Reis Telephone 1861

Reis Telephone 1861

Reis Telephone 1861

Having worked on his own telephonelike concept since the 1850s, German inventor Johann Philipp Reis successfully demonstrated that his invention could transmit speech over a decade before Alexander Graham Bell would achieve that goal.  Reis' test phrase was “Das Pferd frisst keinen Gurkensalat,” which means “The horse does not eat cucumber salad.”

Acrylic on canvas, 7x5″.  From my series of paintings of historical telephones.

More Posts from Robtfirefly and Others

12 years ago
I Just Scratched This Little Fellow Out While Half-listening To A TV Show My Girlfriend Was Watching. 

I just scratched this little fellow out while half-listening to a TV show my girlfriend was watching.  I don't know who or what he is, but painting him made me feel a little better.


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9 years ago
Today’s Daily Doodle Is The Dreadful Flying Glove From The Film Yellow Submarine, My Favorite Thing

Today’s daily doodle is the Dreadful Flying Glove from the film Yellow Submarine, my favorite thing with which the Beatles were ever tangentially involved.

Even if, like me, you’re not all that much of a Beatles fan, see this movie at least once.  It’s beautiful.


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14 years ago
More The Wicker Man nonsense.  My Extra-derpy Nicholas Cage From my Earlier Piece is Now A Brand

More The Wicker Man nonsense.  My extra-derpy Nicholas Cage from my earlier piece is now a brand mascot, paying tribute to another memorable line from that cinematic bee-sting.  Would you buy your next bottle of God Damn Honey from this man?

Inspired by the ending of this rather brilliant Wicker Man YouTube Poop.

Original photo by Flickr user TheTruthAbout (cc by-sa)


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10 years ago
I’d Recently Come To The Conclusion That I Needed To Do More Regular Artwork To Keep The Brain Juices
I’d Recently Come To The Conclusion That I Needed To Do More Regular Artwork To Keep The Brain Juices
I’d Recently Come To The Conclusion That I Needed To Do More Regular Artwork To Keep The Brain Juices

I’d recently come to the conclusion that I needed to do more regular artwork to keep the brain juices going, even if only one quick doodle per day.  To this end, I began privately doodling some of my friends’ Twitter userpics.

I’d done a few and realized that the best thing to do with my growing collection of userpic doodles would be to start posting them on their own dedicated Twitter account, and throw the general Twitter public into the mix.  Hence, twitter.com/RobDrawsYourPic.

Now friends, acquaintances, luminaries, and total strangers are all finding themselves receiving my unsolicited mutations of their avatars, and I’ve even fulfilled some requests.  It’s a good excuse to not only get some sort of drawing done every day, but to try out some different styles.

So far folks on the tweetybirds seem to be digging it, or at least taking it in stride.  A couple of people have even changed their userpic to my version, which is entirely wild.  I’m sure I’ll creep someone out eventually, though.

Images are scaled down here; hit twitter.com/RobDrawsYourPic and the subjects’ Twitter accounts for the bigger versions.  Original userpics remain the property of their owners.


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11 years ago
The Great Harold Ramis Passed Away Today.  His Work Meant A Great Deal To Me; Not Only Ghostbusters
The Great Harold Ramis Passed Away Today.  His Work Meant A Great Deal To Me; Not Only Ghostbusters

The great Harold Ramis passed away today.  His work meant a great deal to me; not only Ghostbusters (which I love) but his many other contributions to the world of comedy and the art of filmmaking.

As the news circulated, a small shrine to Ramis popped up on the sidewalk in front of Ghostbusters HQ (or, as it’s known in real life, Hook and Ladder 8.)  I sketched a portrait of Ramis on a small art card, and went downtown to add it to the memorial.  I then got to hang out for a bit with the others who had gathered there in the cold - including a Ghostbuster in full homemade uniform and proton pack - and we all chatted about what the man and his work meant to us.

He’ll be missed.


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14 years ago
When I Learned That Neighborcon's own Travis Goodspeed Encouraged Attendees To Counterfeit The Con's

When I learned that Neighborcon's own Travis Goodspeed encouraged attendees to counterfeit the con's Tennessee-shaped badges, I swore I'd make the best Tennessee-shaped badge ever and proudly display it at Neighborcon NYC in December 2009.

When I arrived I found out Travis meant the badge should be shaped like Tennessee the state, not Tennessee the playwright.  How embarrassing.

Permanent marker on PVC.


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9 years ago
Grace Hopper (December 9, 1906-January 1, 1992)

Grace Hopper (December 9, 1906-January 1, 1992)

Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, USN, Ph.D., or "Amazing Grace" as she is often known to her admirers, was a computer scientist and programmer whose pioneering work on early computers as well as her amiably no-nonsense attitude when teaching continues to inspire.

She is known for distributing "nanoseconds," lengths of wire spanning the distance light travels in that amount of time, at her speaking engagements.

Acrylic on canvas, 7x5″.  From my September 2015 set Luminaries of the Hacker World.


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6 years ago
Going Through My Pin Collection, I Unearthed A "The Hunger Games" Mockingjay Which I'd Purchased In Darker

Going through my pin collection, I unearthed a "The Hunger Games" mockingjay which I'd purchased in darker times.

I like it a lot more now that I've given it a Woody Woodpecker paint job.


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14 years ago

captchart:

ןɐnʇıɹıds Jamony

Submitted by robtfirefly

CAPTCHArt is a beautiful thing!  I made this one.  Source images were public domain photos from Wikimedia Commons.

robtfirefly - Art by RTF

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9 years ago
Callie & Izzy. 123 likes. A new comedy web series about a girl with a problem, and the puppet who is the problem. Featuring Nicola Rose as Callie and Izzy.

Callie and Izzy is an upcoming webseries it’s been my pleasure to be part of.  The show is by Nicola Rose, with whom I’ve previously worked on The Media Show and the musical Aisle Six.

More info coming soon, keep an eye on it!


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robtfirefly - Art by RTF
Art by RTF

Hello there. I'm Rob. This used to be my art blog until I left Tumblr; here's why you won't see me around here anymore. This is my website, you can find the rest of what I do from there. Here's a bunch of social media I do still use. Here's how to contact me directly if you wish, please feel free. All my original artwork posted on this Tumblr is released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. Feel free to reuse, remix, etc. any of my stuff under the terms of this license.

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