ran from microphone receivers in the Opera House
to the central office, where the current would pass through a patent device that would increase the sound. The distribution to subscribers would be regulated by another patented device.
Telefon Hírmondó collected the news using the methods commonly employed by the print newspapers. The reporter would write the matter and submit it to the chief, who would sign it to fix responsibility. A clerk would then carefully copy the matter with lithographic
ink on long galley slips. These would be transferred to the lithography stone, so as to appear in parallel columns 6 inches in width and two feet in length. Then, two pressmen would take a number of impressions on a roller-movement hand press, using common printing paper. Each sheet would be proofread
by an assistant editor, with help of a copyholder. The verified sheet would comprise a certain part of the programmer, and would constitute the day's file along with the other sheets. A duplicate would be cut up into convenient strips for the use of the stentor (the person who would read the news into the transmitter). The stentor would talk into a double receiver to transmit the news.
Andrew Orlowski
has called the Telefon Hírmondó service "a historical antecedent" of the WAP
and mobile data services
. Carolyn Marvin states that Telefon Hírmondó can be seen as a "proto-broadcasting system", and An Nguyen notes that it might also fit into the definition of online news as the content was delivered over a point-to-point communication network only to selected users.
The complete programme of the newspaper would be attached to the wall above each subscribers's receiver, telling the subscriber what to expect at an hour.
The "newspaper issue" would begin with a news bulletin and with summaries of newspapers. The afternoon schedule comprised "short entertaining stories", "sporting intelligence", and "filler items" of various kinds. There were hourly news summaries for those who had missed the bulletins. The evening schedule consisted of theatrical offerings, visits to the opera, poetry readings, concerts, lectures (including repeats of Academy lectures by notable literary figures), and linguistic lessons (in English
, Italian
and French
).
Thomas S. Denison (1901) wrote that the issue would begin at 10:30 AM, and would end at about 10:30 P.M., or later in case of a concert or some other night event. Stock exchange quotations
would be transmitted from 10:00 AM to 10.30 AM, 11:00 AM to 11.15 AM, 11.30 AM to 11.45 AM, and again in the afternoon hours. Reports of the Reichsrath
and political news would be given at 11:45 AM to 12:00 AM; the period would be filled by fuller reports of general and foreign news, when the Reichsrath was not in session. At 1.30 P.M. and 6:00 PM, a brief summary of news would be provided. The slot from 5.00 to 6.00 would be filled by concerts, varied by literary criticism, sporting events etc. On Sunday, there would be special items: news from 11:00 AM to 11.30 AM, and a concert from 4:30 AM to 6:00 AM. On Thursday, there would be a concert for children at 6:00 PM.
W. G. Fitz-Gerald (1907) stated the following schedule for a day's typical programme:
Fitz-Gerald also mentions that special lectures or concerts would be given for the children once a week, and reports of all the principal Hungarian and Austrian horse races would be flashed as soon as the results were known.
The American author Thomas Denison, who visited Budapest in 1901, found the report of news to be "highly satisfactory", but felt that the music
by telephone, whether vocal or instrumental, still left something to be desired.
In 1901, when the American author Thomas S. Denison visited Budapest, the Telefon Hírmondó employed about 180 people in winter and 150 in summer. The staff consisted of a business manager, an editor-in-chief, four assistant editors, and nine reporters. The only ladies among the staff were those who sang in the concert
s. In 1901, the newspaper used to employ six stentors in the Winter: four for duty, and two for alternates. They would take turns of ten minutes each. In the summer, four stentors would suffice. In case of only two stentors being on duty, they would take turns of half an hour maximum. The stentors had strong and clear voices with distinct articulation to maintain clarity of sound over the telephone lines. W. G. Fitz-Gerald (1907) writes that the newspaper, by that time, had a staff of over two hundred people, including two business managers, two principal editors, six sub-editors, twelve reporters, and eight stentors.
Telefon Hírmondó had no leading articles or editorials. The editor alone was responsible in case of action against the paper for libel. By 1901, there had been two or three lawsuits against the editor, and he had won all of them. The newspaper exchanged reports with the city press, and the editors and managers of the newspaper received usual courtesies extended to the press, such as passes and free tickets.
