[GreenKeys] Early Teletype in the RN

[John Nagle]

> From: cjckidd <cjckidd at waitrose.com>
> of research reports from the 1920s and 1930s. They were written by
> the HM Signal School. I think you will find this extract from one
> interesting - see para 3 . The report is dated 1923. The grid
> signalling unit was developed to allow efficient keying of three PA
> valves in parallel . It electronically changed the bias on the grids
> rather than letting 3 mechanical /magnetic keys earth the grids which
> as you can guess gave problems - especially as the PA was also the
> oscillator. Was the RN contemplating using Teletype in the 1920s? I
> have more research to do to answer that question. High speed, 60WPM,
> automatic morse seems to have been preferred right up until the
> 1950s
>
> Clive

    That's clearly a Teletype keyboard connected up to drive a
relay driving a second relay driving something not shown. Is there
more?

    1923 would have been very early for this. It says "Teletype"
on the drawing, which would have been the 1923 Morkrum machine.
The Creed High Speed Automatic Printing Telegraphy System
was available from 1919, but apparently the RN didn't choose
that.  I don't know much about the pre-Teletype Creed system,
except that it required a compressed air supply in addition
to electricity, and incoming traffic was always punched
on tape in some format, and the tapes fed to a printing
machine.  Morkrum had a compact "direct printer" - no paper
tape stage required.  It would have made sense for the
RN to try that on shipboard.

    Creed soon came out with their
own machines compatible with Morkrum, but that came
out in 1924.  So this was probably the RN evaluating a
Morkrum machine experimentally.

    Teletypes on shipboard didn't really catch on
until about WWII. There's a "battleship version" of
the Model 15 Teletype, with a reinforced frame,
non-removable keyboard, and a carriage drive mechanism
that will work with up to 45 degrees of roll in either
direction.  Someone on Greenkeys has one.

			John Nagle