[GreenKeys] Western union telegram printer

[Jeffrey Golas]

Cool, so...technically...if one could disable the punching of a 14, and feed it skinnier tape, that would replicate the WU printing (although figures/numbers wouldnt work).

Makes you wonder why they never just put the stock into a page printer, but the later variety of designs and themes I guess played into that.

The 14 I have seems to use the standard 5-bit size tape, Ill have to double check that though. (I actually have..3 14s now, but the collection I acquired earlier this year included a fully working 14).

My one struggle with it is the printing quality; I think I figured out how to set up the ribbon but it was fairly washed out, the newer/modern ribbons are probably too dry for it. I set it up another way which worked much better but left smears on the tape.


Jeff

> On Oct 1, 2023, at 9:24 PM, Duncan Brown <duncanancy at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
>  The unit that printed WU messages on a narrow strip of gummed paper from 1926 to c1960 was the Western Union Model 2B (WU's model number), which was first manufactured by the Morkrum-Kleinschmidt Corp. (after 1928, known as the Teletype Corp.).  With the addition of punching ability, it became the Teletype Corp. M14.
> 
> 
> <WU gumdesk.jpg>
> 
> 
> 
> Both the tape printer version and the reperforator version of the M14 were produced by Teletype Corp at the same time.  "Model 14" was a Bell designation. Teletype Corp. used a letter combination for model designation ( M14 = "Fxx"; M28 = "Lxx"; etc).  I don't know offhand what the different designators were for the M14 tape printer and reperf.
> 
> The M14 tape printers were also used by Bell TWX operators to communicate with TWX subscribers. The tape printer was much cheaper and more compact than a M15.
> 
> 
> Have fun,
> 
> Duncan
> K2OEQ
> 
>> On 30-Sep-23 23:39, Jeffrey Golas wrote:
>> Just curious, what printed the text that would go into a western union telegram? Obviously it was printed on tape, but that wasnt on a Teletype, right? Even the tape models like the 14 punch as well.
>> 
>> Jeff
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> 
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