[GreenKeys] 6 bit Teletype reperf

[dmm at lemur.com]

(Apologies for a perhaps overly long posting/reply here...)

My thanks to Duncan for clarifying the identity of the RPE under the table.

Duncan then noted/asked:
>There may have been other equipment that read 
>the 6-bit tape from the RPE and added the extra information before it 
>went to the typesetting equipment???

Originally (very late 1920s through some point after WWII) it needed 
to be entered by hand by a typist at a Perforator.

At some point equipment was introduced which would allow a
less skilled typist to punch a tape with just the text.
That tape would be read by a standalone computer, justified, and
re-punched as a tape ready to be fed to a TTS Operating Unit on
a Linotype or Intertype (or, I suppose, sent out over the wire
to be reperforated).  I'm not sure exactly when this began.
The unit that I have the most information on was a Compugraphics
device marketed by Mergenthaler Linotype as the "JusTape."  I have
a page on it here:

<https://circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/press/compline/literature/compugraphic/index.html>

Star Parts Co. (the largest third-party manufacturer of Linotype and
Intertype compatible parts) got involved as well.  Here's some 
literature on their "Autoperf" line of keyboards and "Autosetter" system.

<https://www.circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/press/compline/literature/star/star-tts/index.html>

And of course once you get into phototypesetting there is more overlap.
Here's a Mergenthaler CorRecTerm video editing system with reader/punch.
When I acquired it, it was associated with a Mergenthaler V.I.P. 
phototypesetting system (which, alas, I could not save).  I think
that the reader/punch could do up to 8-level, but here it is 
configured for six.

<http://www.galleyrack.com/temp/mergenthaler-CorRecTerm-and-punch.jpg>

(My apologies to future readers of this post - this and the following
images are only in temporary space right now.  I plan to do a proper shop 
tour/ inventory, but as should be obvious things are still in pretty
ragged shape.)

Just to give some idea of the diversity, here are various keyboards
and/or computer-driven punches.  (I'm not even showing the BRPE
punches, which could be configured for 6-level.)

Two computer-driven Roytron 6-level punches:
<http://www.galleyrack.com/temp/roytron-tts-punches-cropped.jpg>

A Varityper 6-level keyboard.  I had no idea Varityper even made one
until I found this.  At the time they were owned by Addressograph-
Multigraph, but Varityper goes back to the Hammond Typewriter in the
late 19th century:

<http://www.galleyrack.com/temp/varityper-tts-keyboard.jpg>

Three AKI (Automix Keyboards, Inc) 6-level electronic keyboards, 
a new-old-stock (in original box) FACIT punch probably from
about 1980, and a B-P-S 6-level punch (about which I know nothing):

<http://www.galleyrack.com/temp/aki-facit-bps.jpg>

Here's a better look at two of the AKI keyboards (taken last fall
when I was unloading them; the cast-iron thing to the right is
a pivotal type casting machine and the "keyboard" in the wooden box
under the cabinet above is a Linotype student practice keyboard):

<http://www.galleyrack.com/temp/aki-keyboards.jpg>

And of course you could use a Flexowriter.  What *couldn't* you do
with one?  I think that there must have been models of the Flexowriter 
that could make coffee for the office. :-)

Here is a Commercial Controls Corp. Reader-Reproducer "Flexowriter":

<http://www.galleyrack.com/temp/commercial-controls-corporation-recorder-reproducer-flexowriter.jpg>

and a Friden LCC "Justowriter":

<http://www.galleyrack.com/temp/friden-lcc-justowriter.jpg>

(Both are configured for 6-level; they came out of Jackson Typesetting
in Michigan.  The LCC has some extra relay logic attached to its back
that I haven't figured out yet.)


As with so many things, once you start looking, you start finding more
than you ever imagined.  

Regards,
David M.
===
Dr. David M. MacMillan - dmm at lemur.com 

   The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts.
       - Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915); Aldo Leopold

www.CircuitousRoot.com   *  www.Lemur.com