[GreenKeys] teletype...Whhhyyy?!

[Jim Haynes]

Well Teletype made all their own screws and nuts in-house, so they were not concerned
about buying what was most commonly used.  Until it came to Model 32/33 where they started
using things like power screwdrivers and self-tapping screws in the assembly process.

I have a saying - when you have a factory that can make anything they will make too many things.
The parent company Western Electric also made a lot of its own hardware in-house, though they
tended to use the coarse-thread standard for bolts.

I don't know about the cost of inventory maintaining, but when you consider the large number of
Teletype maintenance parts, most of them odd shaped things, maybe screws and nuts were considered
too minor to worry about.  And the view of things may have been distorted by general telephone company
policies.  Central office equipment was supposed to have something like a 40 year service life, so
Western Electric was expected to maintain spare parts for all that time.  For Teletype something as bad
as screws and nuts were springs.  A telephone operating company could expect Western Electric to
supply repair parts for Teletype and other equipment for as long as it remained in service.

There's a lot of stuff I have no direct knowledge of, can only speculate.  Model 12 was essentially
obsoleted by Model 15, but apparently lots of the machines remained in service through the 1930s and
1940s.  So I guess spare parts were still being made until at some point the Bell System told Teletype
to quit making any more of them.  Then there's the case of Model 26.  Bell wanted a lower cost page
machine than the 15 for light-duty TWX service.  Model 26 was developed to suit that requirement.
But then "they" discovered that it didn't really save any money when they had to make and maintain
two different models in the field.  So Model 26 was produced for only a short time in the late 1930s.
And if cost had not killed it WW-II probably would have since there was a need for maximum productivity
of teleprinters and Model 15 was there.  Model 26  machines continued in TWX service until the
early-mid 1950s.  At that point the telephone companies started taking them out of service and
selling them to hams.  So I suppose that means that Teletype was told they could quit supplying
maintenance parts about that time.

Model 15 remained in production until about 1960, as until then the 28ASR had not gone into
production and Model 19 was still available new.  So I assume most Model 15 parts remained
available until the end of the company.  There were still lots of Model 15 machines in service until
about then.

Model 32/33 achieved what the Model 26 had been intended to achieve.  It involved a really serious
attempt to cut cost, in contrast to the Model 26 which was built along traditional lines.

As I recall something did change near the end of Teletype.  For most of the time all customers,
Western Electric and everybody else, paid the same price for maintenance parts.  I seem to recall
a parts price list very late where the prices to non-Bell companies had been increased, in consideration
of a more normal attitude about the cost of maintaining a stock of maintenance parts.  Because so
long as Western Electric was the customer, the customer could dictate the price it paid for what it
bought.
-----Original Message-----
From: W2HX <w2hx at w2hx.com>
Sent: Dec 30, 2022 11:00 AM
To: Jim Haynes <jhhaynes at earthlink.net>
Cc: Greenkeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] teletype...Whhhyyy?!

So that makes sense. But for non-critical, non-thin situations, why not use something more common? These standoffs for the rear terminal strips are certainly non-critical. No biggie. Just very interesting to ponder the decisions made at such a large corporation with some very complex mechanical wizardry at foot. I also would guess that maintaining inventory for more than one thread if not necessary would be an added cost.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Haynes
Sent: Friday, December 30, 2022 9:20 AM
To: W2HX
Cc: Greenkeys
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] teletype...Whhhyyy?!


Teletype normally used the fine-thread standard hardware such as 6-40, 8-36, 10-32. Better quality. If you are building precision machinery you want more threads per inch, especially if you are screwing into fairly thin metal.

On Fri, 30 Dec 2022, W2HX wrote:

>
> It is like they intentionally went out of their way to make things
> difficult.  I am looking at simple screw standoff that hold the rear
> terminal strips in place on a 28ASR. What is the thread? Looks like
> 6-32 to me, no problem. Wait? No, it is 6-40 thread! Whhhhyy!?
>
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