[GreenKeys] August 31, 1962

Sat, 1 Nov 2003 23:39:12 -0600

>Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2003 14:03:14 -0800 (PST)
>From: Phil Schelinski <[email protected]>
>Subject: Re: Fwd: Fw: Teletypewriters, part 2
>To: Don Robert House <[email protected]>, Ed Hickey <[email protected]>,
>   Bob Liddy <[email protected]>, Bob Cnota <[email protected]>,
>   Ken Clinkman <[email protected]>, Jack Hart <[email protected]>,
>   Bill Henry <[email protected]>, Steve Kissinger <[email protected]>,
>   George Hutchison <[email protected]>,
>   David Weil <[email protected]>,
>   Rush Glick <[email protected]>,
>   Warren Brader <[email protected]>,
>   Gil Smith <[email protected]>, Ben Stephens <[email protected]>
>
>As some may recall --when AT&T converted their nationwide TWX 
>operator based service to DIAL it was a do or die cutover. In 
>Chicago we had to convert many DC based motor systems.
>The Dearborn TTY board 311 Washington tested the Chicago Machines 
>and many midwest machines that did not have an equivalent testboard.
>Interesting times.
>
>Phil Schelinski
>
>Don Robert House <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>  >Reply-To: "Tom Kleinschmidt"
>>From: "Tom Kleinschmidt"
>>To: "Don Robert House"
>>Subject: Fw: Teletypewriters, part 2
>>Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 20:34:52 -0600
>>X-Priority: 3
>>Status:
>>
>>Installment #2
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From:
>>To:
>>Cc:
>>Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 1:46 PM
>>Subject: Teletypewriters, part 2
>>
>>
>>>
>>>  Here's where things went in the 1930s.
>>>
>>>  Teletype had solid, reliable machines both for printing on a page and for
>>>  printing on a strip of gummed tape. There were the telegraph companies,
>>>  W.U. and Postal, where you could walk into their office and write out a
>>>  message and they would transmit it and deliver it for you. Or you might
>>>  call the message in by phone; or larger companies had teletypewriters
>>>  in their offices connecting with the telegraph companies to send and
>>>  receive messages. AT&T had put in its TWX (Teletypewriter Exchange)
>>>  service where people could make two-way real-time connections between
>>>  teletypewriters in offices anywhere in the U.S., just like making a
>>>  telephone call except it used teletypewriters. A similar service
>>>  existed in several European countries under the name TELEX. Then there
>>>  were the private wire systems used by large companies, railroads,
>>>  airlines, and government agencies. And there was the beginning of
>>>  radioteletype transmission over long distances. Radioteletype had been
>>>  in an experimental stage as early as 1917, but it took some time for
>>>  radio technology to develop to the point that a useful, reliable
>>>  service could be maintained.
>>>
>>>  For news see a book "AP - the story of news" by Oliver Gramling
>>>
>>>  The old stock tickers were replaced by machines operating on the Baudot
>>>  and start-stop principles around 1930. The new machines were needed
>>>  for increased speed, even with the slump in stock trading caused by the
>>>  1929 crash and the Great Depression.
>>>
>>>  Aviation and the weather bureau had a natural relationship. A large
>>>  teletypewriter network was built to get airport weather observations
>>>  collected and distributed. I don't know much about airlines during
>>>  this period; but it's clear that commercial aviation was a new industry
>>>  needing rapid communication. The principal uses of radioteletype were
>>>  in overseas message handling, where it competed with undersea cables,
>>>  and for press traffic. RCA was one of the companies in the message
>>>  business. Press Wireless was a company formed to handle news traffic
>>>  by radio - they used Morse telegraphy but also developed radioteletype.
>>>  The military through most of the 1930s was on a very lean budget.
>>>  They relied on Morse telegraphy by radio for operating in the field
>>>  and between the U.S. and overseas bases, and mostly on commercial
>>>  telegraph companies for the rest of their traffic. Recall that one of
>>>  the warnings on the eve of Pearl Harbor was being carried by a Western
>>>  Union messenger on a bicycle.
>  >>
>>>  Immediately after Pearl Harbor, Teletype Corp. was told by the Army Signal
>>>  Corps that there would be no need for their products and that they should
>>>  convert their production to machine gun parts. Before any machine gun
>>>  parts were produced they were told by the Signal Corps to keep making
>>>  teletypewriters, as fast as possible, as they would be needed in large
>>>  numbers for the war effort. The services quickly built large private wire
>>  > networks connecting their stateside bases, augmented by use of commercial
>>>  services such as TWX and by radio links overseas.
