"Twitter" in 1935

Key difference: "the user drops a coin into the slot".

Twitter missed that part :)

They even had a business model from day one! (it was coin based)

It even has location-based technology: it lets you know when your friends are near!

Here's another view of it: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/3359446/Hulton-Archive

The Popular Mechanix article says the message will stay in view 'at least two hours', while the Getty Images caption says 'up to two hours'. By the looks of it the latter seems more likely - pump enough coins into the machine and you can make earlier messages roll out of view!

This is a message to location service. There is no broadcasting to all Notificators in London simultaneously, and each requires a coin for each message sent. The message is only up for two hours, and is not tied to a user. The intended purpose was for a specific person to be present at the destination.

How is this analogous to twitter any more than say, the classifieds of a newspaper?

I love the way the post on the blog is under the category "Useless Tech".

I wonder if there was a patent for the machine.

No wonder Twitter is so popular in London. We've been tweeting since 1935!

Hmm... I wonder if it had a 140 character limit.

Very cool. I wonder how widely used it was.

Wonder what this does http://www.notificator.com

PS: It's does Twitter searches.