[GreenKeys] platten shaft pin, and Model 15 history

[Jim Haynes]

Well, looking at the parts book there is a note in section IV

"The 74264 platen shaft has been redesigned, but retains its
original number.  The new design differs from the old design in that
it has a hole near the left end for a 104995 pin instead of a
tapped hole for the 80255 screw.  The 80255 screw, however, is
still available for maintenance purposes on the old style shafts."
And the numerical index shows that 80255 is a 4-40 x 21/64 fillister
head screw.  Then the page in the parts book showing the platen
shaft shows the platen shaft to be part number 74264, shaft, platen,
(with 104995 pin).  So that suggests that if you have to replace
the platen shaft you get one with the pin installed, but if you
have a broken pin then perhaps you can drive it out and replace
with a new 104995 part.  And suggests that if you have to replace
the platen shaft you don't have to recover the 104995 pin from the
old one and put it into the new one, because the new one will come
with the pin already in there.

Since you can't order a 104995 pin anymore I guess you should drill
and tap the hole for 4-40 and fabricate an approximation of the 80255 
screw.  And, yes, the purpose of the screw or pin is to engage with
the platen crank.

Things I've never thought about - there is just one part number for each
of the platen brackets, but we know they were made at one time of cast
iron and at another time of aluminum.  If one of them breaks I wonder
if you might have to replace both so they are made of the same material.
I see there are different springs used, depending on the material.

The patent for most of Model 15 machine is 1,904,164 issued on April
18, 1933 to Sterling Morton, Howard Krum, and Edward Kleinschmidt.
(pat2pdf.org is an easy way to download a copy of a patent)  We know
that Edward Kleinschmidt was a brilliant inventor, Howard Krum was
an engineering graduate of Armour Institute (now Illinois Institute
of Technology), but Sterling Morton was from the Morton Salt family
and no doubt was president of Teletype because of the Morton family's
investments in the company.  He was educated at Princeton, which
kindly supplied me with a summary of his course work.

"Morton began his studies working towards a Bachelor of Science degree 
(B.S.)
in the John C. Green School of Science.  However, it seems that between 
his
junior and senior year, he switched to the Academic Department where he
focused on the study of modern languages, specifically French, English and
Spanish.  He graduated with a Bachelor of Letters degree (Litt.B.).

Freshman year 1902/1903:
Fall semester: Algebra, Trigonometry, General Chemistry, English, Hygiene,
French and German.
Spring semester: Algebra, English, General Chemistry, French, Plane and
Spherical Trigonometry.

Sophomore year 1903/1904:
Fall semester: Analytical Geometry of the Conic Sections, English, French,
Biology, Mineralogy.
Spring semester: Physics, Logic, French, English, Chemistry-Qualitative
Analysis "Th." and "Pr." (possibly theory and practice?).

Junior year 1904/1905:
Fall semester: Jurisprudence, Eng. Phil. 33, French, Theo. Chem.
Spring semester: Constitutional Government, Physical Geography, Spanish 
and
English Literature.

Department listed as "Romanic"

Senior year 1905/1906:
Fall semester: French H1, English 43, American History 43, Spanish.

Spring semester: French Literature 42, English 44, Spanish 48, French
Seminar.

According to the 1906 grade book on page 261, Morton graduated with 
'Honors in modern languages, cum laude.'"

So we see he was quite a scholar in addition to being a business man and 
inventor.  After working out the sale of Teletype to AT&T he went to work 
at the family salt business, ultimately becoming Chairman of the Board. He 
was, incidentally,the one behind the Morton imagery of the girl with an 
umbrella and the slogan "when it rains it pours".

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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