Time Machine:

It is important to note that the ultimate archival system may be
one that ensures the inviolability of data by paradoxically
becoming technologically obsolete: an inviolate archival system
by virtue of its inaccessibility.  Consider the futuristic vision
of information storage in H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine."  In
this 19th century story, the protagonist (time traveler) learns
of the cataclysmic destruction of Earth's civilization from a
collection of talking disks.  The disks were activated by
spinning them as one would spin a coin.  As the disks spun, an
audio message was broadcast (there was no mention of any
difference in effect between clockwise and counterclockwise spin)
(Wells, 1895).  As long as the species of man retained the
necessary suppleness of wrist and the coordination to apply the
force required to initiate the spin of the disk, the information
remained accessible with a minimum of technological support (ie.
a relatively smooth, horizontal surface on which the disk could
spin).  Of course, the presentation of information was
sequential, and the message length was a factor of the expected
duration of spin.  Obviously, these limitations would constrain
the efficacy of an interactive information system.

<cfile56>   Data Storage
<cfile70>   Storage Media: Structure and Stability