# The First Beep? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 24, 2019, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-beep/834439 "2019-05-24T03:05:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2019, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-beep/834439/41 "2019-05-29T21:14:50Z")
From the December 1967 issue of Popular Science, page 72, in an article about the tech of Star Trek: > [@](#): > > Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek’s creator and executive producer, has a passion for accuracy and scientific probability. He consults several leading medical authorities for information about the plausibility of various rare diseases his writers invent. \*\*In return, a medical group recently asked for, and received, a tape of the “beep” that the Enterprise crew uses in connection with their small hand communicators. > > The medical men wanted the beep as a one-of-a-kind signal that would be instantly recognized by doctors who carry small pocket receivers tuned to their emergency calling service.\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2019, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-beep/834439/42 "2019-05-29T22:13:33Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > The first beep I can remember was in my parents’ car. It beeped a naggy warning if you didn’t buckle your seat belt. Or at least it did until my uncle borrowed the car and while he had it he cut a wire so it didn’t beep anymore. This was well before there were any laws _requiring_ seat belts to be worn (at least in America). What year and model was it? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-beep/834439/43 "2019-05-30T02:09:43Z")
In the early 1960s, network radio and TV started using automated equipment to notify stations of programming or news announcements. Originally, the equipment was triggered by clicks like a rotary phone, but they quickly went to [electronic beeps like this.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-BdEWq3Ggk) ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-beep/834439/44 "2019-05-30T04:06:35Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > But somewhere in to 70s beeps came of age. Jim Rockford told you to leave your message after the beep in 1974. Digital watches (probably LED not LCD) started beeping (on the hour! Green and Red LED calculators replaced pixie-tube calculators, but I can’t remember that any of them beeped. The beeping watches were LCD, not LED. LED displays burned a lot more power, and LED watches were almost entirely non-existent. BTW, in 1981 obviously a lot of kids got an LCD watch for Christmas: some of them turned up for their first university lectures in February (Southern Hemisphere), and in a lecture theatre of 150 people, their watches started beeping around 10:00 (lectures ran 9:15 - 10:15). By the next day, anybody who’d had their watch set to chime on the hour had turned that feature off. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-beep/834439/45 "2019-05-30T12:54:52Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Green and Red LED calculators replaced pixie-tube calculators, but I can’t remember that any of them beeped. Actually, vacuum fluorescent displays replaced nixie tubes in 1967. By the '80s, hundreds of millions of VFD calculators were being sold annually. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-beep/834439/46 "2019-05-30T13:28:02Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > LED displays burned a lot more power, and LED watches were almost entirely non-existent. Well, I had one in like 1975. You had to push a button to get the time, because, as you note, they sucked power. I miss it, it was a good watch, with 70s styling. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-beep/834439.md?page=2)