[GreenKeys] eBay item 3706596636 (Ends Mar-01-04 220920 PST) - Antique Western Union Telety

[Don Robert House]

>Actually I know as little about these things as anybody.  As Don says,
>Western Union at some time (anybody know time frame?) had a run of
>teleprinters built to their own design rather than buying from Teletype.
>They used Underwood typewriter parts.  Probably the machines were intended
>to use on tielines to customer offices, since they are much less rugged
>than the Model 15.  A whole bunch of these machines went to deaf people
>back when teletypewriters for the deaf required a teleprinter and W.U. was
>getting rid of a lot of their old machines.
>
>I wonder why W.U. did this.  Maybe they expected to save money, with
>machines that would cost less than what Teletype was charging them for
>Model 15s.  (This was long before the Model 32/33.)  Maybe they just
>hated buying from Teletype because it was owned by AT&T and AT&T was
>a competitor to W.U.  A lot of times W.U. had stuff built to their own
>designs because nothing Teletype offered was what they wanted. 
>
>I have a couple of the machines but no maintenance manual.  Wasn't
>somebody going to copy one for me?
>
>They also made a tabletop cabinet, but the "mailbox" floor cabinets
>seem to be more common.
>
>jhaynes at alumni dot uark dot edu



That might have been me Jim.  I have a lot of fires burning.  The 
manual is on the left of the bookshelf at our museum Teletype Shop in 
San Diego.  I will be out there next month and will try to get it 
copied for you. You most likely will need a good pair of eyes and 
maybe a magnifying glass.  The manuals were about the size of the 
Bell System "P" practices but instead of typeset, the originals were 
hand lettered and drawn.

All the best,
Don

-- 
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Don R. House
4716 Patty Lane, Ringwood, IL 60072
Tel: 815-653-0683
FAX: 815-653-0684
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