[GreenKeys] TT-4 vs TT-4A

[Duncan Brown]

Ken,

The TT-4 was the first TTY that I really got to know. I spent a year in 
Viet Nam servicing them.

Thanks for posting the Nov 1951 supplement. I had not seen it before.  
It answers some questions of the early TT-4 history, but raises others!

1. In Edmund E. Kleinschmidt's book, "Printing Telegraphy... a New Era 
Begins" (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53481), he says that the Signal 
Corps approved the KLI design for a new tactical printer, to be 
designated "TT-4/TG", and gave KLI an order for 2,000 units in 1949. On 
17 Apr 1950, the first KLI pre-production samples were sent to the 
Signal Corps for their approval. Soon after, production began on the 
contract awarded in June 1949. A copy of the front of KLI's preliminary 
TT-4 manual with contract number (235410-0Phila - 49) enclosed.

2. The first official Army TT-4 manual was TM 11-2234, "TT-4/TG", 6 Apr 
1951.

3. Ken's "Supplement to TM 11-2234, Teletypewriter TT-4/TG" is dated 28 
November 1951. It adds the TT-4A/TG for serial numbers 1392 upwards.  It 
implies that Order Number 1671-Phila-51 covers these TT-4As from SN 
1394.  My first thought was that the SNs from the TT-4/TG models 
continued with the TT-4A/TGs (ie, everything 1392 and below was a TT-4/TG).

Having worked in new-product hardware design, I know that  a lot of 
problems can surface after you have manufactured hundreds of units that 
you didn't see in the first prototypes. So it is not inconceivable to me 
that, somewhere in the midst of the first 2,000 TT-4/TG units, they 
switched over to the TT-4A/TG model.

4. But there are TT-4A/TG models, manufactured by NCR, out there with 
SNs below 1392 (eg #316, #1132) . The NCR units were built to order 
number 6611-PHILA-51. So the NCR units were not covered by this Nov 1951 
supplement?  (I have seen mentions in other TMs  of differences between 
different Order Numbers within the same model number.)

5. The statement on the Nov 1951 supplement, that it is not an official 
DA publication, implies that it came from the manufacturer (KLI?). Was 
there another supplement for the earlier TT-4As made by NCR?  It also 
seems strange that they waited until 1959 for the official next edition 
(TM 11-5815-206-12, -35). The fact that the later TMs do not mention the 
"TT-4/TG", implies that there were none in the military system by then.

6. Pete - what is the label on your TT-4A?

7. In Viet Nam in 1967, we had TT-4Bs & TT-4Cs that were running 24/7 
and getting pretty beat up. We were able to negotiate for some "new" 
replacement units. I was looking forward to the new units and was very 
disappointed  when they appeared as "rebuilt" TT-4As!  But I'm pretty 
sure that they all had KLI labels on them, as I don't think I knew about 
the NCR units until relatively recently.  Does anyone out there have a 
KLI branded TT-4A??

Thanks for any further comments or info on the TT-4 family

Duncan Brown, K2OEQ
USASA  31J30

Antique Wireless Association Museum Asst. Curator, Commercial Equipment
(also Chief TTY operator & repairman)
http://www.antiquewireless.org/




---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: TT-4 TG (XC-5) manual cover 1949.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 578087 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20180627/efba4994/attachment-0002.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: TT-4A NCR 1132.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 238005 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20180627/efba4994/attachment-0003.jpg>