In article , "JAMES HAMPTON"
writes:

Heck, anyone who has used one of those old green machines knows how they
were. Folks should be very grateful for the modern pc. The electronics are
far more rugged than the old teletypes. I've often stared at the 100 word
per minute mechanical beasties clanking away and wondered how they could do
that without flying apart. Of course, they did break down now and then ...


"Green?" All the ones I've ever worked with were black (old Model
15 to 19) or different shades of Teletype Corporation gray (Model
28 or 33)... :-)

Teletype Corporation ought to get a standing ovation for some
excellent mechanical design in those old teleprinters. They were
robust performers that went on for days at a time needing only to
be fed paper and (once in a while) a new ribbon.

The old 60 WPM units were tried out at 75 WPM on a few Army
circuits in 1955. MTBF went to hell at that speed and those circuits
had very high maintenance turn-over. Restored to 60 WPM speeds,
they continued on as if nothing had happened. Used the old type
cage structure of the manual/electric typewriters.

The "stunt box" (literally a box of type) used on the newer 100
WPM models did awesome things, true, fun to watch while
waiting for a program's answer back. Never had one "lock up" in
some strange mode, though, that including the old all-caps 60
WPM machines with Caps/Figs keys.

By 1980 the matrix printer was IN for anyone needing text
throughput, honking out 300 WPM with just a polite buzz instead
of the clatter-bang of the mechanical teleprinters. My little Epson
MX-80 (purchased in 1980) is still operational but it can't be given
away in this age of inkjet printers that tosses out an entire page
of text in 5 seconds (draft mode, black and white). The only sound
from the "old" HP 722 inkjet printer is the paper-advance stepping
motor; inkjets themselves being inaudible.

But, the Archaic Radiotelegraphy Society (ARS) isn't really
interested in communications per se, is it? ARS is all about
HOW the communications is done, not the comms' content. :-)

Most Best Holiday Greetings,