wrote in message
roups.com...

TTY rates jumped from 60 WPM to
100 WPM,

Hardly a "jump", Len. More like a slide.


I'll have to side with Len on this one. It was a JUMP, not a slide or
a
slither.

When the USN fleet broadcasts shifted to JASON cover (100WPM) from
black
uncovered (60WPM), estimates are that the TTY casualty rate approached
75%.

Machines which had been happily chugging along for years on 60WPM
gears
literally self-destructed when 100WPM gears were installed.

In two experiments on a few circuits over RUAP (the
TTY network identifier of messages carried through
ADA) of 1955, the various teleprinters were modified
with "new gears" to operate at 75 WPM. After three
months the downtime on those modified machines
quadrupled. Another experiment was tried in 1956
(after I had been sent back to the states) but that
modified-existing-machine-type was also a negative-
result test. Note: Those circuits were running
24/7 and with backup possible on older 60 WPM stcck
machines.

The newer 100 WPM teleprinters began to come into
operational Army use in the 1960s. See the Model
33s from Teletype Corporation which served both
industry and the military quite well for the next
two decades.

The Army had tried both a punch-card and magnetic
card system for message relay in the late 1960s but
with mixed success. While higher rates were possible
without the strain on P-tape punchers-readers now
replaced by cards, those would evolve into the
all-electronic message relay systems. USAF did the
same.

Sorry, can't think of any fancy names applied to
any of the land-based systems. :-) Guess it isn't
as romantic as what the Navy had with names like
ADONIS or JASON (if you like horror that one might
be considered "romantic" - :-] ).