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  Most recent updates on this page:

	21-July-2010: added RCA section
	21-Mar-2010: expanded Thomson section.
	15-Feb-2010: added section on Thomson solid state Feld-Hell compatible machine
	14-Feb-2010: added 2 literature refs for L.M.T.
	7-Jan-2010: added 2 literature refs. in RC-58-B section
	29-Dec-2009: added documents and info about FACIT printers
	17-Dec-2009 : added article about LMT 7-tone machine, manual for RC-58-B and BC908 article
	18-Nov-2009: added photos of NVA Hellschreiber, incl. 3D, and BC-918-B diagrams
	20-Oct-2009: added TTK/Sony machine
	10-Oct-2009: added BC908/918 and LMT section.

    

Besides Siemens-Halske, there have been other manufacturers of teletype machines that use the Hellschreiber printer principle. Presented below are the ones for which I have pictures and other information.

If you have any additional information or documentation on these machines (or on other Hellschreibers from other manufacturers), please contact me.

[Teletype Model 17]        [EMA 125]        [NVA Hellschreiber]   [TTK/Sony]    [Thomson]

 [RCA]    [RC-58-B (BC-908-/BC-918-B)]      [LMT]      [FACIT]      [Moser-Baer UV200a]    [Q]

Kleinschmidt is behind the development of Teletype Corp.'s Model 17 teleprinter. Model 17 transmits from a keyboard or a 5-bit punch tape, see ref. 1. Based on its characteristics it is, in essence, a copy of the Hell Feldfernschreiber, and should be compatible with it:

	7-column characters (of which 5 used).
	shortest pulse of 4 msec
	transmission rate of 122.5 Bd.
	the tone frequency is 1000 Hz, vs. 900 Hz of the Feld-Hell, but that does not prevent interoperability.
	printer mechanism with a 2-turn spindle, a knife-edge hammer, and a felt ink roller.
	prints on paper tape: "standard" ¾" (19 mm) ticker tape paper  vs. the Feld-Hell's 15 mm wide tape.
	its motor runs at half the speed of the Feld-Hell’s (1800 vs. 3600 rpm), but that is just a design choice.
	it does automatically stop the paper transport if no signal is received for about 10 sec.

The Teletype Model 17 system - printer and keyboard-drum/punch-tape unit on SXT-1 table
(source: Teletype Spec S-5226, see below

The Teletype Model 17 character-drum unit
(stack of notched character-disks; source: Teletype Spec S-5226, see below)

The Teletype Model 17 printer
(source: Teletype Spec S-5226, see below)
 

Teletype Corp. was originally named Morkrum Co., after the founders Joy Morton and Charles & Howard Krum.

References:

	"Grundlagen der Springschreibertechnik“ (Part 1-5), F. Schiweck, Telegraphen-, und Fernsprech-Technik, Jg. 25, Nr. 3, March 1936, pp. 53-57, Nr. 4, April 1936, pp. 91-97, Nr. 6, June 1936, pp. 139-144, Nr. 9, September 1936, pp. 245-250, Nr. 11, November 1936, pp. 307-313; also: Fernmelde-Technik, 1937,  Siemens & Halske A. G., Wernerwerk, Berlin-Siemensstadt; also:  SH. 6623, 1939 - to be added nov/dec 2009
	Specification S-5226 "Description of Teletype Model 17 Radio Printer System Using 7 Line Character Pattern" Issue 1 of 1939, 5 pp.
	Specification S-5186 "Adjustment of the Radio Distributor (Model 17)", Issue 1, October 1938, 9 pp.
	Bulletin No. 1096: "Parts, Scanning Distributor (Model 17)", Issue 1, July 1942, 24 pp.
	WD-1747 "Wiring Diagram - Table for 17 Type Printer System", Issue F, March 1941
	WD-1902 "Wiring Diagram - 17 Type Rectifier Amplifier" (power supply), Issue A, April 1941
	WD-2004 "Wiring Diagram - Transmitter X-12 Type 17 Printer System", Issue A, December 1940
	WD-2012 "Wiring Diagram of Facsimile Syn. Motor", Issue C, March 1941
	WD-2014 "Actual and Schematic Wiring Diagrams of REC17", Issue A, January 1941
	WD-2036 "Wiring Diagram for 17 Type Printer Transmitting Table", March 1941
	WD-2039 "Wiring Diagram of Receiving Station Cable Connections between Apparatus Units. 17 Type Printer System", March 1941
	Specification S-5286 "Description and Adjustments of the Teletype REC17 Rectifier", Issue 1, January 1941, 2 pp.
	Specification S-5287 "Instructions for Mounting an REC-17 Rectifier on an SXT-1 Table Using the 101485 Set of Parts", Issue 1, January 1941, 1 pp.
	Specification S-5288 "Lubrication Supplies and Directions for Use", Issue 1, January 1941, 2 pp.
	Specification S-5298 "Instructions for Adjusting, Lubricating and Preparing Model 17 Radio Printers for Operation", Issue 1, March 1941, 16 pp.
	Instruction Manual No. 6 "Teletype Model 17 Radio Printer Systems", March 1941, 1 p. (list of applicable documents)

