[GreenKeys] Fwd: AT&T Computer DATA Telephone

Don Robert House [email protected]
Tue, 4 Mar 2003 20:37:47 -0800


I was having air lifts put on my truck when this was final.  I hope 
the new owner takes good care of it.  There are no services that use 
a display phone any more so I do not know what they are going to do 
with it.

Don


>X-Sender: [email protected]@mail.mindspring.com (Unverified)
>Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 19:14:49 -0500
>To: Don Robert House <[email protected]>
>From: Steve Schlink <[email protected]>
>Subject: AT&T Computer DATA Telephone
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>
>Don,
>
>I guess you were on the road when this sold. Tom (the seller) sent me this.
>It looks like it was more telephone than teletype anyway.
>
>Hope your trip went well.
>
>Steve
>
>At 05:27 PM 3/4/2003 -0500 Tom Adams  wrote:
>
>>Hi Steve,
>>Looks like Don missed out.  I did in fact get an email from the real inventor
>>today and this is what he said about the thing. Interesting anyway.
>>Regards,
>>Tom
>>
>>>  I was in the Bell Labs research department for 37 years.
>>>  Back in the early 70's (I think) I proposed a computer
>>>  enhanced telephone. Knowing that a catchy name would not
>>>  hurt I called it GETSET for something like General purpose
>>>  Electronic Telephone SET.  It had a 5" CRT display and
>>>  there
>>>  were 10 buttons, 5 on each side of the screen for a
>>>  repretory dialer with names on the screen. It was the size
>>>  of the standard '500'set and had a 2 finger comlete
>>>  typwriter key board.  We, Bob Anderson, Pete Kubic, and I
>>>  made several of them and they were a big hit. It was
>>>  decided
>>>  to have a trial using the top brass at Bell Labs. I lost
>>>  control and modifications were made. Those in control
>>>  decided to have a keyboard that one could touchtype with,
>>>  the screen buttons were removed and it got much bigger.
>>>  We built 20 or 30 for the trial and the project went to
>>>  Development. This is where the one you have must have
>>>  built
>>>  I believe the project died because the 2 engineers in
>>>  charge were on the plane going to Russia that the Koreans
>>>  shot down.
>>>             Dave Hagelbarger
>>
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "Steve Schlink" <[email protected]>
>>To: "Tom Adams" <[email protected]>
>>Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 7:13 PM
>>Subject: Re: [TCI] Ebay content - may be rare
>>
>>
>>>  Tom,
>>>
>>>  I think that the terminal is a data display terminal, not a video display
>>>  terminal.
>>>
>>>  It will be headed to a good home, assuming that Don (ttyman) is successful
>>>  in bidding on it.
>>>
>>>  Don Robert House is curator of the North American Data Communications
>>>  Museum (NADCOMM) in San Diego. It is co-located with Computer Museum of
>>>  America.
>>>  NADCOMM takes pride in making as much gear as possible operational.
>>>
>>>  http://www.nadcomm.org
>>>  http://www.computer-museum.org
>>>
>>>  I'm certain that he would be thrilled to talk to anyone with first hand
>>>  knowledge of the unit.
>>>
>>>  He may be on the road back to Illinois at the moment, so I don't 
>>>have a tel.
>>#.
>>>
>>>  Steve
>>>
>>>
>>>  At 12:18 PM 3/3/2003 -0500 Tom Adams  wrote:
>>>  >1. Western Electric AT&T Computer DATA Telephone
>>>  >http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2162272214
>>>  >
>>>  >I have received some information on this item that may or may not be true,
>>if
>>  > >it is, this phone may be as rare as the picture phone, so wanted to share
>>the
>>  > >additional info with those that may be interested.  I received 
>>an email from
>>>  >this gentleman:
>>>  >
>>>  >  " Hi Tom,  I am quite anxious to get in touch with you. I 
>>>think I know the
>>>  >fellow who "invented" that video terminal that you have on
>>>  >e-bay.  Whatever you
>>>  >do, please keep me informed on what may happen to that unit. As far as I
>>know
>>>  >they were never produced commercially.  I am in New Jersey, worked at Bell
>>>  >Labs, now retired, and my telephone number is XXX-XXX-XXX. If 
>>>you will give
>>me
>>>  >your phone number I'll be happy to call you. Also best time to call. I'm
>>  > >retired so I'm home most of the time. Thanks for any info. John Sheetz"
>>>  >
>>>  >I called him to discuss the phone with him. He told me it was invented by
>>>  >David
>>>  >Hagelbarger at Bell Labs and a predecessor of the picture phone??  At any
>>rate
>>>  >I did some searching on the internet and this is what I've found 
>>>out as to a
>>>  >possible Patent, looks very close anyway and I've attached 2 
>>>pages as a .doc
>>>  >link, more can be found on Patent site.
>>>  >http://home.mindspring.com/~leigh.adams1/attdata.doc
>>>  >http://home.mindspring.com/~leigh.adams1/attdata2.doc
>>>  >
>>>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>-
>>>  >-
>>>  >United States Patent  4,291,198
>>>  >Anderson ,   et al.  September 22, 1981
>>>  >
>>>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>-
>>>  >-
>>>  >General-purpose electronic telephone station set
>>>  >
>>>  >
>>>  >Abstract
>>>  >The power of computer-based services is made available to telephone
>>>  >subscribers
>>>  >by a telephone station set (10) including a telephone handset 
>>>(17) for audio
>>>  >transduction, a video output display screen (13) and manual input key
>>>  >facilities (16,20,23) coupled for interaction by a data 
>>>processing facility
>>>  >(43). All of those elements are included in a common station set 
>>>housing for
>>>  >programmable interaction under control of the station set user. The input
>>key
>>>  >facilities include a full ASCII key set, additional buttons (30-32) for
>>>  >signaling standard computer service functions, and keys (16) for user
>>>  >selection
>>>  >of predetermined different text portions of the display screen. Also shown
>>are
>>>  >various electrical and mechanical features which facilitate the 
>>>combining of
>>>  >the functional parts into the common housing and illustrative processes
>>(FIGS.
>>>  >8-12) for demonstrating the programmable facility interaction.
>>>  >
>>>  >
>>>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>-
>>>  >-
>>>  >Inventors:  Anderson; Robert V. (Westfield, NJ); Bayer; Douglas L.
>>(Somerset,
>>>  >NJ); Hagelbarger; David W. (Morris Township, Morris County, NJ); Kubik;
>>Peter
>>>  >S. (South Plainfield, NJ)
>>>  >Assignee:  Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated (Murray Hill, NJ)
>>>  >Appl. No.:  053099
>>>  >Filed:  June 28, 1979
>>>  >
>>>  >
>>>  >
>>>  >
>>>  >
>>>  >
>>>  >Group web page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/singingwires
>>>  >The TCI web site is at http://www.telephonecollectors.org
>>>  >TCI Picture Place: http://www.telephonecollectors.org/pictures/
>>>  >  (Picture posting password: tciphotos )
>>>  >   No password is required to see the pictures.
>>>  >
>>>  >To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>>>  >[email protected]
>>>  >
>>>  >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>>>


-- 
--------------------------------------------------------
Don Robert House
North American Data Communications Museum
URL: http://www.nadcomm.org
Computer Museum of America
URL: http://www.computer-museum.org