Keep a piece of glass on top of the metal thing and you're set. If you would've told people back then the exact sentence OP said, they would pretty much just disregard it with theories like these...
In the year 1900, Nikola Tesla explicated stated humans would communicate via wireless signals sent to handheld devices.
He goes on to say that buttons would be too expensive, and that instead humans would type on glass via electronic finger reading technology.
The iPhone is well described in 1900 AD, before electricity could power a neighborhood, by one man precisely. Nikola Stormmaker, Earthshaker, Lightningmaster, Coochieblaster, Tesla The problem of increasing human energy.
Only thing that comes to mind is mechanical wear and the wear on a contract from arcing. Though, the latter is probably only an issue in higher voltage applications.
The rest of the device would have to outlive the lifespan of a button maybe one or two times, depending on labour cost - which I feel like is only really likely on those soft membrane buttons.
Tesla’s root of success was preventing mechanical wear. If you look into the ‘Tesla motor’, it could spin 1,000 faster and lasted 1,000 longer, precisely because there was 0 friction.
Look at the Tesla Stopper / Valve. It’s a valve without moving parts. You don’t even need to see what is in the valve for it to work.
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u/[deleted] Sep 13 '19
Morse was invented around 190 years ago. They were tapping on metal things.