>>>
>>>  A special requirement of the military is encryption so that the enemy
>>>  cannot read the transmissions. Even the weather reports are encrypted.
>>>  Offline encryption means messages are encrypted and decrypted, by pencil
>>>  and paper or by machine, separately from the transmission means. Online
>>>  encryption means messages are encrypted and decrypted as they are being
>>>  transmitted. Morse code obviously is limited to offline encryption.
>>>  Online encryption for teleprinters was developed as early as 1917.
>>  > The main high-grade crypto machine of the U.S. forces in WW-II was
>>>  an offline machine called SIGABA, manufactured by Teletype. There
>>>  was an online version of SIGABA used on a trans-Atlantic circuit to
>>>  allow President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill to converse
>>>  on matters of utmost secrecy. Germany had a couple of online teleprinter
>>>  crypto machines. Unfortunately for the Germans these were insufficiently
>>>  secure. Some brilliant people in England managed to figure out the
>>>  workings of the German machine without ever seeing one, and built
>>>  machines to help break the code. One of these used electronic technology
>>>  and was a forerunner of the modern digital computer.
>>>
>>>  I don't know that you can say that teleprinters were absolutely vital to
>>>  winning the war; but you can say that they were so useful that they were
>>>  put into service as fast as they could be made and they were very
>>>  significant in handling the volume of messages that the military passed.
>>>  One example: I was told by a signal officer that when Gen. MacArthur
>>>  landed in Leyte in the Philippines he had four voice radio circuits
>>>  and 53 radioteletype circuits. Another example: the machines were
>>>  designed for a maximum of 75 words per minute, but they were sometimes
>>>  operated at 100 WPM. They required a lot more maintenance at the high
>>>  speed, but the urgency and volume of traffic was considered to justify
>>>  the extra maintenance.
>>>
>>>  Following World War II we continued to maintain a large military during
>>>  the Cold War, and even larger during Korea and Vietnam. The public
>>>  telegram business of Western Union was in a slow decline as people made
>>>  more use of the telephone. Private wire services were in a major
>>>  growth period. Large systems were put in for the military services
>>>  and for many large corporations. The press associations expanded,
>>>  particularly to serve radio and then television broadcasting. They
>>>  made extensive use of radio to send and receive news overseas.
>>>  Western Union brought TELEX into the U.S., competing with TWX but able
>>>  to connect with TELEX subscribers in Europe. High speed equipment
>>>  was developed: 2400 wpm for the military and 1200 wpm for the business
>>>  world. The industry continued growing until, starting in the 1960s,
>>>  computer systems and technology began taking over the functions that
>>>  had been performed by teletypewriter networks.
>>>
>>>  Going back to the 1930s again, something I haven't mentioned is
>>>  typesetting by teletypewriter. This was actually envisioned by some of
>>>  the teletypewriter pioneers around 1900. In the 1930s newspapers were
>>>  using hot metal type casting, the Linotype and Intertype machines.
>>>  These were operated by keyboard operators. In the 1930s equipment was
>>>  developed to allow typesetting machines to be operated by punched paper
>>>  tape. One keyboard operator could prepare a tape which was then
>>>  transmitted by wire to any number of newspapers. Newspaper chains took
>  >> advantage of this, setting up their own private wire networks to
>>>  transmit the data and eliminate the jobs of some of their Linotype
>>>  operators. Teletypesetter Corporation, maker of the equipment, was
>>>  essentially a subsidiary of Teletype; and there were many parts in
>>>  common between the products of the two companies. Teletypesetter was
>>>  sold to Fairchild in the 1950s as part of an anti-trust action against
>>>  AT&T.
>>>
>>>  You mentioned the handicapped. Radioteletype got into the hobby of
>>  > amateur radio in the 1950s. A deaf radio amateur developed an inexpensive
>>>  modem around 1960 which allowed teletypewriters to communicate over
>>>  the voice telephone network. These modems and secondhand teleprinters
>>>  were acquired by deaf people in large numbers. (TWX or TELEX could have
>>>  met their needs; but using the telephone modems and secondhand machines
>>>  was much cheaper.) All this led to today's TDD. The whole story is in
>>>  a book "A Phone of Our Own: the Deaf Insurrection against Ma Bell" by
>>>  Harry Lang.
>>>
>>>  The only other connection with the handicapped that I can think of
>>>  is that some work was done to enable Teletype machines to print Braille.
>>  > I could send you a clipping or two about this; but I don't think much
>>>  ever became of it.
>>>
>>>
>>>  --
>>>
>>>  jhaynes at alumni dot uark dot edu
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>
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