, the Prime Minister
Baron Banffy
, all the other members of the Hungarian Cabinet, the famous Hungarian author Mór Jókai
, and the Mayor of Budapest. The paper appealed strongly to the more intellectual classes. The principal hotels in the city also subscribed to the newspapers, and their guests were free to use the instrument. The newspaper could also be found in other places including doctors' waiting rooms, barber shops, cafes, restaurants, and dentists' parlours.
Thomas S. Denison wrote in the April 1901 issue of World's Work:
per month (a krone was about 42 U.S. cents at that time). The fixed charges (telegrams, salaries, rent etc.) were about 7000 krones a month, and varied with the seasons.
The annual subscription price of the newspaper was 18 krones (the price of 10 kg sugar
or 20 kg coffee
in Budapest at that time). A receiver would be put into the subscriber's house at the company's expense. The subscriber was obliged to give security for a year's subscription, one-third of which had to be paid when the instrument would be ready for use. The balance had to be paid in two equal installments, at the end of four months and eight months respectively.
An advertisement would be sandwiched between two interesting news items, so that it would command special attention. In 1901, the newspaper used to charge one krones for a twelve-second advertising slot. The newspaper also experimented with the "penny-in-the-slot" machines, using 20-Fillér
coins.
In the 1920s, was granted the rights to operate as a radio broadcaster
, and began its radio broadcasting service on 1 December 1925. The services were offered parallelly for sometime, both on radio waves and telephone wires. By 1930, Telefon Hírmondó had started other services, and it had 91079 subscribers. During the World War II
, the wire network of the company was destroyed completely, leading to the cessation of telephone news services.
, in 1910. L'Araldo telefonico (Italian
for "The Telephone Herald") had surpassed 1300 subscribers by 1914. The service was interrupted during the World War I
, and was re-launched in 1922, under the name Fonogiornale.
M. M. Gillam, a former advertising manager of the New York Herald
discovered Telefon Hírmondó on a tour to Hungary, and obtained the American rights for the technology. He established the United States Telephone Herald Co. to distribute state rights. A company obtained the New Jersey
rights for the newspaper started an issue at Newark
, which lasted from 1911 to 1912.
Telephone newspaper
A telephone newspaper was a telephone-based news and entertainment service which was introduced beginning in the 1890s, and primarily located in large European cities. These systems were the first example of electronic broadcasting, and offered a wide variety of programming. However, only a...
in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
. It was the longest-running telephone newspaper, and has been described by Peter Lunenfeld
Peter Lunenfeld
Peter Lunenfeld is a critic and theorist of digital media. He is a professor in the department at UCLA, director of the Institute for Technology and Aesthetics , and founder of mediawork: The Southern California New Media Group.Lunenfeld is a leading figure in digital aesthetic theory, set on...
as "the most sustained point-to-point telephonic
Telephony
In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....
distribution system". It has also been described as an early radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, and indeed it was radio that led to its demise. From 1893, 20 years before the invention of the radio, people could listen to news and music in Budapest daily. They could enjoy direct broadcastings from the Opera house.
Establishment
The Telefon Hírmondó was founded by Tivadar PuskásTivadar Puskás
Tivadar Puskás was a Hungarian inventor, telephone pioneer, and inventor of the telephone exchange He was also the founder of Telefon Hírmondó.-Biography:...
(also translated as Theodore Buschgasch), an engineer and inventor, who had earlier worked with Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
. Puskás had registered the patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
of technology behind the newspaper in 1892, in the Patent Office
Patent office
A patent office is a governmental or intergovernmental organization which controls the issue of patents. In other words, "patent offices are government bodies that may grant a patent or reject the patent application based on whether or not the application fulfils the requirements for...
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with the title "A new method of organizing and fitting a telephone newspaper". The Telefon Hírmondó service started on 15 February 1893, with around 60 subscribers. The editorial office was located near Astoria
Astoria (Budapest)
Astoria is a major junction in Budapest city centre and a station of the M2 metro line. It is named after Grand Hotel Astoria at its corner.It is the crossing point of Rákóczi út and Small Boulevard. At its corner can be found the Humanities Faculty of the Eötvös Loránd University and the Hungarian...
