[GreenKeys] Old War Story

[Jim Haynes]

This is from a privately published book of Teletype history by Walt Zenner
and Bob Reek.  Walt was V.P. for R&D at Teletype at the time of his
retirement.

"Immediately after the Japanese attach at Pearl Harbor...The Army Signal
Corps was asked if they would need any teletypes during the war and
they replied, 'No -- this war will be fought over the telphone.'

"As a result of this Teletype had to find other war work.  The Hudson
Motor Co. had a prime contract to make machine guns and Teletype became
a subcontractor, committing its full capacity to making machine gun parts.

"Before factory work actually started on machine gun parts, the Signal
Corps was back to Teletype saying that their first answer was incorrect --
that teletypes would be needed -- in very large numbers.  The reason
given for the change was the recognition that much of the communication
would be by radio which could be intercepted by the enemy and that there
was no practical technology available for enciphering voice traffic
or for using the human voice for transmission of previously enciphered
(garbled) traffic.  Furthermore, much of the traffic was data, which
required a written record at the receiving end and was better served
by teletypes than by telephones.  The model 15 teletype would be the
'work horse' for military communication -- vital to the movement of
millions of men and women, vast quantities of munitions, hundreds of
thousands of vehicles and supply items, and thousands of planes to and
from every corner of the world.

"...The Wrightwood plant went to three shifts, additional space was
leased, and thousands of new employees were hired.  Subcontractors by
the dozen were called upon for help; 'expediter' and 'coordinator' became
familiar words....Production soared until in 1945 it was 15 times what it
had been in 1939."