Gadgets | Syntholis

This Special Edition of Fahrenheit 451 Can Only Be Read When It’s Heated

Read more over on Gizmodo here.

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This special edition of Fahrenheit 451 is a conceptual art piece created by the French design collective Super Terrain.

How it Works: The book’s pages are initially completely black, screen-printed with a soot-black layer. When heat is applied (using a lighter, match, or heat gun), the black, heat-sensitive ink disappears to reveal the text underneath.

The “Burning” Effect: As the pages cool, they return to their blackened state, meaning the text is only readable when being actively heated.

Purpose: Developed in collaboration with the Charles Nypels Lab (Netherlands), this edition was designed to symbolize the destruction of knowledge and censorship described in the novel.

Prototype & Release: The prototype was unveiled in October 2017. Following viral attention, the collective created a limited, numbered edition.

This edition is often described as a “book that can only be read by setting it on fire,” mirroring the plot’s requirement that books be burned.

It was with minimal expectations that, on August 3, 1977, Tandy Corporation teamed up with Radio Shack to release the TRS-80, one of the first personal computers available to consumer markets. While Don French — a buyer for the Tandy Radio Shack consumer electronic chain — had convinced some Tandy executives of the need to release a personal computer, most felt it was unlikely to gross substantial profits. This bulky item with complex operating procedures would never sell, they thought, more than 1,000 units in its first month… As it turned out, the TRS-80 surpassed even the most cautious sales estimates by tenfold within its first month on the market; the burgeoning prospects of a new era in personal electronics and computing could no longer be denied. It had no hard drive and four kilobytes of memory, according to the article. Radio Shack’s $600 PC was preceded by the MITS Altair, as well as PCs from both Apple and IBM, but “the TRS-80 was one of the first products that came fully assembled and ready to use, bridging the gap in accessibility between hobbyists — who took interest in the actual building of the computer — and the average American consumer, who wanted to know what this new, cutting-edge technology had in store for them.”