[GreenKeys] Fairchild Teletypesetter Standard Perforator

[dmm at lemur.com]

Today must be the day for Teletypesetters!

Dave Hunter asks:
>Does anyone know anything about the Fairchild 
>Teletypesetter Standard Perforator? 

I know a very little about them, although I've never seen on in 
operation.  I'm researching them as much as I can because of
their association with Linotypes.

I've got a fair bit of the documentation about these machines
digitized.  I hope to have it all online someday, but for now
drop me a line offlist with your address and I'll postal-mail
you DVD+R disks with the scans.  I've digitized some service 
bulletins, the parts books, and the operator's instruction book
and reference (also some price lists and very old specification
bulletins, but they'd be of lesser interest).

In the interim, take a look at:

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

which is a Fairchild-era brochure for the Teletypesetter system.

See also pp 16-17 of _The Teletype Story_:
http://www.rtty.com/TTYSTORY/page18.jpg
http://www.rtty.com/TTYSTORY/page19.jpg

I also did a very quick, most insufficient, overview of the 
Teletypesetter in section 9 of my recent writeup on the evolution 
of certain teleprinter codes (including the TTS code); section 8
gives a quick overview of Linotypes (essential for understanding
why the TTS was the TTS).

http://www.circuitousroot.com/artifice/telegraphy/tty1/codes/index.html

Dave continues:
>I understand it was 
>originally designed and made by Teletype Corp., but after 
>the Western Electric/Bell purchase of the corporation, they 
>divested themselves of the non-telecommunication products 
>and sold it to Fairchild.

I don't yet know the details of the Fairchild purchase of the
Teletypesetter Corp. (the Fairchild doc linked above does give
a date, though - 1958, long after the Bell acquisition of TTY Corp).
If anyone on the list knows more of this, or of why ATT/WE/TTY divested
TTS, I'd love to learn.

The Teletypesetter originated in the late 1920s,
when the head of the Gannett newspaper syndicate decided to
push for it.  He and his engineer (Morey) discovered that
Teletype had the blocking patents, so they joined forces with
Morkrum-Kleinschmidt just around the time they became Teletype Corp.
I believe the Kleinschmidt himself was involved with the TTS project.

There is one contemporary article online.
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!"

Neither do I know the exact relationship of the Teletypesetter Corp.
to the Teletype Corp.  It must have been a very close relationship,
because my two (alas incomplete) Teletypesetter Multiface Perforators
have maker's plates in them identifying the manufacturer as the
Teletype Corp.


As I wrote in an earlier posting today (indeed, the day for 
Teletypesetters), the Standard Perforator is a 6-level keyboard
perforator without any send or receive capability.  7/8 inch tape.
You could drive a suitably equippped Linotype from the tape,
or read-and-transmit it with a 6-level capable Transmitter-Distributor.
The Teletype Corp 20 Type equipment could print it, although
I presume without the typographical niceties (I don't have a Model 20
yet, unfortunately).


In any case, I don't want to bore the list by rattling on, and my
own knowledge is quite limited - I only started studying the TTS
in any detail in December when I happened across a binder full of
1930s vintage TTS specs that needed preservation) - but if you have
any questions please ask.  If I don't know, I should learn.  There
are still a few folks in the hot metal community with TTS experience,
so now is the time to ask.

Congratulations on your new acquisition.  Now you need to get
a Linotype or Intertype linecaster to go with it!

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