[GreenKeys] Interesting WU film on You Tube

[Paul Heller]

> On Dec 3, 2016, at 7:49 PM, John Nagle <nagle at animats.com> wrote:
> 
>> From: Richard Knoppow <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com>
>> Subject: [GreenKeys] Interesting WU film on You Tube
>> 
>>    Interesting 1950s W.U. promo film at
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv7ffGUnB-I
>> 
>> Pix of all sorts of machines and gummed strips being mounted.
>> 
>> -- Richard Knoppow 1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com WB6KBL
> 
>   That's "Telegram for America", which is well known.
> Most of the Model 14 variants appear in that film -
> keyboard perforator, tape printer (with and without
> the oval window for the bell switch), reperforator,
> transmitter-distributor, and loop gate transmitter.
> 
>   There are shots of a Plan 55-A automatic switching center,
> and what appears to be a Plan 21-A semi-automatic
> switching center.
> 
>   The entire WU telegram system didn't use page printers
> until near the 1950s.  It was all tape printers until 1955,
> when someone finally invented a word wrap unit which could add CR LF
> at the right spot.  This was attached to a Model 15
> equipped with fanfold paper and sprocket feed, so
> telegrams could at last be printed without manual tape
> gumming.
> 
> http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/archives/technical/western-union-tech-review/10-1/p040.htm
> 
> 			John Nagle
> 

I had no idea that such a tape based messaging system existed and was so automated. It seems like the precursor to the internet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interface_Message_Processor <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interface_Message_Processor>

I’m curious how they knew how/where to rout the message on to the next center. Was there some kind of indication at the beginning of the tape that had the destination address, and somehow something (a stunt box) read that and connected to the proper onward circuit?

Paul

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