{"id":40980,"date":"2020-08-10T05:37:02","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T02:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tentaclii.wordpress.com\/?p=40980"},"modified":"2022-04-29T18:30:47","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T18:30:47","slug":"telephones-under-the-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/2020\/08\/10\/telephones-under-the-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Telephones under the earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve encountered an interesting item which perhaps throws a small sidelight on the use of the telephone in Lovecraft’s “The Statement of Randolph Carter” (1919). You’ll recall that a telephone is taken on the descent… <\/p>\n

I promise to keep you informed over the telephone of every move \u2014 you see I\u2019ve enough wire here to reach to the center of the earth and back!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The telephone might sound like an unlikely thing to take down below. But wired long-distance field telephones were a known ‘thing’ at that time, not least because of their use in the war. A modified long-distance field telephone was also used in the very deep explorations of the pioneering explorer of underground rivers and lakes, E.A. Martel (1859-1938), then world famous. <\/p>\n

Though Martel had quit the more arduous forms of exploring by the time Lovecraft was writing “The Statement of Randolph Carter”, back in 1912 Martel visited America for a celebrity tour of the caves and… “spent three days exploring in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky”. Mammoth Cave, you’ll recall, being a favourite location of interest to H.P. Lovecraft.<\/p>\n

Here is Martel, mistakenly called “Hartel” by the American editor, dramatically profiled in a popular magazine article of 1923. The article details the use of his special telephone in circumstances not unlike that of Lovecraft’s story…<\/p>\n

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The article’s artist also shows the chest-mounted speaking-horn for the underground telephone. Presumably the backpack held the the coiled cable, ready to be spooled out, and the batteries.<\/p>\n

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Incidentally I see that there’s now a 2013 DVD documentary on Martel<\/a> in German and French, being a substantial 1995 documentary film rescued from the archives. Note that… “In addition, a limited edition of the English version<\/a> is currently available” for 19 Euros. The film won a number of awards at film festivals, and may interest some readers of Tentaclii<\/em>. Martel also sounds like a prime subject for an as-yet unmade documentary graphic novel. France is quietly but strongly investing in its ‘soft power’ in the form of comics, partly to help reach the young ‘coming billions’ in French-speaking Africa, and it may be relatively easy to find French interest in such a project.<\/p>\n

\n

Talking of unearthly voices, I see that Archive.org now has a new TTS “read aloud to me” button…<\/p>\n

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I’ve encountered an interesting item which perhaps throws a small sidelight on the use of the telephone in Lovecraft’s “The …<\/p>\n

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