[GreenKeys] Sprocket Feed Paper? MOST WON'T FIT !!!

[Jim Haynes]

On Tue, 16 Apr 2013, Jack Hart wrote:

> 
> Some 28’s and 35’s had wider platens that could accommodate the wider 9 ½
> inch paper.
> 
Yes, that was a late development that the designers were able to cram in,
as a result of customer demand.  Customers may have wanted 8-1/2x11
paper after the sprocket feed strips were torn off, or may have wanted
the ability to print 80 columns because that was the width of an IBM
punched card.

If only we had a time machine, and could go back to the late 1920s
and whisper in Sterling Morton's ear that the Model 15 needed to be
an inch wider.  Or to the '40s and do the same with Walt Zenner and
the Model 28.  It would have been so easy to do then, and was nearly
impossible later.

Another discontent is that with the IBM typewriter the user can easily
pop a couple of latches and lift out the platen and replace it with
sprocket feed or friction feed, and just leave the pressure rollers
disengaged for sprocket feed.  But with Teletype the conversion involves
a whole lot of parts.

I read somewhere once that Teletype's initial design of sprocket feed
ran into a patent conflict with some other company.  Maybe that's why
the mechanism is so complicated.