← A. Inventions, No. 7
United States Army Signal Corps
Chromatic Telegraph
1942
Camp Evans Signal Lab, Wall Township, New Jersey. Replica in cardboard, balsa wood and plaster; original in epoxy-coated steel with polyethylene platen, celluloid keys and margin setter, and nickel-plated paper bail. 7 × 9½ × 7". Collection of the author.
‘Chromotelegraphics’ is the science of transcribing, transmitting, receiving, and reproducing color data.
Even in the age of cmyk printing and rgb imaging, specialists have always needed the ability to identify and record hues outside of the subtractive and additive color gamuts. Eight of my favorite milestones in chromotelegraphics: (fig. 1) a radio-controlled colored smoke machine used in skywriting, aerial shows, and runway incursions; (fig. 2) a portable low-yield Jacquard machine, for creating mockups of neckties; (fig. 3) an iris indexer, to ensure matched colors in the manufacture of prosthetic eyes; (fig. 4) the original chromatic telegraph, developed by the Army Signal Corps for quickly transmitting color information to field units; (fig. 5) an autochandler, for producing bespoke candlesticks and crayons; (fig. 6) a ribbon printer, designed for seasonal use by gift wrappers at department stores; (fig. 7) a machine that measures the chroma and luma of liquids, in order to produce sympathetically-colored cocktail umbrellas; (fig. 8) the standard-issue field recorder used by ornithologists, and the first to record in Standard Plumage Notation (nsp).
Published December 9, 2022. Copyright © 2022 Jonathan Hoefler.
About
The objects in the Apocryphal Inventions series are technical chimeras, intentional misdirections coaxed from the generative AI platform Midjourney. Instead of iterating on the system’s early drafts to create ever more accurate renderings of real-world objects, creator Jonathan Hoefler subverted the system to refine and intensify its most intriguing misunderstandings, pushing the software to create beguiling, aestheticized nonsense. Some images have been retouched to make them more plausible; others have been left intact, appearing exactly as generated by the software. The accompanying descriptions, written by the author, offer fictitious backstories rooted in historical fact, which suggest how each of these inventions might have come to be.
These images represent some of AI’s most intriguing answers to confounding questions, an inversion of the more pressing debate in which it is humanity that must confront the difficult and existential questions posed by artificial intelligence.
Previously:
No. 6. Acoustical Food Shapers
Next:
No. 8. Mollusk-Made Typewriters
