[GreenKeys] various machines

[Jim Haynes]

On Sat, 26 Dec 2009, Don Robert House wrote:

> As we have discussed many times, the 26 was built to be inexpensive.
> A cost savings to the Bell System trying to expand their manual TWX
> service.
> Everything went fine until several machines missed their scheduled
> routine maintenance.  It was then discovered that the maintenance
> costs far out paced the lower first cost.
>
Or, the Teletype Corp. version of the story is that they found that
having to make two models at the same time, the 15 and the 26, ran
costs up more than the 26 was saving.  For whatever reason, they quit
making 26s after a fairly short time in the late 1930s.  Then around
1950 they quit (with Bell System concurrence, of course) making spare
parts for them, and the Bell companies phased out all their 26s.

This happened about the same time that amateur radio teleprinter operating
was getting popular.  A number of individuals and groups, working very
hard, persuaded the Bell companies not to destroy the phased-out machines,
but to sell them to hams with a restriction that they could not be used
for anything commercial.  Until then the amateurs were mostly using the
very obsolete Model 12 machines, with a smattering of 15s and other things
here and there.

For the Bell System customers, a disadvantage of the 26 was the side-to-
side paper platen movement, which causes a lot more problems than the
non-moving platen of the 15 and 28 and later machines.  Also the 26s had
a strictly limited set of features.

The printing mechanism of the 26 came from a design circa 1930 for a
stock ticker.  These stock tickers continued in service until the
mid 1960s, so they were not a bad design.

The 32/33 line, like the 26, were intended for TWX and Telex customers
who didn't use their machines a lot: about two hours a day was said to
be the intended level of usage.  Unlike the 26, the 32/33 were completely
rethought with circa-1960 ideas of manufacturing.  Nearly all the parts
were made of soft sheet steel rather than the hardened parts of the other
models.  Molded plastic replaced parts that otherwise would have been
metal, providing electrical insulation as an added benfit.  The keyboard
went together without any screws, and with a single stamping instead of
individual springs for each key.  Self-tapping screws and automatic
screwdrivers were used for assembly.  Optional features were limited
(although the company caved in at some point and made a version with
sprocket feed and vertical tabulation for forms).