Things - Adam Mayer Explains The Teletype Model 15

Before the internet, people got their news over the wire by using the magical and mechanical powers of the teletype. Adam Mayer walks us through the workings of this teletype he just restored.

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• 15
• adam
• bre
• mayer
• model
• nycresistor
• pettis
• teletype
• things
• wire

[hfurjiskkr5]

Thank you for putting the time in the this. I was fun to watch.

[luridplanet]

I used a teletype in the 70s, hooked-up to a mainframe computer. It was super clunky to use - I could type about 20wpm on it. All the sysops cheered when we got CRTs w/typewriter keyboards.

[OofusTwillip]

The sounds remind me of the thrill I used to get when I was really little, and stores used electro-mechanical cash registers. Too bad they'd all be replaced by electronic registers just a few years later.

Fortunately, I managed to acquire an NCR series 52 for just $20. Unfortunately, the mechanism is frozen, after years of being in storage at the place I bought it from, and, if I can find someone in the Toronto area who can clean it up and restore it, it'll cost me a lot more than $20!

[armysandy]

Reminds me of the time I was visiting a DEW Line site in Cambridge Bay and the Americans were throwing Model 15s and Model 19s into the local dump (some of them were practically brand new. It broke my heart to see them go and I could not get permission to take them back to Calgary after the exercise.  We were still using them so a lot of parts went back with me (wink). I would love to have one now.

[amartini51]

@TalksWithDirt After every 5 data bits, there were one and a half "stop" bits for the machine to reset, followed by one "start" bit used to synch the sender and receiver up for the coming 5 bits. BTW, packeting is a level of abstraction higher than the data stream.

[FoundGrindage]

worste idea ever to do it

[TalksWithDirt]

So no packeting scheme. It was just a strait 5 bit stream? There must have been a way to sync on bit positions. 32 characters.

[WhiteLakeDan]

Oh boy, I remember these! I was a Teletype and Crypto Technician in the Canadian Forces and I have fixed hundreds of these things in the 1970s. They were actually quite easy to fix unlike the model 28 which was a real pain. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[sandhgreen]

What I like about a Teletype Machine is that it was the culmination of electro-mechanical telecommunications.

It took ingenuity to come up with these wildly successful machines. For decades they were THE way to communicate.

I only hope that samples of these machines are preserved, in working order, forever.

If I ever come across a Teletype, I will buy it up immediately.

[retiredpwwu]

did you see the pull bar bail plunger roller??