, at 6 Magyar Street. The first message was from Puskás:
Telefon Hírmondó had been started without any formal permission from the government authorities. However, after two weeks of operation, Puskás applied for the permission to run his "newspaper", because he wanted exclusive rights for running a telephone newspaper
Telephone newspaper
A telephone newspaper was a telephone-based news and entertainment service which was introduced beginning in the 1890s, and primarily located in large European cities. These systems were the first example of electronic broadcasting, and offered a wide variety of programming. However, only a...
for five years. The contemporary press laws
Press laws
Press Laws are the laws concerning the licensing of books and the liberty of expression in all products of the printing-press, especially newspapers . The liberty of the press has always been regarded by political writers as of supreme importance...
did not apply to a telephone newspaper, and the government authorities were wary of the Telefon Hírmondó developing into an "important tool of power", as it could quickly spread the strategic, political, and social information. The authorities granted permission to Puskás on the condition that the Telefon Hírmondó would write down the news reports in advance, get them signed by the manager and the announcer, and send the pages to the ministries concerned every day, and to the Budapest police three times a day.
Puskás' died a month after the launch of the service, on 16 March 1893. Albert Puskás, the brother and heir to Tivadar Puskás wanted exclusive rights for the telephone newspaper for fifty years, which were not granted. Therefore, he sold the enterprise, along with the patent rights to István Popper, who accepted the authorization conditions put forward by the government authorities, on 26 September 1894. Popper created The Telefonhírmondó Joint stock company
Joint stock company
A joint-stock company is a type of corporation or partnership involving two or more individuals that own shares of stock in the company...
, built up the company's own network, modernized the equipment, and broadened the range of the programmes. The service was continued by Emile von Szveties, the technical director of the newspaper.
Technology
When it started, Telefon Hírmondó had no wires of its own. Under the guidance its technical director Nándor Szmazsenka, the company built up a network independent of the telephones lines used for conversation.Telefon Hírmondó divided the entire city of Budapest into twenty-seven districts, and had the rights to place wires in a way similar to the telephone and telegraph companies. When it started, the company had 43 miles (69.2 km) of wire, which increased to 372 miles (599 km) in 1901, and 1100 miles (1,770.3 km) in 1907. The main wire ran to each district, with branch wires to the houses. Twenty-seven copper wires ran from microphone receivers in the Opera House
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
to the central office, where the current would pass through a patent device that would increase the sound. The distribution to subscribers would be regulated by another patented device.
Telefon Hírmondó collected the news using the methods commonly employed by the print newspapers. The reporter would write the matter and submit it to the chief, who would sign it to fix responsibility. A clerk would then carefully copy the matter with lithographic
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
ink on long galley slips. These would be transferred to the lithography stone, so as to appear in parallel columns 6 inches in width and two feet in length. Then, two pressmen would take a number of impressions on a roller-movement hand press, using common printing paper. Each sheet would be proofread
Proofreading
Proofreading is the reading of a galley proof or computer monitor to detect and correct production-errors of text or art. Proofreaders are expected to be consistently accurate by default because they occupy the last stage of typographic production before publication.-Traditional method:A proof is...
by an assistant editor, with help of a copyholder. The verified sheet would comprise a certain part of the programmer, and would constitute the day's file along with the other sheets. A duplicate would be cut up into convenient strips for the use of the stentor (the person who would read the news into the transmitter). The stentor would talk into a double receiver to transmit the news.
Andrew Orlowski
Andrew Orlowski
Andrew Orlowski is a British columnist for the online IT news and opinion website The Register.-Early career:In 1992, Orlowski started an alternative newspaper in Manchester, England called Badpress. He has also written for Private Eye magazine...
has called the Telefon Hírmondó service "a historical antecedent" of the WAP
Wireless Application Protocol
Wireless Application Protocol is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network.A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that uses the protocol.Before the introduction of WAP, mobile service providers had limited opportunities to offer...
and mobile data services
GSM services
GSM services are a standard collection of applications and features available to mobile phone subscribers all over the world. The GSM standards are defined by the 3GPP collaboration and implemented in hardware and software by equipment manufacturers and mobile phone operators...
. Carolyn Marvin states that Telefon Hírmondó can be seen as a "proto-broadcasting system", and An Nguyen notes that it might also fit into the definition of online news as the content was delivered over a point-to-point communication network only to selected users.
