[Milsurplus] [die at dieconsulting.com: Re: WWII Facsmile]

[David I. Emery]

On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 09:28:08PM +0000, gl4d21a at juno.com wrote:

> What was the name of the company that made the FAX paper and machines
> as used by the weather bureau?  I can still smell the burning smell of
> that stuff, but can't come up with the name.  We used it for an
> ultrasonic inspection readout back in the '60s.

	Depends on the era - from early 60s - late 90s weather bureau
fax in the USA was Alden.   They made both the machines and the paper -
which was wet electrolytic paper fed from rolls inside the machine that
produced maps in a reddish brown color.   Their technology was pretty
much proprietary and not used (except as OEM'd components) by anyone
else, but they did more or less own the US weather fax market.

	Before that there were machines that used a tungsten stylus with
high voltage AC on it to quite literally burn off a whitish zinc oxide
coating layer over a very dark carbon black layer blended with normal
paper fibers - thus exposing the black layer in dark areas of text or
graphics.    Most early machines using this technology were sheet fed by
hand wrapping a sheet of paper around a drum, though there were rolls of
paper used by a few of these machines at one time.

	The Alden machines with the wet paper had a certain
characteristic smell from the chemicals used on the paper, but this was
hardly a burning smell... and they didn't make a lot of noise (sort of a
swishing sound when the helix drum was turning and paper was feeding).

	The sparking stylus machines definitely did produce smoke and a
strong smell... and quite a bit of noise, both from the phonic wheel
audio frequency AC motors they often used to turn the drum at a precise
rate (using a tuning fork frequency standard) and from the noise of the
arc from the tungsten stylus to the paper.   Lord knows if the chemicals
and particulates released into the air by this burning process would
pass muster with the environmental health police today - I suspect not.

	I think some of the early zinc coated paper was brand named
Teleodoes or something like that - but I don't particularly remember -
aside from Western Union's flirtation with this technology as "DeskFax"
- any well known brand name for both machine and paper.

	Quite a few early fax machines used by the military were made by
a company called Times Facsimile... 

-- 
  Dave Emery N1PRE/AE, die at dieconsulting.com  DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493
"An empty zombie mind with a forlorn barely readable weatherbeaten
'For Rent' sign still vainly flapping outside on the weed encrusted pole - in 
celebration of what could have been, but wasn't and is not to be now either."