[GreenKeys] period HF receivers

[Jim Haynes]

On Thu, 11 May 2017, Bruce Gentry wrote:

> the receiver. The fact a homemaker could use the same receiver, especially
> if the good loudspeaker and a turntable was with it, to listen to daytime
> entertainment broadcasts, records, and the audio of low band VHF television

The Hallicrafters SX-28 (late 1930s) and SX-28A (1940s) had a jack in the
back of the receiver for a phono input, and the audio output stage was 
push-pull 6V6s to drive some serious loudspeaker.

> Force. This brings up a question. Was the finger and hand size and reach of
> women considered in the design of Teletype keyboards, especially the 28 and
> 32/33 ?  The cabinet designs were also far sleeker than the 15 and 19. I

I don't know about the keyboards.  Probably was the same as typewriters of
the day, which were mainly operated by female secretaries.  However 
Teletype was used by railroads (mostly male until WW-II) and military
(male in the field, females stateside in office work)  And I would imagine
machines in TWX service were mostly female operated, just like 
typewriters.  And Western Union had operators of both genders.

> think in those tight gender role times the cabinet design might have made
> the operators feel they were operating some jet age or space age device and
> reduce their feelings of being "just a secretary", at least until their boss

I think that was more a matter of office equipment styling in general, 
rather than to appeal to the operators.  In the 1930s there was Teletype
equipment with wooden tables finished like furniture, and Model 15 
cabinets with hand-painted simulated wood grain finish.  That would go
in offices where the desks and file cabinets were wooden, and would fit
right in with the decor.  After WW-II steel office furniture was the
norm.  You might compare IBM equipment as well.  1930s the machines had
cast iron legs that would remind you of a wood stove in a country kitchen.
1940s-50s they had sleek equipment with rounded corners.  And after that
sharp corners and chromed legs were in vogue.  Companies had to keep
changing styles to make the new equipment look more modern than the old.

> Along those lines, were female operators allowed or
> expected to change paper and tape rolls and ribbons in Teletypes in
> 1950s/60s offices ? 
> 
I believe so.  I don't think the telephone company would send out a
repair man just to change the ribbon in your TWX machine.  Wire services
furnished ribbons to their subscribers but expected the subscribers to
do the changing.  And that was before you could get cheap plastic gloves
by the gross to keep your hands clean.