[GreenKeys] ebay item 7145656944

[wa2hwj at att.net]

Two of those WU Model 31's were in the K2AGI collection that I picked up
awhile ago. George, W7TTY, laid claim to them (they were on the
list I published). I suspect the one on Ebay might be
from the same place. 

I have a Model 31 which I got many years ago that does not have the carrying case.
A similar one was sent to Don for the museum. This unit is described in the
"RTTY Handbook" by Wayne Green, W2NSD, published by TAB Books.
It was also described in detail by Gordon White in the CQ Magazine
"Surplus Sidelights" column. (Of course, Gordon was 20 years ahead of most
of us in finding this neat stuff.)

73,
Jack WA2HWJ

NNNN


-------------- Original message from 
jhhaynes at earthlink.net: -------------- 


> Since no one else has clearly identified it yet... 
> 
> The machine is a Teletype Model 31, in a Western Union case. They were 
> used, as someone else mentioned, in portable service such as reporting 
> sports events. Western Union was big in the business of sports reporting 
> at one time, first using Morse code and then teleprinters. It uses 
> the same gummed tape as was used for telegrams; but in this service the 
> tape was of course not used to make a telegram. 
> 
> I have seen a variety of cases for these machines. For instance I have 
> one in a more boot-shaped case, where the toe of the boot encloses the 
> keyboard. Presumably W.U. tried a variety of case designs. 
> 
> Other versions of the machine were sold by Teletype for other purposes. 
> For instance there was an airplane version of the machine, where the 
> motor was also a dynamotor, running on 28VDC and generating voltages 
> for a RTTY receiving converter that used vacuum tubes. This model has a 
> tube in the speed-governed motor circuit to reduce governor contact noise. 
> 
> The printing mechanism uses a sector, and has some parts in common with 
> the cryptographic machine known as SIGABA. 
> 
> In the early days of TDD - when deaf people used real Teletypes to 
> communicate by phone some of them had these machines to give them a 
> degree of portability. There is a story about Andy Saks, one of the 
> leaders in the deaf-TTY activity, who had his Model 31 stolen. He 
> managed to get it back by paying a ransom to someone in the underworld 
> of San Francisco. 
> 
> In my opinion the ebay asking price is way too high, but then I have 
> that opinion about a lot of ebay stuff. 
> -- 
> 
> jhhaynes at earthlink dot net 
> 
> 
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