[GreenKeys] BBC inquiry about Zimmerman telegram

[John Nagle]

On 06/17/2014 09:00 AM, greenkeys-request at mailman.qth.net wrote:
> From: GreenKeys [mailto:greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf
> Of Alf Fisher Sent: Monday, June 16, 2014 6:03 PM To: Greenkeys
> Subject: [GreenKeys] Fw: BBC enquiry - telegraph machine
>
> Hi Greenkeyers, I have received an enquiry from the BBC  who are
> making documentary about telecommunications as part of a series of
> short films about WW1. They would like to film some close ups of a
> telegraph machine that works or at least moves/makes noises as part
> of a story about the Zimmermann Telegram, so ideally it would be a
> machine of this era.  The Zimmermann Telegram is well documented on
> Wikipedia and other places.
>
> I need your help in determining how the message of the Zimmermann
> Telegram was produced back in 1917.  I originally thought it was
> produced on some kind of teleprinter but there is lower case text at
> the top and bottom of the telegram I feel sure that you guys will
> know far more about the history of Western Union than I will ever
> know.  Was it done on a manual typewriter with an operator taking
> down the message from either an undulator slip or a Morse sounder?
>
> Any thoughts welcome.
>
> Alf

    Here's the original:

http://www.archives.gov/global-pages/larger-image.html?i=/education/lessons/zimmermann/images/coded-message-l.jpg

    That's typed on a telegram form directly. It's not strip
printer output.

    That must have been hand-typed on a typewriter.  Probably by a Morse
operator. Two typewriters, actually; the "via Galveston" and
"Charge German Embassy" fonts don't match. The receiving
operator probably had a Western Union upper-case only "mill"
typewriter.  (Will Rogers used one of those, and here's an
ARRL article mentioning one:
http://www.arrl.org/news/quot-putting-it-down-quot)
Anyone have one? That's what the BBC really needs;
a WU "mill" typewriter and a telegraph sounder.

    Automatically typing telegrams on telegram forms directly only
came in with the WU page printer control unit in 1955, when
word wrap, form feed, and pin-feed forms were all brought
together.   (Western Union Technical Review 10 (1): 37–42.) 	

    1917 was too early for a strip printer.  The Model 14 series
was patented in 1924 and started shipping in 1926.  Model 12
machines were not upper or lower case.  There were earlier
printing telegraphs

				John Nagle