[GreenKeys] Teletype and electronics........

[Jim Haynes]

On Wed, 10 Apr 2013, Larry Tighe wrote:

> Does anyone know if the
> received code was used directly by the machines or if it was
> translated to 5-unit Beaudot code?  Did RCA use standard
> teleprinters or make (or have made) their own?

Just speculating, but I would imagine they translated the code to
Baudot for printing.  Because it would be really hard to modify a
Model 15 for 7-level code and there wasn't much alternative to a
Model 15 or Model 20 in those days.


> messaging.  Her dad told
> her that Western Union was only able to do domestic transmissions and that 
> RCA had the
> rights to international messaging.  I don't know if this is accurate however, 
> the two RCA

At one time Western Union had an interest in the trans-Atlantic telegraph
cables.  RCA and some other companies were in the trans-Atlantic (and
other places) radio telegraph business.  Then our government, with the
policy of keeping W.U. with exactly one foot in the grave at all
times, insisted that W.U. divest the cable business.  So a new company
Western Union International was formed to hold the cable business.  For
overseas messages the customer could designate the carrier:  he could
say "via RCA" or "via WUI" or "via Globe" or whomever he preferred.

W.U. had a cable to Cuba; and I don't know if that was divested along
with the trans-Atlantic cables.  And I don't know what the situation was
with Mexico.

There was an interesting arrangement with Canada, documented in Western
Union Technical Review.  Canada had two competing telegraph companies,
presumably related to the railroads as their names were Canadian Pacific
and Canadian National.  If you were sending a message to Canada it might
be that only one of these companies served the destination city, in which
case the routing was dictated by that.  Where both companies served the
destination the customer could choose a carrier with "via CP" or "via
CN".  Then by international agreement the traffic volume was to be split
2:1 between the two companies.  So at the gateway city between the U.S.
and Canada W.U. had an apparatus with a counter that kept track of the
number of messages routed via each company.  When a message came along
that could be routed to either company the counter apparatus determined
which company would get it.