Re: OT: Winmodems are soundcards Was: Laptop for College Bound Student?

[Hugo Vanwoerkom <hvw59601@care2.com>]

Brad Rogers wrote:
> On Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:49:00 -0700
> Andrew Sackville-West <andrew@farwestbilliards.com> wrote:
>
> Hello Andrew,
>
> > this is surely do-able. The very first modems were essentially a
> > speaker and a microphone that were connected to the telephone reciever
> > by a couple of rubber cup-like things. 
>
> Acoustic Couplers, they were called.  A real PITA to use, too;  One
> hard knock, and the line dropped, because the noise produced upset
> everything.

But it worked. Connected from IBM Chicago to IBM Kingston in 1972 using 
TSO and an electric typewriter. It all took a while though.

Hugo