[GreenKeys] Sprocket feed paper

[jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu]

I meant to comment on this when it came up earlier, and I never got around
to it.

I got some sprocket feed paper by phoning Moore Business Forms.  The only
hitch was getting it paid for.  They said they could charge it to my 
credit card, and after the paper came they sent a bill where it said to
charge my credit card.  So a month went by and they sent another bill,
and I called, and they assured me it would be charged to the credit card.
And then a third bill, with language about being overdue, so I just sent
a check for it and told them not to charge the credit card.

Anyway, there was no problem at all getting the paper that fits the
Teletype printers.

A very early Bell System memo noted that customers wanted to use 
multi-copy pre-printed forms with Teletype equipment.  The only 
satisfactory way to do this was with sprocket feed.  With friction feed
the multiple copies of the forms will not stay in register.  So the
sprocket feed feature was developed for the Model 15.  And in those days
it was apparently OK for the forms to be 8-1/2" wide including the 
sprocket feed edges.

It's unfortunate that when they were designing the Model 28 they didn't
make the typing unit an inch wider; it would have been easy at the time.
But for some reason it seemed that the Model 15 platen was wide enough.
If people really needed to get more characters per line there was a kit
for 12 characters per inch horizontal spacing.

But when we got into computers everybody wanted to be able to print 80
character lines because that was the width of a punched card.  And they
wanted to do it with sprocket feed, and they wanted to use sprocket feed
paper that was 8-1/2" wide after you tore off the tapes containing the
feed holes.  So Teletype engineers were able, with considerable 
difficulty, to make a 9-1/2" sprocket feed platen fit into a Model 35.