[GreenKeys] OT - Prepare to get your mind blown - you think Teletypes are complicated?

[Harold Hallikainen]

> The Linotype was invented in 1884, so it pre-dates Teletypes by several
> decades.  These made a Teletype look simple.  A friend sent me a link to
> this film documentary that was made in the 1950s and later converted to
> video and uploaded to YouTube.  It takes 35 minutes, and the video
> quality is not all that great, but is well worth watching.  Note the
> Teletype connection near the end...
>
> https://youtu.be/EzilaRwoMus
>
> Enjoy
>
> --
> 73
> -------------------------------------
> Jim Walls - K6CCC
> jim at k6ccc.org
> Ofc:  818-548-4804
> http://members.dslextreme.com/users/k6ccc/
> AMSAT Member 32537 - WSWSS Member 395
>

Will definitely look at that! There is a film from last year at
https://linotypefilm.com/ that is also impressive.

My college newspaper had a Linotype. Wire service copy came in on a 6 bit
machine that looked like the model 15. They also perforated tape as the
copy came in. I always thought it was clever that the start of each story
printed overtyped garbage on the printer but showed up as a dot matrix
story number on the perforated tape. An operator could quickly scroll
through the tape looking for the desired story number, tear it off, and
take it to the Linotype.

The school newspaper did an interesting process with the Linotype. The
lead lines of type were put in a proof press and a single copy of the
column of text was pulled. This was then pasted up on the page layout. The
page layout was then photographed and an offset plate burned from that.
The newspaper was then printed offset.

The Linotype room also had a couple "modern" electronic typesetting
machines. One of these had a loop of film on a drum. It had each character
on the film. As the drum rotated, a strobe would flash when the desired
character was in position, exposing the output film with that character.
The output film would move and the next character would be flashed.

The other modern electronic typesetter used a square film matrix. A series
of mirrors, each with two positions, would flip back and forth based on
the binary code for the character. This would complete a path from the
desired character on the matrix film to the output film, and a strobe
would flash.

Amazing stuff!

Harold
https://w6iwi.org



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