[GreenKeys] Teletype Model 15 power Q's...

[John Nagle]

> From: Eric & Jia Bigham <hanyou at xsmail.com>
>
> Sorry for the late reply ;o ? last night I was glued to the TV set
> ~o~; .  Ah, I have a lot of emails to go through ;p ? my head is
> spinning xD hahah!  As requested by drlegendre, here are some photos
> below ;o ? right now the unit is sitting in the family room of my
> basement ;p .  The fiber you see all over it is from a mouse, that
> had gotten inside of the cloth insulation of the outside case while
> it was sitting in a basement in Chicago from since the 70s.

    OK, that's a Model 19, or most of one.  There's a transmitter-
distributor and a table that make up a Model 19.

    Mechanically, it doesn't look too bad. The wiring is in bad
shape. You have all the Model 19 stuff, the Bell System stuff,
and some mods by (probably) a radio ham. Then it was chewed on
by mice.

    You should be aware that original Teletype Corporation
wiring for Model 15 machines is General Electric Deltabeston
felted asbestos. ("Will not age or crack", says the marketing material 
from the 1920s.) Here's a 1940s ad.

https://books.google.com/books?id=33MjAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA190&lpg=RA2-PA190

In a standard Model 15, all the wiring, except for the leads
to the motor, is black Deltabeston.  It looks like woven
cotton insulation, but it isn't.  That's why the wiring holds
up so well over the decades. I don't know about Model 19
machines, which have a lot more wiring.

Such wire is not normally dangerous if intact, but chewed on by mice,
may be a problem, since the asbestos might leak out as powder
and become an inhalation risk.  Not sure what to do in this situation.

				John Nagle