Parking Meters & Dial-Up Modems

The Coin-Operated Timekeeper

The parking meter was invented in 1935 by Carl C. Magee in Oklahoma City. It solved a simple problem: downtown businesses wanted customers to have access to parking, but people were leaving their cars all day. The meter enforced turnover through the threat of fines.

You insert coins. A mechanical timer counts down. When it reaches zero, you're in violation. The transaction is simple: money for time. The enforcement is simpler: a ticket for everyone who runs out.

The Acoustic Timekeeper

The dial-up modem connected computers to the internet using telephone lines. It negotiated a connection through a series of distinctive sounds—the handshake—and then transmitted data at speeds that seem laughably slow today.

Like the parking meter, the dial-up modem sold time. Phone companies charged by the minute. Parents yelled at kids to get off the internet. The sound of connection was also the sound of money leaving the account.

Comparative Analysis

Connection Log

The Obsolescence Curve

Dial-up modems are effectively extinct, replaced by broadband, fiber, and wireless. The distinctive handshake sound is now a nostalgic artifact, played in documentaries about the early internet.

Parking meters, surprisingly, persist. They've evolved from mechanical coin-collectors to app-connected digital payment systems, but the fundamental transaction remains: money for time. The parking meter adapted. The modem did not.

Both technologies represent a pre-digital world's attempt to meter time. One charged you for occupying space. The other charged you for occupying bandwidth. Both made you very aware of every passing minute.