[GreenKeys] Fwd: Re: Ancient Technology

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 11:34:50 -0600

>Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 09:11:12 -0800 (PST)
>From: Phil Schelinski <[email protected]>
>Subject: RE: [GreenKeys] Re: Ancient Technology
>To: [email protected], Don Robert House <[email protected]>,
>   [email protected]
>Cc: [email protected], [email protected], Bob Liddy <[email protected]>,
>   Bob Cnota <[email protected]>, Ken Clinkman <[email protected]>,
>   Bill Henry <[email protected]>, Phil Schelinski <[email protected]>,
>   Steve Kissinger <[email protected]>, George Hutchison <[email protected]>,
>   David Weil <[email protected]>,
>   Rush Glick <[email protected]>,
>   Warren Brader <[email protected]>
>
>Ed
>With all this talent it's a wonder no one has started their own 
>business utilizing this "old" knowledge.
>Maybe it could be integrated with a wireless hot spot in the neighborhood.
>Look at x86 processors --most are junked but are 100 times more 
>powerful than anything we used in the 80's and how much processor 
>power do you need for managing security-fire alarms ?
>Ed  may know this --what type processors are used to set up todays 
>computer based vehicles ?
>I read where a young man took an old laptop and designed a program 
>to set up his very expensive Harley.
>It takes him 20 minutes to fine tune it .
>Is anyone out there working in the "wired home business"?Home theaters ?
>
>Phil Schelinski
>
>
>Ed Hickey <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>I did some work for IBT security. At that time they were called Dialed
>Number Recorders. There were 2 inputs. One was the number being monitored
>and the other was an outside line to call TOD. The box recordered a number
>of parameters on the monitored line and when there was activity on the line,
>the 2nd line dialed TOD. The idea was to get a legal time stamp.
>
>I got involved when I built a box to record the monitored data. The
>customer we were monitoring was a bulletin board service. I used a TTY Mod
>43 and a 103E data set. When the call was made, the 43 would print both
>sides of the conversation.
>
>
>Ed
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Don Robert House [mailto:[email protected]]
>Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 7:41 PM
>To: [email protected]
>Cc: [email protected]; [email protected]; Ed Hickey; Bob Liddy; Bob
>Cnota; Ken Clinkman; Bill Henry; Phil Schelinski; Steve Kissinger;
>George Hutchison; David Weil; Rush Glick; Warren Brader
>Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Re: Ancient Technology
>
>
>Thanks Jim, The "pull boxes" for police or fire as I recall are
>"enunciators"
>Don
>
>
>
>At 5:29 PM -0600 10/27/2003, [email protected] wrote:
>>Thanks to Ben for that fine treatise on ancient technology. I'll add a
>>few things that come to mind. There is something in the phone business,
>>believe it is called a "pen register", that is used to record the phone
>>numbers that someone dials. Mostly used for law-enforcement
>>investigations, where the cops want to track who is being called by
>>someone they are watching. I believe this takes almost the same kind
>>of court order as one for wiretapping.
>>
>>Landline Morse telegraphers ceased to use the pen recorder as soon as they
>>were able to convince their bosses that they could indeed copy by ear from
>>the clicks the machine made. Recorders continued to be used at some
>>stations, where the operator had other duties and was not always available
>>to copy code by ear.
>>
>>Ink recorders were used on trans-Atlantic cables. The cable code is like
>>Morse code except it is tri-state: one polarity for dot, the opposite for
>>dash, and no current for the spaces. The cables were worked above the
>>Nyquist rate; that is, signals were sent so fast that the current in the
>>cable did not reach full strength when a single dot was sent. It was up
>>to the operators to look at the wiggles on the tape and figure out what
>>had been sent. There are some samples of this in the Western Union
>>Technical Review and other publications.
>>
>>Then with radio in the 1930s and 40s there was very high speed Morse
>  >telegraphy: 500 or 1000 wpm. This was transmitted from punched paper
>>tape and received on ink recorders. Then the tape was pulled past an
>>operator at a typewriter who transcribed it. Examples of this equipment
>>can be seen in advertisements of the T. R. McElroy Co. in the back of
>>the ARRL Handbooks of the 40s and 50s.
>>
>>Western Union had an ink recorder called an "undulator" I believe this
>>was used as test equipment. You could look at signals coming from a
>>TTY, for example, and see if any of the transmitter contacts were bouncing
>>or operating at the wrong times.
>>
>>The burglar alarm system Ben described is very much like the fire alarm
>>systems, and also like the messenger-call system used by Western Union.
>>Sometimes you see the call boxes at antique dealers' - an oval shaped
>>porcelain base with a metal cover in white and blue enamel, and a handle
>>sticking out. A later model was a yellow box. You wind up the handle
>>and release it, and the spring-loaded mechanism sends out a short message
>>in dots and dashes. This gets recorded at the W.U. office on a paper
>>tape, where the messenger superviser reads it and sends out a messenger.
>>This continued in service into the 1950s at least. Of course it would
>>have been a lot easier just to call W.U. on the telephone.
>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>
>>jhaynes at alumni dot uark dot edu
>
>
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