[GreenKeys] IBM Radiotype

[Jim Haynes]

Well, sorta.  There is a book "Building IBM : Shaping an Industry and Its
Technology" by Emerson W. Pugh which devotes a couple of pages to the
IBM Radiotype.

Says that one Walter S. Lemmon, president of the Radio Industries
Corporation, built the first working model...consisted of an electric
typewriter coupled with radio transmitting and receiving apparatus.
Using the equpment, a person could type a message on one typewriter
and cause the identical message to be typed automatically by a second
typewriter at a location many miles away.  Watson was impressed and
agreed to support the research needed to create a product.  Thereupon
Lemmon and his associates joined IBM.  System was working by the mid
1930s, but the first significant use of the system was by U.S. military
forces during World War II.  The first order was for 38 systems.  IBMs
manager hired only people with first class amateur radio licenses to
accompany the machines to the field.  (keep in mind that at the time IBM
would only lease equipment, and the lease included maintenance.)

There is a picture in the book showing a couple of the sets at the Signal
Corps station WAR in the Pentagon in 1942.  Another picture shows more of
the Radiotype terminal.  It's a rather large table holding two IBM
typewriters, one for sending and the other for receiving.  There is a
tape perforator and tape reader.  There are also Morse keys and a control
panel.  Then there seems to be a cabinet under the table in the middle,
so presumably the item on ebay goes in there and appears to be something
like a power distribution box for the system.

The caption states, "The availability of Radiotype at the beginning of
the war dramatically improved the communications capability of the
U.S. Military."  and the article begins with a quotation from the Chief
Signal Officer, "Every phase of our war effort was affected by your
equipment.  The setting up of overseas as well as domestic wireless
circuits with Radiotype, which sent and received messages automatically
and typed them out on the typewriter, was one of the most important
contributions."

If you  knew only that book you would never know there was a Teletype
Corporation and that its equipment contributed mightily to the war
effort.