The above Teletype documents are courtesy Jim Haynes, W6JVE; used with permission.

Links:

	History section of RTTY.COM
	Teletype Company section of RTTY.COM
	Vom Drucktelegraphen zum Telex-Netz

A while ago, Remmelt-Jan (PAØRJW) brought t omy attention the existence of the Swiss-made Hell-Printer Type 125. It was manufactured by EMA AG of Meilen (Switzerland, a little over 10 km (6 mi) to the south-east of Zürich, on the north-shore of Lake Zürich, Zürisee to the locals). The company was founded in 1945, moved to Meilen in 1947, and was closed in 1988. Their primary products were measurement instruments. There still exists at least one company named EMA in or near Meilen these days, but apparently they are not related to the Hell-printer manufacturer of the same name.

As the model name suggests, Hell-Printer Type 125 is a printer-only unit. It does not have a keyboard or punch-tape reader for sending. It is unknown if there ever was a matching sender unit. One EMA's major customers was the Schweizerische Bundesbahnen (SBB, Swiss Railway Co.). They may well have been the customer for this Hell-Printer (though the text on the front panel is in English...).

If you have any additional information or documentation on these machines, please contact me.

Front-panel of the EMA Hell-Printer Type 125
(courtesy Remmelt-Jan, PAØRJW)

The unit has controls for an audio bandpass filter (900 Hz, 1300 Hz, off), audio volume, "automatic on/off, speed regulator, printer start/stop, main power on/off, and "write control" (?). There is a bracket for an external roll of paper tape. There are headphone jacks on the front panel, and jacks for 5 Ω (loudspeaker?), 600 Ω (phone line), and 10 kΩ on the rear. The unit has 3 tubes: EF22, EBL21, and an AZ1 (rectifier).

Top view of the EMA Hell-Printer Type 125
(courtesy Remmelt-Jan, PAØRJW)

 
Bottom view of the EMA Hell-Printer Type 125
(courtesy Remmelt-Jan, PAØRJW)

The Nationale Volksarmee (NVA, National People's Army, 1956-1990) of the German (not so) Democratic Republic (GDR, a.k.a. "East Germany) also used Hellschreibers. If you have information or documentation on these machines beyond what is show below, please contact me.

The model shown below dates back to ca. 1960 and is a cross-over between Feld-Hell and Hell 72 "GL":

	the character drum is like that of the Feld-Hell: as shown in the photo immediately below, pixels are captured as metal patches (the drum of the "GL" is a stack of notched disks).
	operation uses "start-stop" synchronization, like the "GL". Hence, the printer spindle has a single-turn thread and paper is 9.5 mm wide.

