[GreenKeys] History question - Model 26 in military service?

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Duncan,

What you say could be possible, of course.  I mentioned to John the Philco 
radio (sold on eBay last week) that must have been a competing model for the 
SCR-284 contract that went to Crosley.  I also noted that according to the 
excerpt from Kleinschmidt's book listed here earlier, Kleinschmidt Labs produced two 
different prototypes, one a type bar and the other a type wheel design.  So 
the photo in the RSGB book might also be of the other Kleinschmidt prototype.  
Or it could be of the Teletype prototype.  In either case, it would probably 
have had "TT-4-something" on the nameplate.  It isn't unheard of for prototypes 
to survive into surplus.  Besides the SCR-284-T2 (which I kept the photos of 
but didn't bid on) I have a BC-221-T1 built on a 1935 Order.

In a message dated 12/10/2007 1:10:33 PM Central Standard Time, 
duncanancy at earthlink.net writes: 
> I have seen a picture of a Teletype Corp TT-4-like machine also, but can't
> find it now. (Jim, it might have been on one of the CDs you sent me, but I
> can't locate it now.)  Don't remember much about it, but it could have been
> M26-based (the idea was to get something lighter weight than the M15!)  My
> feeling was that it was a prototype model that Teletype Corp used in
> bidding for the TT-4 contract. (Which might explain a "TT-4" description.)
> 
> In looking for the picture, I came across E.E. Kleinschmidt's book
> "Printing Telegraphy... A New Era Begins".  In it, he tells of coming out
> of retirement to provide the Signal Corps with a new, lightweight, printer.
> Both Kleinschmidt labs and Teletype Corp bid on the new printer in 1945.
> Both companies provided ten prototypes for field testing and the
> Kleinschmidt design was chosen to become the Army's standard teletypewriter
> on 1 Jan 1949. It later received the TT-4/TG designation. 
> 
> The first TT-4 TM is dated 6 April 1951: TM 11-2234.
> 
> Having been involved in equipment design &bidding, I know that the early
> bid-samples offen have very little in common with the final production
> model.  It may have been that in the late '40s that the M28 was not far
> enough along in he design phase to send a reliable one off for government
> testing. So they put together something from M26 parts with the idea that
> if they got the contract, they would use the M28 design.

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
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