[GreenKeys] Fairchild teletypesetter

[steve shumaker]

Given the "barn storage" condition visible in the photos and the 
previous comment that noted a missing cover, it's probably safe to 
assume there are other missing parts as well.  I looked through the 
other items in the auction and it appears to be a wide range of objects 
but notably includes a lot of tools in really bad shape.



On 6/26/23 3:35 PM, Jim Haynes wrote:
> Teletypesetter was originally a sister company to Teletype.  It was sold
> to Fairchild when AT&T was forced to divest of products not directly
> related to communication.  The two companies shared engineers. The
> complete system consisted of a tape-driven controller for the Linotype
> or other typesetting machine, a nontyping reperforator to produce the
> tape, Model 20 printer, and a keyboard tape perforator.  All using
> 6-level code.  The perforator was complicated because it had to handle
> setting a line of type where the characters were of different widths
> and allow for "space bands" to take up the extra space between characters
> when a full line had been punched.  There are lots of patents on the
> perforators, suggesting it took several tries to get a satisfactory
> product.  The nontyping reperforator was essentially a standard Teletype
> product in a 6-level code.  Model 20 was basically a Model 15 printer
> rigged to handle 6-level code and upper/lower case characters.  It was
> useful for reading the copy in the tape, but lacking proportional spacing
> it could not really show how a column of print would turn out.  So a
> Teletypesetter system contained parts made by Teletypesetter and parts
> made by Teletype.
>
> There is some evidence that AT&T anticipated a market for up/low case
> teleprinting using Model 20 and a simple keyboard and perforator that
> did not deal with proportional spacing.  But apparently the market never
> was there.  Much later Model 29 was supposed to be a version of Model 28
> that would replace Model 20 but there was never a market for it. So
> what was called Model 29 was a computer BCD code machine which was not
> supposed to be used outside the Bell System.  Probably one reason for
> lack of market interest was that newspapers were turning to offset
> printing instead of hot type.
>
> I'm not sure what the machine in the picture is, since it doesn't have
> the end-of-line indicator needed for typesetting.  Maybe it's just
> that those parts are missing.
>
> ---
>
>     "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
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