[GreenKeys] [External] Re: Western Union

[Jim Haynes]

On Thu, 25 Apr 2019, Jones, Douglas W wrote:

> But, what a strange kluge, using TTY signaling for the long-distance hop 
> and then running the received telegram through a fax machine to solve 
> the last mile problem.  Why not just use radio TTY for the last mile? 
> I gather the answer is that the Teledeltos receivers, had far fewer 
> moving parts, so they were more rugged than a teletype and better able 
> to operate in a moving vehicle.
>
That does seem reasonable, and also in a car it would be hard for the
operator to gum down the tape strip to a message blank.

I remember the car delivery was written up in one of the radio magazines,
Radio-Electronics or Radio & Television News, but I don't have a pointer
to it right now.  Those magazines are available on 
americanradiohistory.com  I don't believe that scheme was ever written
up in Western Union Technical Review; maybe it was always considered
experimental and would not have been published unless it had been adopted.

W.U. spent tons of money on fax development, including weird stuff like
coin-operated fax transmitters.  I guess they made some money on it,
especially with things like weather map transmission for the Air Force.
But in the end nothing they did wound up in the last great wave of fax
machines, which developed out of Japanese manufacturing, semiconductor
technology, and ability of machine owners to attache to the dialup
telephone network.

Before that great last wave there was an attempt to compete with W.U.
using the earlier fax technology of wet paper recording and transmission
via the dialup phone network.  AT&T had a modem for fax, before the
Carterfone decision forced them to allow customer-owned equipment
attachment.  The machinery in that generation was I guess too costly
for small businesses, so the concept was, like W.U., taking your
message to an agent for transmission and then somehow getting the
copy delivered at the receiving end.

Of course the whole business model of physically delivering a hard
copy telegram to the recipient is ultimately a loser in the days of
high wages.