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28-568: The Tellevent's name came from a contraction of the phrase: "It tells the event to mind's eye." Its main inspiration came from two existing telephone-based subscriber services: the Paris Théâtrophone , which began operation in 1890 and primarily offered live entertainment from local theaters, and the Telefon Hírmondó of Budapest, Hungary, which was established in 1893 and featured a broad range of news and entertainment. It

56-415: A children's hour, then two hours of dinner music, and closing at 11:00 p.m. with three hours of "Grand opera from distant points". Subscription costs were estimated to be around $ 2 a month, with service provided to private homes, businesses, hotels, and hospitals. Also planned was the option to connect to special services, such as ballgames and speeches. Despite the promoters' enthusiasm, it appears that

84-609: A distance of 100 m (330 ft) in Satory near Paris, was never widely accepted. Ader's progress attracted the interest of the minister of war, Charles de Freycinet . With the backing of the French War Office, Ader developed and constructed the Avion III . It resembled an enormous bat made of linen and wood, with a 15 m (48 ft) wingspan, equipped with two four-bladed tractor propellers, each powered by

112-487: A female character in the novel Massarenes (1897) as "A modern woman of the world. As costly as an ironclad and as complicated as theatrophone." In 1890, the system became operational as a service under the name "théâtrophone" in Paris. The service was offered by Compagnie du Théâtrophone (The Théâtrophone Company), which was founded by MM. Marinovitch and Szarvady. The théâtrophone offered theatre and opera performances to

140-701: A height of approximately 20 centimetres (8 in). Ader also claimed credit for getting off the ground in the Éole. Ader began construction of a second aircraft he called the Avion II , also referred to as the Zephyr or Éole II . Most sources agree that work on this aircraft was never completed, and it was abandoned in favour of the Avion III . Ader's later claim that he flew the Avion II in August 1892 for

168-501: A lightweight steam engine of his own invention, with 4 cylinders with a power rating of 20 hp (15 kW), driving a four-blade propeller . The engine weighed 51 kg (112 lb). The wings had a span of 14 m (46 ft). All-up weight was 300 kg (660 lb). On 9 October 1890 Ader attempted to fly the Éole . Aviation historians give credit to this effort as a powered take-off and uncontrolled flight in ground effect of approximately 50 m (160 ft) at

196-631: A steam engine of 30 hp (22 kW). Using a circular track at Satory, Ader carried out taxiing trials on 12 October 1897 and two days later attempted a flight. After a short run the machine was caught by a gust of wind, slewed off the track, and came to a stop. After this the French army withdrew its funding, but kept the results secret. The commission released in November 1910 the official reports on Ader's attempted flights, stating that they were unsuccessful. Clément Ader remained an active proponent of

224-517: The Paris–Madrid race , but although three or four were produced, none was sold. Following his work with V8 engines, Ader turned to the problem of mechanical flight and until the end of his life gave much time and money to this. Using the studies of Louis Pierre Mouillard (1834–1897) on the flight of birds, he constructed his first flying machine in 1886, the Ader Éole . It was a bat-like design run by

252-492: The 1881 International Exposition of Electricity in Paris. The system was inaugurated by the French President Jules Grévy , and allowed broadcasting of concerts or plays. Ader had arranged 80 telephone transmitters across the front of a stage to create a form of binaural stereophonic sound . It was the first two-channel audio system, and consisted of a series of telephone transmitters connected from

280-474: The Chicago Musolaphone in 1913. However, none of these systems achieved financial success, and the idea of using telephone lines for news and entertainment systems would be eclipsed by the development of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s. Th%C3%A9%C3%A2trophone Théâtrophone ("the theatre phone") was a telephonic distribution system available in portions of Europe that allowed

308-664: The Tellevent service never went into wider use. Individual reports of test transmissions continued to appear through 1908, but the Michigan Tellevent Company was dissolved on August 2, 1909. Later efforts in the United States that had similar goals to the Tellevent included the Wilmington, Delaware, Tel-musici , beginning in 1909, a collection of Telephone Herald companies, from 1911 to 1913, and

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336-469: The development of aviation. In 1909 he published L'Aviation Militaire , a very popular book which went through 10 editions in the five years before the First World War . It is notable for its vision of aerial warfare and for its foreseeing the form of the modern aircraft carrier , with a flat flight deck, an island superstructure, deck elevators and a hangar bay. His idea for an aircraft carrier

364-400: The device as one of the many technological commodities available for the distraction of the upper classes. In his utopian science fiction novel Looking Backward (1888), Edward Bellamy predicted sermons and music being available in the home through a system like théâtrophone. Cl%C3%A9ment Ader Clément Ader (2 April 1841 – 3 May 1925) was a French inventor and engineer who

392-675: The formation of the American Tellevent Company, incorporated in Michigan and capitalized at $ 300,000, with the initial officials of E. L. Ford, W. A. Jackson, George M. Black, Arnold A. Schantz, James H. Swart and James F. Land. In July 1907, Land resigned as the Michigan State Telephone Company's general manager, where he had worked for nearly 30 years, in order to spend full-time with the recently founded Michigan Tellevent Company, of which he

