[GreenKeys] Robotype

[dmm at lemur.com]

Well, it seems that the "Brewer" keyboard (of which I posted an
image a few days ago) was not, in fact, the only 90-key keyboard
for punching tape to drive a Linotype.  I've just discovered a
French line of equipment marketed as the "Robotype."

To see the information on this, first tell your web browser to 
block popup windows - the web pages for this machine are on 
what I presume is a free web service in France and they have the
most irritating popup windows I've yet encountered. 
Then go to:

http://membres.multimania.fr/robotype/HISTROBOTYPE.htm

If you click on either of the three large images at the top, you'll
get to secondary pages with more detailed images of the system.

I can't read French, but what this looks like is a system which,
in its original configuration, consisted of a standalone 90-key
keyboard punching tape to drive a linecaster.  In this sense it was
"just like" a Teletypesetter - but it was 90-key and the tape is
different.  (The tape seems to be 7-level, with two lines of
feed holes.)

If you go "up" one level to
http://membres.multimania.fr/robotype
and click on the link marked "1" you'll get a photo of the inventor.

The system seems to have evolved from 90-key into a QWERTY keyboard
arrangement.  They also, it would appear from the pictures, added
quite a bit of additional equipment for preprocessing the tape.
They appear to have made the transition from hot metal into the
phototypesetting era.  The contribution of existing tape systems
(the TTS, and it would seem also the Robotype) to the acceptance of 
phototypesetting has, I think, been underestimated.

Does any of this look familiar to European listmembers?

Regards,
David M.
===
Dr. David M. MacMillan * dmm at lemur.com * www.lemur.com & www.CircuitousRoot.com

   The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts.
       - Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915); Aldo Leopold