[GreenKeys] The Model 33 ASR

[Don Robert House]

Jim,

I remember a couple of things about the Model 33 and it's users...

Bell sales sold the "Dataphone Teletype" with a telephone handset  
mounted on it's side.
We had several of these "alternate voice machines" so as to not be in  
violation with WUTCo.
Had plenty of gray "Trimline" wall phones as nobody else wanted them.  
Most of the people
using these 33s taped the handset to it's base so no one would knock  
it off hook.

One was at the Barrington, Illinois High School in the Math  
classroom.  I had the privilege
of maintaining the machine so all of the students could write programs  
for their time shared
computer dial-up system.  Most of the school year was okay but about  
the middle of May
the machine would be so worn and plastic parts broken that I had to  
replace the entire machine,
which was less time consuming than repairing everything that was  
needed. We let Western
Electric decide whether to repair or recycle the machines we removed  
from service.

Another problem was the computer folks like to do things backwards  
from other industries
such as the military. We had to change typewheels so that the computer  
folks could have
their slash through the letter "O" and the rest of the world had to  
have the slash through
the number zero "0"  Stands to reason then that computer folks to this  
day refer to Teletype
machines backwards: ASR 33 instead of the correct as produced 33 ASR.

Most of the IBM, Burroughs, HP, and other representatives I met during  
my career could
never make a mistake or do anything incorrect.  They always  
represented themselves as
higher level life-forms than us lowly Teletype and Data Communications  
Servicemen.

Don

On 26 Nov 2013, at 8:51 PM, Jim Haynes wrote:

On Tue, 26 Nov 2013, Teletypeparts wrote:

> 32 Telex were supposed to be throw away machines after so many  
> hours.  Maybe
> it was 500?
>
The original saying I heard was that they were aimed at TWX customers  
who
would use them for a maximum of 2 hours per day.  Customers with heavier
traffic needs were to get heavy-duty machines.

I've read that the original designs called for felt clutches as in the  
M15, but that W.U. pressured Teletype to use Model 28 style all metal
clutches.

When the minicomputer industry sprung up the Model 33 ASR was quite a  
boon
in holding down the cost of an installation.  Previously they had to use
Flexowriters, which I'm told cost in the $5000 range, to get keyboard,
printer and paper tape I/O.  But in minicomputer service the 33s were
often run 24/7.

Also the 32/33 line was originally to have very limited options as part
of holding the cost down.  Later they got sprocket feed and form feed
features, which I'm pretty sure were not intended from the beginning.
Some customer must have had a lot of clout!
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