The character drum of the NVA Hellschreiber

(photo courtesy Heinz, DC4GL)
 

Note the start-bit at the top of the image, and the (vertical) wear marks of the spring contacts. In the Feld-Hell drum, the patches are separated by character and they are interconnected below the dark layer of insulation material. In the NVA machine, for each column of the font, the pixel patches of adjacent characters are interconnected into patterns at the drum circumference, in addition to interconnections below the insulation material. The NVA drum has a diameter of 4 cm.

The printer-keyboard unit is hinged into the case, and could be folded up into it.
 

The NVA Hellschreiber

The printer/keyboard/drum unit of the NVA Hellschreiber

(photo courtesy Heinz, DC4GL)

 

Close-up of the printer - note the large diameter of the printer spindle (helix) and an ink-transfer roller between the spindle and the felt ink-roller
 

Label of the above NVA Hellschreiber - "FFS" presumably stands for Feldfernschreiber 
 

The NVA-FFS was manufactured by RFT. RFT was a collective of telecommunications equipment and electronic component manufacturers, founded in 1946. More info can be found here (in German)

3-D photo of the NVA Hellschreiber
(you will need red/green glasses to get the stereoscopic effect)

Around 1947, Nobutoshi Kihara, an engineer at Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo ("Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp., renamed Sony Corp. in 1958) reverse-engineered the Hellschreiber. It was referred to by its generic designator "tape facsimile equipment", rather than Hellschreiber.

Ref.: "Oral-History: Nobutoshi Kihara" (interview with Sony engineer), IEEE Global History Network, People and Organizations, January 2009.

The company only manufactured and sold a handful of these machines (10-20) in 1949, before it  was discontinued due to other technological advances and pursuits.
 

The TTK Hellschreiber

The photo above was added to the corporate archive with the following caption:

TAPE FACSIMILE EQUIPMENT. This is a very simple printing telegraph equipment, by which letters typewritten on the transmitter side will be instantly reproduced on the receiver side. In a word, this is really a good combination of the features of teletype end facsimile. Its construction is simple and it's much easier to use it than ordinary printing telegraph equipments. Both Alphabet and Japanese phonetic letters ("kana") can be transmitted. Both the use of this equipment, the information of stock market, news, etc., can be transmitted to the subscriber on private lines. Machines have been tested and approved by the Ministry of Communication, and the Ministry of Transportation.

Photo and information: courtesy of Mr. Fumiko Okudera, Planning & Archive Group, Sony Corp., Tokyo.

During the late 1930s, RCA also developed some tape facsimile machines. The printers used a "rotating spiral", per the Hellschreiber-principle. On the sending side, text was typed on a paper tape and subsequently optically scanned with 60 scanning strokes per second (60 Hz / 110 Vac synchronous motor). RCA investigated three ways to : 1) a two-turn printer helix, 2) synchronous AC motors at the sending and receiving station, connected to a common AC power supply grid (a within-the-same-building solution), and 3) the use of synchronization pulses. The latter consisted of "marginal pulses" that were transmitted at the end of each line of scanned tape at the transmitter. As illustrated by the schematic below, the associated sync pulse recovery and motor-drive circuitry was not simple, and required a motor with an additional commutator. Telegraphy speed was 60 WPM, paper tape width 3/8 inch (≈9.5 mm) with a character height of 1/8 inch. Like the early Hell prototypes, the printers used carbon paper tape between paper tape and spiral.

Tape facsimile scanner

(adapted from Fig. 2 in second reference below)

Samples of asynchronous and synchronous tape facsimile recordings

(source: Fig 1 and 13 in second reference below)

Early RCA portable tape facsimile recorder

(source: figure 2 in first reference below)

RCA tape facsimile recorder

(source: figure 4 in the second reference below)

(source: second reference below)

