[GreenKeys] French barn find

[Jim Backus]

Thierry Stora wrote:
> Hi fellows vintage technologies addicts,
>
> being many things but not a novice in restoration and collecting of 
> electronic and electro-mechanical devices such as boatanchors, test 
> equipment, pre-eighties computer systems and peripherals, a dozen of 
> pinball machines, ..., I've had the opportunity to put my hands on an 
> unknown (by me) teletype / tape reader and puncher set.
>
> It's branded by SAGEM, a company that many know today for other activities.
>
> I had already seen a "fully electronic" model of Sagem teletype of the 
> end of the seventies which included a crt display and a printer but 
> never anything like this before.
>
> Some (very poor quality) photos:
>
> http://thierry.stora.free.fr/tty
>
> Of course I've Googled it, without any sucess.
>
> Willing to restore it to working condition to hook it to my Motorola 
> Exorciser clone of the seventies I would be glad to get as much 
> technical information on it as possible.
>
> Maybe this particular tty says something to someone here, or maybe the 
> mechanical part is a licensed copy of an American system as this kind of 
> technology transfer was common in those times.... I sincerely hope so, 
> as it could be an easy way to have some data about the adjustments / 
> mechanical settings.
>
> So does it looks (at least its mechanical parts) visually familiar to 
> the experts around?
>
> The teletype / keyboard part seems to be a rather ancient design, it's 
> of the fully E.M. kind. A gearbox located close to the front left of the 
> machine and driven by a motor located behind the paper tray seems to 
> power the whole thing.
>
> A lot of state display lights/ function keys are visible on the front 
> panel. They suggest (their naming) that some kind of communication stuff 
> is embedded in the beast.
>
> A quick spin around it shown three large dual-sided printed circuit 
> boards populated with a mix of standard TTL chips plus apparently some 
> linear I.Cs. and discrete components stacked in the base of the machine, 
> under the typing unit.
>
> It seems to be in very good condition and absolutely complete (with the 
> exception of 1 key cap and the usual absence of the drawer collecting 
> the confetti from the puncher) and untouched, but extremely dirty as all 
> true barn found items are. It will need a complete strip down to be 
> cleaned correctly and restored to working condition, which is the golal. 
> This has been worsened by the removal of the keyboard cover during a 
> long period (I put it back before to take the photos).
>
> If unfortunately I can't get any help / documentation I'll of course 
> however restore it, but... I'm sure that everybody here understand my 
> thoughts.
>
> Thanks for looking to this, and by advance many thanks for any comment 
> on this Sagem. I'll not start to work on it quickly as the bench is 
> already crowded by other works in progress which must be completed 
> first, especially my beloved RCA AR88. I plan to put some pages online 
> about the restoration when I'll have started to work on it, a job for 
> the next winter I think and hope.
>
> Hope also that I've not bothered too much people with this tale.
>
>
> Thierry
>
> P.S: If you have any curiosity or interest for the steam locomotives 
> from the old continent you may find some pleasure to visit my website
>
> http://www.chapelon.net
>
>
>
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>   
Among my teleprinter memorabilia I have a "utilization manual" for a 
Sagem SPE 5B/GA teleprinter. I think it is older than the one you've 
found although there is no publication date.

I also have two different manuals for Olivetti TE 500.

Jim
-- 
Jim Backus, G4PFJ