Issue
The "newspaper issue" would begin with a news bulletin and with summaries of newspapers. The afternoon schedule comprised "short entertaining stories", "sporting intelligence", and "filler items" of various kinds. There were hourly news summaries for those who had missed the bulletins. The evening schedule consisted of theatrical offerings, visits to the opera, poetry readings, concerts, lectures (including repeats of Academy lectures by notable literary figures), and linguistic lessons (in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
).
Thomas S. Denison (1901) wrote that the issue would begin at 10:30 AM, and would end at about 10:30 P.M., or later in case of a concert or some other night event. Stock exchange quotations
Financial quote
A financial quotation refers to specific market data relating to a security or commodity. While the term quote specifically refers to the bid price or ask price of an instrument, it may be more generically used to relate to the last price which the security traded at...
would be transmitted from 10:00 AM to 10.30 AM, 11:00 AM to 11.15 AM, 11.30 AM to 11.45 AM, and again in the afternoon hours. Reports of the Reichsrath
Reichsrat (Austria)
The Imperial Council of Austria from 1867 to 1918 was the parliament of the Cisleithanian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a bicameral legislature, consisting of the Herrenhaus and the Abgeordnetenhaus...
and political news would be given at 11:45 AM to 12:00 AM; the period would be filled by fuller reports of general and foreign news, when the Reichsrath was not in session. At 1.30 P.M. and 6:00 PM, a brief summary of news would be provided. The slot from 5.00 to 6.00 would be filled by concerts, varied by literary criticism, sporting events etc. On Sunday, there would be special items: news from 11:00 AM to 11.30 AM, and a concert from 4:30 AM to 6:00 AM. On Thursday, there would be a concert for children at 6:00 PM.
W. G. Fitz-Gerald (1907) stated the following schedule for a day's typical programme:
| From | To | Programme |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00 AM | Exact astronomical time | |
| 9:30 AM | 10:00 AM | Reading of programme of Vienna and foreign news and of chief contents of the official press. |
| 10:00 AM | 10:30 AM | Local exchange quotations. |
| 10:30 AM | 11:00 AM | Chief contents of local daily press. |
| 11:00 AM | 11:15 AM | General news and finance. |
| 11:15 AM | 11:30 AM | Local, theatrical, and sporting news. |
| 11:30 AM | 11:45 AM | Vienna exchange news. |
| 11:45 AM | 12:00 AM | Parliamentary, provincial, and foreign news. |
| 12:00 PM | Exact astronomical time. | |
| 12:00 PM | 12:30 PM | Latest general news, news, parliamentary, court, political, and military. |
| 12:30 PM | 1:00 PM | Midday exchange quotations. |
| 1:00 PM | 2:00 PM | Repetition of the half-day's most interesting news. |
| 2:00 PM | 2:30 PM | Foreign telegrams and latest general news. |
| 2:30 PM | 3:00 PM | Parliamentary and local news. |
| 3:00 PM | 3:15 PM | Latest exchange reports. |
| 3:15 PM | 4:00 PM | Weather, parliamentary, legal, theatrical, fashion and sporting news. |
| 4:00 PM | 4:30 PM | Latest exchange reports and general news. |
| 4:30 PM | 6:30 PM | Regimental bands. |
| 7:00 PM | 8:15 PM | Opera. |
| 8:15 PM (or after the first act of the opera) | Exchange news from New York, Frankfurt, Paris, Berlin, London, and other business centers. | |
| 8:30 | 9:30 | Opera. |
Fitz-Gerald also mentions that special lectures or concerts would be given for the children once a week, and reports of all the principal Hungarian and Austrian horse races would be flashed as soon as the results were known.
The American author Thomas Denison, who visited Budapest in 1901, found the report of news to be "highly satisfactory", but felt that the music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
by telephone, whether vocal or instrumental, still left something to be desired.
Staff
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
s. In 1901, the newspaper used to employ six stentors in the Winter: four for duty, and two for alternates. They would take turns of ten minutes each. In the summer, four stentors would suffice. In case of only two stentors being on duty, they would take turns of half an hour maximum. The stentors had strong and clear voices with distinct articulation to maintain clarity of sound over the telephone lines. W. G. Fitz-Gerald (1907) writes that the newspaper, by that time, had a staff of over two hundred people, including two business managers, two principal editors, six sub-editors, twelve reporters, and eight stentors.
