[GreenKeys] Dow Jones Pedestal printer...

[Kenneth Gartland]

Hi all...

Lots of great chatter on this Dow Jones printer...

When I worked in Montreal,PQ back in 1970, there were still plenty of
these in service...Also a great number of the very familiar 5-A
Teletype tickers...

There was enuf Dow Jones equipment in service at the time, our company
CP Telecommunications, had a permanent guy stationed downtown
to look after these machines...

This particular printer, did use a "Typewheel: printing mech, quite
simple in design...

Interestingly, every morning before the markets opened locally,
DJ in New York, wud send a long "Synchronizing" pulse, which wud
ensure, when real quote transmissions began, every machine was thus
locked in to the incoming feed...

The little mystery box with the rotating disk mentioned earlier in the fotos,
is an ink well which supplies ink to the typewheel each time it
passes back & forth over it!

The print copy was usually of a purple colour similar to the ink used in
the 5-A ticker felt roller...

I briefly worked on these machines, when the DJ maintainer tech was
on vacation, or busy elsewhere on other calls...

The weirdest call ever, was from one of our brokers in Ottawa,
who complained the "Paper wasn't. cutting properly"...

Upon arrival, the old guy showed me the scissors which hung from the
machine pedestal, and the rivet had worn out holding the two halves
together, and the blades had come apart...

He was very insistant it be repaired on the spot...So out came my
big American Beauty soldering iron, and back in svc in minutes later...

The old guy was ecstatic, and said what great service we provided!!!

One of my favourite brokerage memories from back in the day!

Cheers!

Ken VE3-HMQ
i-Telex 61663