[GreenKeys] introduction and Teletypesetter

Mon Mar 8 18:51:07 EST 2010

These may be better than Teletypes.  Isn't hot metal better than hot oil?

-----Original Message-----
From: greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of dmm at lemur.com
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 3:25 PM
To: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [GreenKeys] introduction and Teletypesetter

As a newcomer to both this list and TTY, I thought I should 
post an introduction of sorts.  But I tend to ramble on,
so I'll do it in two parts, short and long.

Here's the short version:

If anything related to the Teletypesetter or, generally, 6-level
tape operation should come up in the upper Midwest, I'm interested.
Also, should anyone need any Teletypesetter documentation, I've
got a fairly good collection of it and am presently scanning it all.
I'd be happy to share anything I have.

Here's the long version:

The second and third computers I ever used were a PDP-8 through a
TTY-33 and a VAX 11/780 through a TTY-43.  That was a long time
ago, though, and to be honest I didn't really understand the TTY
aspect of them at the time; they were just hardcopy terminals to me.
I do remember paper tape fondly - with paper tape and a
hardcopy terminal, you never lost your homework.

A great deal of life has happened since then, and very recently I've
come back to Teletypes through a path which might seem strange at
first: Linotypes.  Over the past couple of years, I've become
quite obsessed with these marvellous machines, and have managed
to haul four of them home (along with various other linecasting and
letterpress printing machines).  One of them even works, mostly.

If you don't know anything about Linotypes, the best general intro
to them is still the one published by the Mergenthaler Linotype company
itself, "The Big Scheme of Simple Operation".  Another enthusiast has
put a copy of this online at:

http://www.linotype.org/OnLineDocs/BigSchemeSimpleOperation/BigScheme.pdf

For a look at the whole range of machines, in a relatively late
state, I've digitized a 1960-ish Linotype brochure:

http://www.marcdatabase.com/~lemur/temp/linotype-line-20pct-of-600dpi.pdf

Here's a picture of the Linotype of mine that mostly works, a few days 
before I first fired it up:

http://www.lemur.com/private/DSCF9418-model-5-1024x1365.jpg

It is a Linotype Model 5, built in 1944.  (The machine to its right
with the large aluminum box on it is an Elrod stripcaster, not 
a part of the Linotype.)  I rewired this machine for 3-phase delta
(it was 3-phase Wye) last Fall and did cast some lines on it,
but soon took it offline for a lot of basic and long-overdue maintenance.
Pay no attention to the unfinishd wiring!  Once the garage/shop warms
back up to workable temperatures, I hope to get it running again.

The Model 5 is a single-magazine machine which weighs about 2,800 pounds.
It is small and simple, as Linotypes go; a sweet little machine.

The best ways (online) to see a Linotype in operation would probably be
either the video done of my friend Jim Gard's restoration of a 
Model 5 in California:
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gQasrMBALA
or a 1960s training film done in Italy (which features the Intertype -
which would be called a Linotype "clone" in modern terms, much to the
annoyance of Intertype enthusiasts):
     http://www.archive.org/details/Typesett1960
     http://www.archive.org/details/Typesett1960_2

In any case, Linotypes would seem to be a long way from Teletypes -
but not always.  I soon discovered that some Linotypes were tape
controlled.  (Indeed, in the later 1960s they built some machines
which lacked keyboards entirely.)  At first I thought that this was
just a different way of driving the machine.  I should have known 
better.  The trade name for the tape-control equipment was
"Teletypesetter," and the "teletype..." part of that name was no accident.

This last winter, though, I acquired a nice pile of Teletypesetter
documentation and realized that I'd seriously undersetimated the
teletype side of things.  This wasn't just an automated way to drive
a linecaster, but rather a part of an entire system for delivering
content over a network and having it automatically typeset.

