http://seattlest.com/2008/05/02/happy_birthday_3.php All comments for Happy Birthday HistoryLink! en-us 2009 seattle_katelyn Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:00:00 -0800 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss kbhackett@gmail.com kbhackett@gmail.com 60 http://seattlest.com/2008/05/02/happy_birthday_3.php#comment-1354196 http://seattlest.com/2008/05/02/happy_birthday_3.php#comment-1354196 Comments Sat, 03 May 2008 06:50:37 -0800 <p>Why thank you for the birthday wishes, from all of us folk down at HistoryLink. Yes, our early days were fraught with drama and hardship. Our first attempt to bring history to a wide audience took place at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909. Through the use of our home-built Typomatic Illustricator, historic tableaus were supposed to be sent through the air -- via wireless radio signals -- to a steam-powered Magic Lantern across the room. This would, in turn, project the monochrome images onto a blank wall, to the awed delight of everyone. Unfortunately, due to some low-grade coal we received to power the device, the whole thing burst into flames and exploded. Shards of wood and steel shot through the roof of the Exhibitry Building, and continued skyward where they pierced the skin of a motor-powered dirigible that was whizzing around overhead. It was only through the expert skills of aeronaut J. C. Mars that further disaster was averted, when he safely piloted the craft into the water fountain at the center of the fairgrounds. Not ones to accept defeat, we went back to the drawing boards and continued our efforts to deliver the “future of history”. Decades later we came up with a way to use the vibration of large steel cables to oscillate packets of information over then-proposed television airwaves. Tests were made using the support structure of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The less that’s said about that, the better. In the early 1970s, we tried using supersonic technology to achieve our goal, but the last person leaving Seattle turned out the lights. At this point things looked pretty dark, but before we knew it the information highway rolled into town. Elated, we ran to the nearest monorail station. It hadn’t been built yet, so we decided to pioneer the Internet on our own. The year was 1998, and we entered into a brave new world. The rest is history. The previous four paragraphs aren’t. But we’ve enjoyed our journey during these last ten years, and we’re glad to have met Seattlest on the way. Thanks for the good times, and here's to many more, -- The HistoryLink Gang </p> http://seattlest.com/2008/05/02/happy_birthday_3.php#comment-1354100 http://seattlest.com/2008/05/02/happy_birthday_3.php#comment-1354100 Comments Fri, 02 May 2008 18:56:42 -0800 <p>when all is said and done, historylink will tell the tale. will you warrant an entry?</p>