Telefon Hírmondó had no leading articles or editorials. The editor alone was responsible in case of action against the paper for libel. By 1901, there had been two or three lawsuits against the editor, and he had won all of them. The newspaper exchanged reports with the city press, and the editors and managers of the newspaper received usual courtesies extended to the press, such as passes and free tickets.
Subscriber base
Telefon Hírmondó started with 60 subscribers, a figure that changed to 700 in 1894, 4915 in 1895, 7629 in 1899, around 6200 in 1901, and 15,000 by 1907. Some of the notable subscribers included the Emperor Francis JosephFranz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
, the Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Baron Banffy
Dezso Bánffy
Dezső Baron Bánffy de Losoncz was a Hungarian politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1895 to 1899.-Biography:...
, all the other members of the Hungarian Cabinet, the famous Hungarian author Mór Jókai
Mór Jókai
Mór Jókai , born Móric Jókay de Ásva , outside Hungary also known as Maurus Jokai, was a Hungarian dramatist and novelist.-Early life:...
, and the Mayor of Budapest. The paper appealed strongly to the more intellectual classes. The principal hotels in the city also subscribed to the newspapers, and their guests were free to use the instrument. The newspaper could also be found in other places including doctors' waiting rooms, barber shops, cafes, restaurants, and dentists' parlours.
Thomas S. Denison wrote in the April 1901 issue of World's Work:
Business model
In 1901, the expenses of the newspaper ranged between 9000 and 10,000 kronesAustro-Hungarian krone
The Krone or korona was the official currency of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1892 until the dissolution of the empire in 1918...
per month (a krone was about 42 U.S. cents at that time). The fixed charges (telegrams, salaries, rent etc.) were about 7000 krones a month, and varied with the seasons.
The annual subscription price of the newspaper was 18 krones (the price of 10 kg sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
or 20 kg coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
in Budapest at that time). A receiver would be put into the subscriber's house at the company's expense. The subscriber was obliged to give security for a year's subscription, one-third of which had to be paid when the instrument would be ready for use. The balance had to be paid in two equal installments, at the end of four months and eight months respectively.
An advertisement would be sandwiched between two interesting news items, so that it would command special attention. In 1901, the newspaper used to charge one krones for a twelve-second advertising slot. The newspaper also experimented with the "penny-in-the-slot" machines, using 20-Fillér
Fillér
The fillér was the name of various small change coins throughout Hungarian history. It was the subdivision of the Austro-Hungarian and the Hungarian korona, the pengő and the forint. The name derives from the German word Vierer that means 'number four' in English. Originally it was the name of the...
coins.
In the 1920s, was granted the rights to operate as a radio broadcaster
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
, and began its radio broadcasting service on 1 December 1925. The services were offered parallelly for sometime, both on radio waves and telephone wires. By 1930, Telefon Hírmondó had started other services, and it had 91079 subscribers. During the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the wire network of the company was destroyed completely, leading to the cessation of telephone news services.
Offshoots
The technology of Telefon Hírmondó was licensed to others, leading to the establishment of l'Araldo telefonico in RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, in 1910. L'Araldo telefonico (Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
for "The Telephone Herald") had surpassed 1300 subscribers by 1914. The service was interrupted during the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and was re-launched in 1922, under the name Fonogiornale.
M. M. Gillam, a former advertising manager of the New York Herald
New York Herald
The New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835, and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., on May 6, 1835. By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the UnitedStates...
discovered Telefon Hírmondó on a tour to Hungary, and obtained the American rights for the technology. He established the United States Telephone Herald Co. to distribute state rights. A company obtained the New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
rights for the newspaper started an issue at Newark
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
, which lasted from 1911 to 1912.
External links
- A Telefon-Hírmondó (in Hungarian languageHungarian languageHungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
) - A Telefonhírmondó, az első beszélő újság (in Hungarian languageHungarian languageHungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
) - A biography of Puskás Tivadar (in Hungarian languageHungarian languageHungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
), includes several illustrations related to Telefonhírmondó - News and Entertainment by Telephone (1876-1925), an informative collection maintained by Thomas H. White.