[GreenKeys] Model 37, the 'hotline' and sales to the Soviets

[Don Robert House]

Stephen,

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: pastedGraphic.tiff
Type: image/tiff
Size: 51544 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20140422/43e87d41/attachment.tiff>
-------------- next part --------------



The 103G Dataphone was integrated into some of the M37s cabinets.  
Unlike any other Dataphone... one is locked up at the
SDSU Library store room with over $400,000 (1977 dollars) of other  
Teletype and Data equipment. I hope it will be put on
display before I check out.

The M37 machines used by Western Electric and other Bell affiliates  
were recalled, refurbished and indeed sold to the Soviet Union.
I knew the instructor at Teletype Corp in Chicago's Morton Salt  
Building that went to Moscow to teach the M37 to their technicians.
The 37s sent to the Russians were to be terminals for a NCR computer  
that was also sold to them.
I never knew how or if the typeboxes and keyboards were modified or  
left as is.

After we changed out the ribbon guides and replaced the typing  
reperforators with non-typing reperforators we had
very little problems with them.  The only M37s we had in our district  
were at the Western Electric building in
Rolling Meadows, IL.  After the sale to the USSR started I moved into  
engineering and the field techs replaced them with Model 40s.
The maintenance nightmares were the Model 38s not the Model 37s...  
unless you had one of the ASRs with the typing reperforator.

Ben Stephens or Larry Schear might now the timeframe for the questions  
you are asking.

BTW I still have manuals and a test set cover you left here when all  
of my stuff went to your two museums.
I do not know where to send them.

Don
K9TTY

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: pastedGraphic.tiff
Type: image/tiff
Size: 20558 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20140422/43e87d41/attachment-0001.tiff>
-------------- next part --------------


On 18 Apr 2014, at 10:37 AM, Stephen Jones wrote:

Charcoal or Light Gray keys?

I've heard the story about Model 37s used on the 'hotline' between the  
Whitehouse and the Kremlin.  These were special ASR sets with
a tone dial CCU using a BELL 103 dataset.  If this is true, what date  
range are we talking?  I've heard they were in service from 1972 to
1983.  I've also heard that Teletype bought back Model 37s towards the  
end of the 1970s and then "sold them to the Soviets".  Is there
any truth to that? I'm curious to know because for all the "it was a  
maintenance nightmare" stories out there, this one is pretty damn
historically significant.

The Model 37 is certainly a marvel of engineering with many advanced  
features.  If you've ever seen one run with the cover off, it looks
like it is just at the edge of flying apart.  It also makes a 28  
operating at 100wpm look smooth, calm and collected (and they are!)   
From
their introduction in 1969 it seems like they had a 5 or 6 year window  
before they were surpassed by video terminals, especially one of
Teletype's biggest customers DEC.

As far as Pacific Northwest Bell's use of Model 37s they had one in  
the Data Test Center which was wired into a special translator box
that would allow it to work as a swiss army knife of all Teletype  
lore.  It also used a special sized typebox with extra pallets.  A  
'normal' 37
ASR (considered RARE) was used for receiving orders in the plant  
service center as forms printing is one of its main features.

A few links of Model 37 interest:
A picture showing two 37 typeboxes and a 28 and 35:  http://tx0.org/7mh
A picture of a Model 37 printing something interesting:  http://tx0.org/7mi
A video of a Model 37 talking to another Model 37 http://tx0.org/7mk

Stephen Jones, W0TTY


______________________________________________________________
GreenKeys mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net

2002-to-present greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
Randy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool: http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html