Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: kaufman@neon.stanford.edu (Marc T. Kaufman) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Technical Specifications of TTY Machines Message-ID:Date: 25 Sep 89 00:51:38 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: "Marc T. Kaufman" Organization: Stanford University, Computer Science Dept. Lines: 42 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 405, message 5 of 5 In article Mike Morris writes: >As a side note, the standard speeds were 60, 75 and 100 words a minute, >using either a standard length stop pulse or a 1.5 length stop pulse. The mechanical stop pulse was 1.42 bits long. This has to do with the time required to mechanically unclutch and reclutch the motor to the decode wheel. > The Type 32 is the last of the mechanical 5-level machines, >(I was told it was a redesign of the 26) and it interestingly came in a 3-row >and a 4-row configuration. Was there a 4-row 32, or was it really the 33? I had all the catalogs, and never saw a 4-row 5-level machine. > The famous type 33 is the common 8-level >machine that I learned BASIC on, interestingly it's stiff keyboard is >blamed for the "tersenes" of UNIX (tm). The type 35 is the standard >8-level heavy duty machine. The 37 was an attempt at a upper/lower case >8-level machine - I've only seen 3 in my life, and one of those was in >a scrap heap - supposedly it was a maintenance nightmare. The 37 had a typebox like the 35, but twice as large (for the lower case characters). It ran at 150 bps. 15 characters per second was just slightly too fast for the mechanical parts to keep up. It also had a two color ribbon, with the color switch available via the "stunt box" (a special relay bank tripped by certain character sequences). >The 40 was >an attempt at a do-all-end-all integrated system that never made it - I >saw only a few in use, and those were used as dumb terminals. The >saving grace was the printer - it was built like a mini-IBM-1403, a >train mechanism and was almost indestructible. I saw several in use >on minicomputer systems, running day in and out with no downtime. There was one model of the type 40 printer that would allow you to rip off the top form (the one just printed) without wasting the form below. It was used extensively by travel agencies and ticket sales outlets... anywhere serialized form stock was required. Marc Kaufman (kaufman@Neon.stanford.edu)