[GreenKeys] Something interesting over on ePay...

[Jim Haynes]

On Sat, 7 Apr 2018, Duncan Brown wrote:

> The M26 was in production from 1937-1949, so it was a "WWII era" machine,
> even if not used by the military.

Are you sure?  I thought manufacture was discontinued in 1939, tho they
kept making spare parts until about '49 and the machines in Bell System
service remained in service until about then.  The official story is that
the 26 was supposed to be a light-duty lower-cost machine for TWX service.
The role that the 32/33 line was intended to play later.  But they found
the expense of making and maintaining two different models, 15 and 26,
was great enough to wipe out the savings the 26 was supposed to produce.

The 26s were allowed to remain in service until the early 1950s.  At that
time the Bell companies were persuaded to release the machines to hams
rather than smashing them up.  A flood of them became available at that
time, so the 26 was perhaps the predominant ham TTY machine for several
years.  15s were harder to come by because they were still in commercial
and military use (including outside the U.S.)  The previous  ham machines
were 12s, which were much less desirable than the 26s, so most of them
got scrapped.

I've heard a few scattered reports of M26s being used in the military,
but certainly not mainstream when the military could get all the 15s
they wanted, and later 28s.  Perhaps some 26s were tried for shipboard
use - 15s were a problem on shipboard because of that heavy type basket
getting slung around as the ship pitched and rolled.  Which is why the
Navy had first call on all the 28s that were manufactured for several
years.