[GreenKeys] Two Teletype model 20RO printers available

[Harold Hallikainen]

My college newspaper had a Linotype and wire service machines. One clever
thing the wire services did was print a bunch of garbage at the start of
every story. When you looked at the perforated tape, the garbage was a
readable story number in the perforations. This made it easy to find the
particular story on the tape, then feed it into the Linotype. The paper
would set the type with the Linotype, then pull a proof from the lead
type. The proof would then go onto a pasteup, be photographed, masked,
then a plate burned. The paper was printed on a web offset press. While I
was there, they got a couple photo-typesetters. One had a film strip with
each character. This was placed on a rotating drum. When the right
character was in position, a light would flash to place that character on
the output film. The output film would advance to the next position, then
that character would be flashed. A second phototypesetter had six mirrors,
each of which could be in one of two positions corresponding to the bit in
the 6 bit code. The characters were on film in a square matrix. The
mirrors would flip making a path from the desired character to the output
film, and a light would flash to expose the film.

The school also had the Shakespeare Press Museum (
http://www.grc.calpoly.edu/students/shakespeare-press-museum ) . They had
a bunch of antique type. A friend pulled proofs of each set of type, then
photographed them to make film for those phototypesetters. This was all in
the early 1970s.

Harold


> Just a bit of trivia, Randall.
>
> The Associated Press in North Carolina still had Model 20 papeprinters and
> tape punchers at subscribers as late as early 1979.
>
> The Durham Herald-Sun was still doing hot lead typesetting from the tapes
> in 1978, but as I understood it at the time, they werevery close to
> converting over to offset press operations and that would eliminate the
> tape and tape reading Linotype machines.
> Sheldon
>
>
>
>       From: Harold Hallikainen <harold at w6iwi.org>
>  To: Greenkeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
> Cc: randalldavidson at charter.net
>  Sent: Thursday, May 9, 2019 10:30 AM
>  Subject: [GreenKeys] Two Teletype model 20RO printers available
>
> I received the below email from the Denver Telecom History Group. THG
> currently has enough Teletypes (and I'm working on getting them running).
> So, the below listed equipment is available as described below (trade for
> model 15 or pay cost). Please contact Randall directly.
>
> Harold
>
>
>> I have two Teletype-brand units which I would consider
>> | donating if
>> you have an interest. I have a rare Model 20-RO and its associated
>> Model
>> 20 non-typing perforator unit. I believe both were used in concert
>> with the Teletypesetter appliance that attached to Linotype machines.
>> Based on newspaper articles touting this technology, I’d guess
>> they
>> date to about 1952.
>>
>> I’ve been interested in having a Model 15 receive-only machine
>> for
>> some time now, prompted by my long history of using news wire services
>> as a radio reporter and as a former UPI stringer. In March, I bought
>> these two units from an eBay seller here in Wisconsin, thinking the
>> printer was a Model 15. The seller had been an editor at the Mining
>> Journal, the daily paper in Marquette, Michigan and was there when it
>> was decommissioned in 1985. At the time, the AP told him it was the
>> last Teletype-brand unit operating for them in the entire state, and
>> they let him keep it. He also said he had not done any work on it (he
>> had at one time planned to gut it to make it into a planter).
>>
>> This seemed to be perfect: a machine that was functioning when retired
>> and that had not had anyone try to restore it. It appeared to be
>> complete (except for the paper advance crank and the input cable). My
>> hope was to get it functioning and use one of the circuits that some
>> hobbyists have developed to have it print an RSS feed.
>>
>> However, once I got it home and gave it a close inspection, I noticed
>> it has six, not five bell cranks (and 42 typing hammers). Turns out
>> it's the rare Model 20/receive only unit. (The motor does indeed work).
>>
>> The perforator unit is also a Teletype-brand unit, and in an e-mail
>> exchange with Mr. Rtty (the parts guy in California) he says it's the
>> associated Model 20 non-typing perforator. The hinged lid has a
>> painted-over AP/Teletype plate on it. It appears to have had some
>> modification: the large capacitor is plugged into has a circuit board
>> with a solid state relay and some solid state resistors, which look as
>> though they post-date the unit itself. The transformer under the
>> capacitor has the number 176435. Could the AP have updated this? It
>> was also clearly functioning when retired as it still has some of the
>> paper "chads" inside the case. Everything I’ve found out about
>> these
>> seems to indicate these two units worked together with a
>> Teletypesetter unit. Indeed, the advent of this technology sometimes
>> led to strikes among newspaper Linotype operators.
>>
>> Were this a Model 15, I just might have been able to get it going, but
>> getting a six-bit configuration working is certainly beyond my skills.
>>
>> Would you be interested in these as a donation? (Or, I’d trade
>> these
>> for a Model 15-RO if you have several). Either way, I can likely make
>> a road trip later this summer to either Seattle or Denver to deliver
>> them. Please let me know.
>>
>> Randall Davidson
>> Fond du Lac, WI
>> randalldavidson at charter.net
>> 920-923-5769Â  |
> --
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