	"Tape facsimile: historical and descriptive note", Young, C.J., pp. 264-269 in "Radio facsimile - Volume 1", Goldsmith, A.N., Van Dyck, A.F., Horn, C.W., Morris, R.M., Galvin, L. (eds.), RCA Institutes Technical Press, 1938, 353 pp.
	"Tape Facsimile Synchronizing Systems", Shore, H., Whitaker, J.N, pp. 270-283 in "Radio facsimile - Volume 1", Goldsmith, A.N., Van Dyck, A.F., Horn, C.W., Morris, R.M., Galvin, L. (eds.), RCA Institutes Technical Press, 1938, 353 pp.
	"Practical applications of tape facsimile systems", Whitaker, J.N., Collings, F.C., pp. 284-293 in "Radio facsimile - Volume 1", Goldsmith, A.N., Van Dyck, A.F., Horn, C.W., Morris, R.M., Galvin, L. (eds.), RCA Institutes Technical Press, 1938, 353 pp.

RC-58-B is the designator of a US Signal Corps tape facsimile system from the early 1940s. It was developed for "faxing" handwritten text messages during mobile operation (hence 12 Vdc power).

The main equipment items of this system are:

	Recorder-scanner BC-918 (with cover BG-118-B and mounting FT-328-B)
	Amplifier BC-908 (with cover BG-128-B and mounting FT-318B)
	Writing-stand MC-308B
	Paper tape M-298
	Spare parts chest CH-108-B.

Text to be transmitted is handwritten onto paper tape. This is done with a writing stand. It has a separate roll of paper tape that is passed through a ⅜ inch (9½ mm) high window (i.e., half the width of the tape). During the writing process, the tape moves at 18 inch per minute (≈ 45 cm/min, close to the paper transportation speed of the Hell Feldfernschreiber). The tape with the written message is subsequently passed through the optical scanner of the BC-918. The scanner has a resolution of 72 lines (columns) per lineal inch of tape (≈ 0.35 mm/column). Scanning and transmission speed is 50 inch/minute (about 1.27 m/s, almost three times as fast as the Hell Feldfernschreiber). Assuming ¼ inch per character, these speeds are equivalent to a telegraphy speed of 15 wpm for writing, and 40 wpm for scanning, transmitting, and printing.

Optical progressive-scanning principle and mechanism (above: Figure 16 in TM 11-374)

The "recorder" is a regular Hellschreiber printer with a 2-turn spindle. It prints onto ¾ inch wide paper tape (19 mm). Own-machine's transmissions can be printed simultaneously on the local printer, for monitoring purposes (as with Hellschreibers).

Supposedly, the analog (brightness) output of the scanner is used to drive FM-modulate the audio output signal (1150 Hz for white, 1650 Hz for black). It is not (yet) clear to me why FM modulation is used in conjunction with a black-and-white printer… As with all Hellschreibers, the RC-58-B can be used for communication via radio or over phone lines.

If you have any additional information or documentation on these machines, please contact me.

See the ZETFAX of the Hell Co. for another example of a tape fax system with optical scanning.

BC-918-B Facsimile Recorder/Scanner

Recorder-scanner BC-918-B and mounting
(Figure 3 in TM 11-374)

	"Tape Facsimile Equipment RC-58-B", War Department Technical Manual TM 11-374, 23 February 1944, 145 pp. (courtesy Louis Gonzales, F5LG). This file is 109 MB! Lower-res file (66 MB) is here.     new
	"Un Convertisseur RTTY de surplus - le BC 908B" [modification of the BC908B (amplifier/filter unit of the RC-58B system with optical scan + Hellschreiber printer) for RTTY], J.P. Vauchelle (F5QE), Radio-REF, November 1969, pp. 729-733.    new
	“Amerikaans Hell system”, Reflecties door PA0SE, Dick Rollema (PA0SE), Electron, nr. 7, July 1980, p. 382  (courtesy Gerard Wolthuis, PA3BCB)   new
	"RC-58 Facsimile Equipment" [BC-918] in “Surplus sidelights”, Gordon E. White, CQ: Amateur's Radio Journal, Vol. 24, nr. 3, March 1968, pp. 106-110    new

If you have any additional information or documentation on these machines, please contact me.

