Park, Jankowski and Jones 2011

Park, David W., Nicholas W. Jankowski, and Steve Jones, eds. The Long History of New Media: Technology, Historiography, and Contextualizing Newness. Peter Lang, 2011.

Interface: History of a Concept, 1868-1888, by Peter Schaefer, 163-75

"Nineteenth-century physicists worked to better understand problems such as the dissipation of energy and the relationship between conduction and signal velocity. In this context, interface was a useful signifier for describing the transfer of energy that could also be used to describe the transmission of information." (163)

by 1880s appears in journals of telegraph industry

used by James and William Thomas (latter is Lord Kelvin)

James Clerk Maxwell, Maxwell's Demon suggesting the second law of thermodynamics was open to chance -- Maxwell's Demon is an "interface" between hot and cold gasses

"The use of interface by William Thomson in the Baltimore lectures reflects the search for an ever-present, explanatory substance that existed in between two portions of matter or space. Interface worked as a way of describing connections that made possible the transmission of energy, a subject of particular interest on the part of Thomson." (169)

"an interface is a site of separation and continuity. In this regard, interface can be seen not just as a product of a mid-20th-century revolution in computer technology but rather as an exemplar of the idea of communication in history. The concept of interface was used to describe efforts to bridge gaps, to bring together, and to keep from falling apart." (173)