AP Model 20 teletype

Model 20 Teletype, as used by Associated Press.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• model
• 20
• teletype
• associated
• press

[quirpco]

Wow, did these things break down a lot?

[buzbee1]

@quirpco Actually, they did not break down much. When kept well lubricated, you could expect them to crank out copy 24/7 for years. They are remarkably well-engineered machines.

[douro20]

The encoding vanes actually carry the data to be printed in Baudot code.

[buzbee1]

@douro20 If this were a Model 15 machine, you would be correct. However the Model 20 was designed for upper and lower-case use. The 5-level Baudot code has only upper-case letters, so the Model 20 uses 6-level TTS code.

[quirpco]

@buzbee1 That's great. You don't see much of that kind of quality anymore.

[ZeusDeusEx]

is it built of relays or transistors?

[dcatransit]

What a maintenance nightmare! But SUCH a cool machine...

[douro20]

@vaporland

They both are.

[jtel]

Fascinating.  That's a lot of mechanical moving parts!

[KMBCGeno]

I've been in radio and TV since the early 1970s. I really really miss the sound of these machines, clattering away in the newsroom.

I did work at a TV station which had one that would print upper and lower case. We only used it to receive horse racing results, which -- if I remember correctly -- came from UPI. The other machine was the regular upper-case only type, which brought us AP news, weather, sports, etc.