[GreenKeys] Re: Fax Machine Used in Flags of our Fathers

[Richard Dillman]

>Hi Richard,
>
>Impressive piece of equipment! What type of media was used in it? Wet-paper, 
>electrostatic, photographic....? I assume the sheet with the Japanese (?) 
>characters was received off-air, as I believe that they still use that mode 
>for sending news, etc to their fishing fleet. I notice that TM-11-2258 for 
>the equipment is available on the web, must download and read it.
>
>Regards,
>
>Roger Basford

Ah, now you ask a good question.  Yes, the Japanese copy was from JJC Kyoto.  But as to the paper used... here's my chance to re-post my report from long ago about the TXC-1:

Stone Age Fax

I dragged home another one last weekend.  Me and my sidekick Sprout 
were on our third pass at the Foothill swap meet when we saw it.  But 
to really get the picture, I have to tell you about Sprout.

She's about 23, stands only a bit over 5ft., has hair dyed as red as a 
port side running light and energy to burn.  It's a constant "Wow, 
lookit that.  What's goin' on?  Man, that's cool, let's buy that!"  
But no lightweight, she.  Sprout crossed the Atlantic as R/O on our 
smallest ship, the 82ft. Moby Dick that's famous for rolling through 
40 degrees, came through the canal and up through Central America to 
San Francisco.  She's off tomorrow for Amsterdam to be R/O on our 
newest and biggest ship, the Arctic Sunrise, bound for the North Sea.  
She lives in my closet when in San Francisco (no lie).  I'm 52, 6'6" 
tall and weigh 220 pounds with a full beard.  Needless to say, we 
make quite the pair.

So anyway, there it was: a TT-1F/TXC-1, new in the box - for 20 
dollah!  For the uninitiated, the TXC-1 is a 40s vintage fax machine 
that puts all others in the shade, fun-wise.  I know, 'cause I used 
one years ago to copy my first off-the-air fax using a RBC receiver 
and a BC-221 as the BFO because the RBA drifted too much for fax.  So 
me and Sprout loaded the monster into the '64 Volvo and set off for 
home happy as two bivalve mollusks.

The TXC-1 has a rotating drum on which you put paper with a white 
coating over a black under layer.  A high voltage spark burns off the 
white layer at the appropriate places to reveal the black underneath 
to create your fax image.  Man, when this baby's turnin' and burnin', 
it's something!

Okay, so first you slap on a sheet of paper and secure it with the 
clips.  Then you wait for the fax to begin and throw certain lever 
switches to get the drum turning and certain others to sync the image 
- and there you go!  The oscillator howling like a banshee, the drum 
clikcking as it turns, the high voltage spark going zzzt!  zzzt!, the 
smoke rising as it burns off the white covering.  Now *that's* 
facsimile recording!  And in the interval between faxes you gotta do 
the whole routine again, but fast!

Since the original TXC-1 left, I've been using an Alden model 
519M(T)-EA that prints on 19" wide paper and stands taller that a 
chest o' drawers with the rack space beneath filled with all kinds of 
converters, amplifiers *and* a SP-600-JX-17.  But the thing is, it's 
almost practical to use.  It senses the start and stop tones, uses a 
continuous roll of paper (wet!) and automatically syncs the image.  
But with the TXC-1, it's more like driving a steam engine.

The guy at Foothill said he had several more if any of you are 
unapologetic fans of the electro-mechanical.

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Richard Dillman, W6AWO
Maritime Radio Historical Society
http://www.radiomarine.org
Collector of Harleys, Willys and
Radios over 100lbs.
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