For an overview of much (not all) of the Teletypesetter system,
here's a relatively late publication (after Fairchild had acquired the
Teletypesetter Corp.) that I've digitized:

http://www.marcdatabase.com/~lemur/temp/fairchild-tts-more-type-in-less-time
-c1-0600rgb-25pct-of-600dpi.pdf

More briefly, see pp 16-17 of _The Teletype Story_:
http://www.rtty.com/TTYSTORY/page18.jpg
http://www.rtty.com/TTYSTORY/page19.jpg

The system actually originated in the 1920s, though.
If you're interested, go to the Google Books "Advanced Search" page,
enter "teletypesetter"in the top search field (the "all of the words" field)
and enter Popular Science in the "Title" field.  Optionally click
the "Full View Only" button.  Then search.
This brings up Popular Science, vol. 114, no. 3 (March, 1929), pp. 23-24,
an article by John E. Lodge on "Setting the Type by Wire!"

As I am coming to understand the history, it seems that Gannett (of
newspaper
fame) wanted to develop such a system, but he and his engineer found that
Morkrum-Kleinschmidt held the blocking patents.  So he joined with them
just before they renamed themselves Teletype Corp.  I belive that 
Kleinschmidt himself was involved with the development of the TTS.
It took some time for the system to catch on (AP didn't adopt it until
the 1950s); there's a lot more to running a Linotype as a "robot"
than just reading tape.  By the 1960s, though, most large newspapers
had adopted the system, as had a number of special-purpose publishers
(e.g., check printers).  Unfortunately, this meant that when the 
newspaper industry switched from "hot metal" to offset most of the
TTS equipment was scrapped.  Linotypes really only survived in the
smaller shops, and they tended not to have TTS.  So TTS equipment is
scarce in Linotype circles.  (I do not know whether 6-level Teletype
equipment in general is as scarce in Teletype circles; that's one 
question I have for this list.)

It was the TTS, I think, which forced the introduction of 6-level tape.
Here's a scan of a Fairchild-era plastic pocket rule with the TTS code:

http://www.lemur.com/temp/fairchild-tts-tape-code-pocket-rule-verso-small.jp
g
http://www.lemur.com/temp/fairchild-tts-tape-code-pocket-rule-recto-small.jp
g

In any case, none of my Linotype/Intertypes are in fact equipped for TTS,
although three of them are recent enough that they could be, if I
found the appropriate Teletypesetter Operating Unit (TOU).
I do have two Teletypesetter Perforators, but they both need a bit
of work and, worse, are both missing a key piece.   (They are both
"Multiface" perforators which could be adapted to typefaces of various
letter widths using a removable "magazine" of little brass pieces;
mine have no magazines.)  Right now, that's the only TTS/6-level 
equipment I have.

My goal in all of this (or at least my official excuse for having fun
playing around with the machines) is that I'd like to restore, learn,
and then to DOCUMENT the whole process.  (I'm a technical writer by
trade, and even though this is my hobby I'm still an obsessive documenter 
of things.)  It's never really been documented properly before, and much 
of the information on linecaster operation is still a part of the 
oral tradition of the few remaining linecaster operators and machinists.

The Teletypesetter is, to be honest, secondary to this.  It would be
great, though, someday to have a working TTS-controlled Linotype and
a sort of a miniature version, here on the farm, of the TTS network
which fed them.  

(Not being particularly practical, I've also just acquired a
Model 14 Transmitter-Distributor (presumed working, but untried).
Yes, I know that this is a 5-level machine and TTS is 6-level, but it's
still a nice little unit on similar principles :-)  If I wire up the
farm for TTS then there's no reason I can't run TTY over the same wires.)

Anyway, thanks for your patience through this long ramble.
If anyone has any comments or questions, fire away!  
I'm very much a novice at TTY (and Linotypes, for that matter),
so any information of any kind is helpful.

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

   First do no harm. (Primum non nocere.)
       - possibly Galen; see also Hippocrates (Epidemics, Bk. I, Sect. XI.)
   The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts.
       - Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915); Aldo Leopold

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