It's quite fascinating that this was not only possible with 1800's technology, but formed the basis of a successful business: "Vacuum-tube amplification would not be developed until the 1910s, so there were limited means for producing signals strong enough to be heard throughout the system. Therefore, for transmitting the news, announcers with especially loud voices — known as stentors — were hired and instructed to speak as forcefully as possible into specially designed double-receivers."
Wikipedia also talks about their sub growth: "Telefon Hírmondó began operations in 1893 with 60 subscribers, a total that grew to 700 in 1894, 4915 in 1895, 7629 in 1899, around 6200 in 1901, and 15,000 by 1907...The annual subscription price of the service was 18 krones (the price of 10 kg sugar or 20 kg coffee in Budapest at that time)."
Claude says retail for 20kg of coffee is $360 today. Assuming that's accurate, it would be equivalent to a service today selling at $30 / month. Some quick research shows Netflix's most expensive Premium plan costs $25 / month.
It's pretty interesting that in 1893 they could run the business sustainably (it survived until radio) at essentially the same price point as modern day, given they were producing all their own content (all live) and providing customers with hardware. Although I suppose they weren't building completely from scratch, they were using the existing telephone network for the actual physical layer connectivity.
To give them more credit, their operations seamlessly transitioned to (subscriber-free) radio as well, without losing subscribers:
> In the 1920s, the company was granted the right to establish the first radio broadcasting station in Budapest, which began operating on 1 December 1925.[11] The combined operations were now known as the Magyar Telefon Hirmondó és Rádió. The services were offered in parallel for some time, both on radio waves and telephone wires. By 1930, Telefon Hírmondó had started other services, and it had 91,079 subscribers.
It seemed like their telephonic service already had advertising, though.
Although I suppose they weren't building completely from scratch, they were using the existing telephone network for the actual physical layer connectivity.
Very impressive indeed (although maybe Coffee and Sugar were rarer back then), especially given that according to the article they did built their own infrastructure unidirectional lines at some point
I am Hungarian and "Telefon Hírmondó" translated to English is "Telephone News Teller" (or rather News-Teller, i.e. someone who is telling the news), not "Telephone Herald".
I might have gone with "crier" rather than "herald". That seems a little closer in terms of what the actual job consists of? But I agree that "herald" seems fine.
“News-Teller” are two English words that wouldn't be used together in that way, “Herald” is one English word and literally means what the naive combination of those two suggests, and is extremely commonly used in that sense in the name of news outlets (newspapers, etc.)
“Crier” is another pissibility with overlapping denotation that is also somewhat commonly seen in that context, “announcer” would work today in speech, but largely is a product of TV & radio so would be somewhat odd choice given the other options available.
> News-Teller” are two English words that wouldn't be used together in that way
I'd respectfully disagree. You can't definitively say that two words "wouldn't be used together in that way". Language is constantly evolving organically, and compound words often emerge through natural usage before appearing in dictionaries. Dictionaries document language as it develops rather than dictating what's permissible. "News-teller" follows standard English compounding patterns and clearly conveys its meaning; that's how language naturally develops.
Readit News
Wikipedia also talks about their sub growth: "Telefon Hírmondó began operations in 1893 with 60 subscribers, a total that grew to 700 in 1894, 4915 in 1895, 7629 in 1899, around 6200 in 1901, and 15,000 by 1907...The annual subscription price of the service was 18 krones (the price of 10 kg sugar or 20 kg coffee in Budapest at that time)."
Claude says retail for 20kg of coffee is $360 today. Assuming that's accurate, it would be equivalent to a service today selling at $30 / month. Some quick research shows Netflix's most expensive Premium plan costs $25 / month.
It's pretty interesting that in 1893 they could run the business sustainably (it survived until radio) at essentially the same price point as modern day, given they were producing all their own content (all live) and providing customers with hardware. Although I suppose they weren't building completely from scratch, they were using the existing telephone network for the actual physical layer connectivity.
> In the 1920s, the company was granted the right to establish the first radio broadcasting station in Budapest, which began operating on 1 December 1925.[11] The combined operations were now known as the Magyar Telefon Hirmondó és Rádió. The services were offered in parallel for some time, both on radio waves and telephone wires. By 1930, Telefon Hírmondó had started other services, and it had 91,079 subscribers.
It seemed like their telephonic service already had advertising, though.
But the noun "herald" literally means "official who tells the news"
So this still definitely checks out.
“Crier” is another pissibility with overlapping denotation that is also somewhat commonly seen in that context, “announcer” would work today in speech, but largely is a product of TV & radio so would be somewhat odd choice given the other options available.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44845575
> News-Teller” are two English words that wouldn't be used together in that way
I'd respectfully disagree. You can't definitively say that two words "wouldn't be used together in that way". Language is constantly evolving organically, and compound words often emerge through natural usage before appearing in dictionaries. Dictionaries document language as it develops rather than dictating what's permissible. "News-teller" follows standard English compounding patterns and clearly conveys its meaning; that's how language naturally develops.
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