Tech Talk: Back in Time | Video

Jerame Novak | 11/7/2012

Recently, North Dakota celebrated its 123rd anniversary of statehood. While a lot has changed since the late 1800s, some things, especially some of the technology used then, is similar to what we use every day. While you don`t see many people around town in horses and buggies, there are some pieces of technology from North Dakota`s early days that you might recognize.

"What`s wonderful is there are certain things people come to expect - standardization," said North Dakota State Historical Society

Curator of Collections Research Mark Halvorson.

In the modern office, computers are used to create documents that are easy to read. Typewriters were developed for the same purpose.

"In the 1880s, you still had a lot of clerks. Everything was written by hand, it was dependent on the ability of the person on the receiving end of the letter to decipher it," Halvorson said.

One thing that may look familiar is the layout of the keys. This was actually developed to make people type slower.

"These were mechanical machines and if you type too fast, it would jam. And the whole system breaks down," Halvorson said.

One piece of technology that was popular then was the telegraph. Which has some aspects in common with the modern text message.

"The wires followed the lines of the railroad tracks and that was your quickest form of communication, But a telegraph, much like a text message, was based on a per word usage, how much space you`re taking up.

Much like the camera on your phone, there were also smaller, portable cameras that were used for quick pictures.

"But when Kodak introduced the Bullseye, photography became popular. Everyone could take a photograph with a portable camera."

While they didn`t have Instagram, the pictures were taken on a roll of film and came out circular in shape.

Another new technology at the time: the telephone, which you could only find in the eastern part of the state.

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