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

Tue Apr 22 21:53:58 EDT 2014

Don... we would be delighted to add the manuals and test set to  SMECC...thanks. Ed www.smecc.org 

Don Robert House <62.5milliamps at gmail.com> wrote:
>Stephen,
>
>
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>
>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
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>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
>
>
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