[GreenKeys] What does VSL stand for

[Jim Haynes]

In earlier times, if you wanted a Teletype machine, you talked to a sales
engineer about what features you needed and he would write out an order
for a typing unit, base, keyboard, motor, gear set, cabinet, electrical
service unit and whatever else you needed.  This might all come to you
in separate packages, or it might all be put together at the factory and
shipped to you ready to use.

Around the early 1960s somebody realized that some customers wanted
more than one machine, all alike, so they established VSL codes to mean
a complete machine with specific features that would be popular enough
to deserve having its own code.  There were also VCL codes for machines
that were considered not complete in themselves, but were major components
of some kind of complete set.

And since there are so many many variations in the product line each
machine was shipped with its own schematics and wiring diagrams rather
than putting those in a manual (military manuals excepted).  Also
around that time the "wiring diagram package" was adopted.  Previously
you got a schematic diagram xxxx-WD and an actual wiring diagram xxxy-WD
on separate prints, each as large as needed to contain the whole
picture (unless it was something really complicated).  The wiring
diagram packages were standardized at 11x17 print size and containing
a standard format of pages, as many pages as needed.  And they were
offset printed black and white, replacing the Ozalid prints previously
used that tended to fade with time and exposure to light.

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 	"Ya can argue all ya wanna, but it's dif'rent than it was."
 	"No it ain't! No it ain't!  But ya gotta know the territory."
 		Meredith Willson, The Music Man