[Boatanchors] Teletype parts ... was RE: SI units and the rest

[manualman at juno.com]

They were in Skokie, IL. The plant had 1.5 million square feet and, at
one point, had over 6000 employees. I was there a number of times in the
late 60's and early 70's when I was working on the Bell System 85/86
Selective Calling System and the Digital Data System. Some of their
equipment was noted for their oversize and/or oval type hardware mounting
holes.

Pete, wa2cwa

On Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:09:34 -1000 "Kludge" <wh7hg.hi at gmail.com> writes:
> -----Original Message-----
> 
> Teletype had at one time an extensive parts department which, it 
> was
> rumored, made more money for the company than the sale of machines.  
> This
> was, of course, not quite true even though it took up a major 
> portion of
> Niles, IL, and surrounding villages especially as compared to the
> engineering and manufacturing facilities in Niles which were 
> completely
> enveloped by the parts department.  The general offices, sales & 
> marketing,
> training, printing and other offices, spacious by any other 
> company's
> standards, were relegated to what amounted to a corner lot in a 
> remote
> parking area.  
> 
> Anyway, within the parts department's bailiwick was a section 
> called
> Standards and Technology which worked with the engineering 
> department, and
> thus the division of manufacturing associated with making the 
> individual
> components used in Assembly & Testing.  One of the more important 
> functions
> of Standards and Technology was to ensure that parts easily found 
> outside
> the Teletype Corporation parts chain were never used in their 
> machines.
> Further, every attempt was made to see that parts from one series 
> like the
> models 28 & 35 machines were not used in another like the models 32 
> & 33
> machines.  This was less easy to accomplish, mostly because it 
> confused the
> engineers.  It was not uncommon for them to design a screw (more 
> often) or
> other component specifically to avoid such commonality or 
> availability.  One
> result of this was that each new type of machine meant expanding the 
> parts
> department that much more to support the materials that went into 
> it.  In
> any case, there were two lists available to Engineering, one of 
> common
> screws and other items they were not ever permitted to use in any 
> design or
> modification kit and the other of those used in previous machines 
> that
> should never be used in new designs.  The former was reasonably 
> stable while
> the latter continually grew.  
> 
> So there you have it, the inside scoop on why Teletype Corp used 
> those
> oddball screws.
> 
> At some future point, I'll describe my tour of the facility - 
> engineering,
> manufacturing and, of course, parts - or as much as I can without 
> violating
> the non-disclosure agreements.  It was quite fascinating.
> 
> Best regards,
>  
> Michael, WH7HG BL01xh