[GreenKeys] Scottish Teleprinter Video

[John Nagle]

> From: Keelan Lightfoot<keelan at grenander.com>
> Subject: [GreenKeys] Scottish Teleprinter Video
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpTf9S_07NQ
> For the impatient, fast-forward to 4:36

     British torn tape switching.  For some reason,
British equipment was bigger and clunkier than US
or German equipment.  The modem for GPO teleprinters
(the huge grey box with red and white lights shown at 5:47)
was enormous.  And that's a late model.  Earlier models were
in a wooden box.  One of those monsters was in each office
with a teleprinter.

     Teleprinters were big in Scotland and Ireland well
into the 1980s.  In 1985, I went on a trip from Carna
to Galway on horseback, and all the stopping places
along the way had teletype machines.  The phone system
to the outlying areas was still manual, but the teleprinter
network was dial-up and worked internationally, so people
who had dealings with the outside world had a teleprinter
at home.  One mother said to her kid, who was
heading to another house, "Send me a Telex when you get
there".