[GreenKeys] Something interesting over on ePay...

[Duncan Brown]

Jim,

I got that date range from the Teletype Corp. Museum Books (book 5, p36):

    "_PRODUCED & QUANTITY_:   1937-1949  7,623 (24-26 types) sold"

    "_PRIMARY CUSTOMER(S)_:   Bell System (5,628)  Other (1,995)"



I assumed (or read somewhere) that the M26 would have gone out of 
production sooner, but that all the M15s were going to the war effort 
and the M26 was the only machine available for commercial/TWX use.

Have fun,

Duncan
K2OEQ


On 07-Apr-18 10:58, Jim Haynes wrote:
> 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.
>
>
>



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