420-427: The future, "there will be a televent at the stock exchange, banks, at the band concerts on Belle Isle, race track, club houses, hotels, library, political headquarters, court rooms, in short, wherever the public wishes to go". An extensive daily program was also envisioned, starting with "Daily News" at 7:00 a.m., followed by time blocks featuring additional news, stock, and weather reports, assorted special features,

448-603: The inventor, reported a "most satisfactory" test transmitting a church service and concert in Detroit to a party of Grand Rapids people, located 150 miles (240 kilometers) away. Additional tests followed, including both the 1906 and 1907 May Festivals held by Michigan State University in Ann Arbor. Another report stated that two days of Senatorial Caucus speeches 88 miles (141 kilometers) distant at Lansing had been successfully transmitted to multiple Detroit homes. March 1907 saw

476-591: The rising popularity of radio broadcasting and the phonograph , and the Compagnie du Théâtrophone ceased its operations in 1932. Similar systems elsewhere in Europe included Telefon Hírmondó (est. 1893) of Budapest and Electrophone of London (est. 1895). In the United States , the systems similar to théâtrophone were limited to one-off experiments. Erik Barnouw reported a concert by telephone that

504-678: The stage of the Paris Opera to a suite of rooms at the Paris Electrical Exhibition, where the visitors could hear Comédie-Française and opera performances in stereo using two headphones; the Opera was located more than two kilometers away from the venue. In a note dated 11 November 1881, Victor Hugo describes his first experience of théâtrophone as pleasant. In 1884, the King Luís I of Portugal decided to use

532-490: The subscribers to listen to opera and theatre performances over the telephone lines. The théâtrophone evolved from a Clément Ader invention, which was first demonstrated in 1881, in Paris . Subsequently, in 1890, the invention was commercialized by Compagnie du Théâtrophone, which continued to operate until 1932. The origin of the théâtrophone can be traced to a telephonic transmission system demonstrated by Clément Ader at

560-426: The subscribers. The service can be called a prototype of the telephone newspaper , as it included five-minute news programs at regular intervals. The Théâtrophone Company set up coin-operated telephone receivers in hotels, cafés, clubs, and other locations, costing 50 centimes for five minutes of listening. The subscription tickets were also issued at a reduced rate, in order to attract regular patrons. The service

588-800: The system, when he could not attend an opera in person. The director of the Edison Gower Bell Company, who was responsible for this théâtrophone installation, was later awarded the Military Order of Christ . The théâtrophone technology was made available in Belgium in 1884, and in Lisbon in 1885. In Sweden, the first telephone transmission of an opera performance took place in Stockholm in May 1887. The British writer Ouida describes

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616-409: The telephone network in Paris in 1880. In 1881, he invented the théâtrophone , a system of telephonic transmission where listeners received a separate channel for each ear, enabling stereophonic perception of the actors on a set; it was this invention which gave the first stereo transmission of opera performances, over a distance of 2 miles (3 km) in 1881. In 1903, he devised a V8 engine for

644-421: Was also available to home subscribers. French writer Marcel Proust was a keen follower of théâtrophone, as evident by his correspondence. He subscribed to the service in 1911. Many technological improvements were gradually made to the original théâtrophone system. The Brown telephone relay, invented in 1913, yielded interesting results for amplification of the current. The théâtrophone finally succumbed to

672-596: Was born near Toulouse in Muret , Haute-Garonne , and died in Toulouse. He is remembered primarily for his pioneering work in aviation . In 1870 he was also one of the pioneers in the sport of cycling in France. Ader was an innovator in electrical and mechanical engineering . He originally studied electrical engineering , and in 1878 improved on the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell . After this he established

700-598: Was organized in the summer of 1890; around 800 people at the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga listened to a telephonic transmission of The Charge of the Light Brigade conducted at Madison Square Garden . The Andrew Crumey novel Mr Mee (2000) has a chapter depicting the installation of a théâtrophone in the home of Marcel Proust . The Eça de Queiroz novel A Cidade e as Serras (1901) mentions

728-477: Was relayed by the US naval attaché in Paris and was followed by the first trials in the United States in November 1910. An airplane-carrying vessel is indispensable. These vessels will be constructed on a plan very different from what is currently used. First of all the deck will be cleared of all obstacles. It will be flat, as wide as possible without jeopardizing the nautical lines of the hull, and it will look like

756-631: Was reported in January 1906 that the Michigan State Telephone Company, which held the state's Bell Telephone franchise, was conducting "fairly successful" tests in distributing programs "between the theatres, the churches, the Light Guard Armory, the new Penobscot Inn and the residences of several officials of the company", with hopes that "eventually a new use for the telephone will be developed along these lines". The next month, Michigan State Telephone's general manager, James F. Land, credited as

784-528: Was the majority stockholder. A glowing review in the March 17, 1907, issue of the Detroit Free Press , "'Televent,' Latest Wonder of Electric Science", described the expansive goals of the Tellevent promoters. The service was designed to use subscriber's existing telephone lines, and had been initially installed in 100 Detroit homes, connecting them with local theaters. However, it was planned that in

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