[GreenKeys] Old firehouse teletype

[John Nagle]

On 9/10/2013 9:00 AM, greenkeys-request at mailman.qth.net wrote:
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 09:33:46 +0000 (UTC)
> From: <paul0926 at comcast.net>
> To: <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: [GreenKeys] Old firehouse teletype
> Message-ID:
> 	<397640837.2793799.1378805626401.JavaMail.root at sz0138a.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net>
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> 
> On eBay number 190899477983
> 
> What model is this? I never saw a tall one.
> 
> Paul
> KD0DFR

    It's a Teletype Model 14 tape printer in an unusual cabinet.
If you look closely, there's an ID plate from "Horni Signal Mfg.",
which was a company in New York which made fire alarm boxes and
traffic signals.  Here's an ad for some of their product line:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/1933-d-ad-horni-signal-systems-fire-alarms-police-signal-boxes-/290944330837

That doesn't show any Teletype-related items, though.  They
did make pen recorders for recording the simple code sent
by fire alarm boxes.  So this would have been a reasonable
product line extension for them.

    The extra stuff in that cabinet all looks like ordinary
Teletype stuff - power supply, polar relay, jacks, etc.
The machine looks OK, almost ready to run.  I already have
three working Model 14 tape printers, and don't need another
one.

    In the 1970s, the San Francisco Fire Department had a
system where each firehouse had a Teletype next to
the fire trucks.  The dispatch center could send to them,
and by 1978, they had this automated.  The
dispatch center had a PDP-11 computer which read fire
alarm box code, looked up the address, and sent it to
the fire house Teletypes for the units being dispatched.

			John Nagle