Ca. 1920, L.M.T. became a subsidiary of the american ITT group. In 1925, L.M.T. moved from Paris to Boulogne, on the banks of the river Seine. They co-developed the national PTT public telephone network, in which they introduced the rotary exchange switch. They also provided private exchanges to large companies such as Renault and EDF (national electrical power company). In 1937 they built and installed a very high-power transmitter on top of the Eiffel tower.

International Telephone & Telegraph was created from the Puerto Rico Telephone Company. From 1922 to 1925, ITT acquired a number of European telephone companies, through its subsidiary The Lorenz Company. This included STC in Britain, SEL in Germany, BTM in Belgium, and CGCT in France. L.M.T-ITT was acquired by  Thomson-CSF in 1976, by Alcatel in1986, Nokia in 1987, et finally Semi-Tech in 1996.

	"L.M.T. Laboratories 7-Frequency Radio-printer", L. Devaux, F. Smets, Electrical Communication (quarterly journal of International Standard Electric Co.), Vol. 17, No. 1, July 1938, pp. 22-34    new
	"Der 7-Frequenz-Funkschreiber der Les Laboratoires L.M.T.", L. Devaux, F. Smets, Elektrisches Nachrichtenwesen (German edition of "Electrical Communication" of International Standard Electric Corp.), Volume 17, Nr. 1, December 1938, pp. 22-34    new
	"Radio Teleprinting" [7-tone L.M.T. system], The Wireless World, 9 March 1939, p. 294    new
	"Der 7-Frequenzen-Schreiber" [7-tone printer], pp.  166-167 in “Fernmeldetechnik“, Band 9 of “Lehrbücher der Feinwerktechnik“, Fritz Schiweck, 1st ed., 1942, 526 pp.,  C. F. Winter'sche Verlagsbuchandlung    new

If you have any additional information or documentation on these machines, please contact me.
 

Philippe, F2TV, brought to my attention the existence of solid-state machines that are compatible with Feld-Hell machines. Two of these machines are known to exist. They are believed to be prototypes made for the French armed forces in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

They are attributed to the French company Thomson, but this there is no official confirmation of this: there is no name plate or manufacturer marking on the equipment. The original Thomson-Houston company was founded in the USA in 1879. The French subsidiary was created in 1892. Eventually it merged with the Brandt company and then in 1968 with the CSF company ("Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil", the "General Company for Wireless Telegraphy") to form Thomson-CSF.

This compact unit measures 38 x 33 x 19 cm (L x W x H, 15x13x7½"), comes in an army-green case, and operates on 12 Vdc.

Front view of the Thomson Hellschreiber

(photo: courtesy Jean-Claude, F5PU)
 

Top view of the Thomson Hellschreiber

(photo: courtesy Bernard, F9ZB)

This machine uses the same paper tape as the Feld-Hell and Hell-80: 15 mm width. However, the printer spindle only measures 5 mm in diameter, compared to close to 10 mm for the Feld-Hell and Hell-80, and 6 mm for the Hell-72. The spindle has two windings, like the Feld-Hell and Hell-80, but it is a 1-start helix; the Feld-Hell spindle is a 2-start ("double") helix, which allows it to turn at half speed. Like the Feld-hell, transmission speed is 2.5 characters per sec.

Close-up of the printer

(photo: Frank Dörenberg, N4SPP)

Paper speed is about the same as that of the Feld-Hell (46.7 cm/min nominal), but the manual speed adjustment appears to have a much wider range. Speed regulation is done with a simple centrifugal speed regulator that is mounted on the motor shaft. The regulator has three so-called "fly-ball" weights (though they are stubby steel cylinders rather than balls). Each weight is mounted on a strip of spring metal. One end of the strips is fixed to the motor shaft, the other to a flywheel-disk that can move freely on the motor shaft. As the motor speed increases, centrifugal forces move the weights radially away from the motor shaft; in turn, this pulls the flywheel disk towards the motor. The speed set point is changed with a knob at the top of the unit. This knob changes the position of a lever arm. At the end of the lever arm, there is clamp with a small rod of hard leather. This is simply a brake pad, with a manually variable position. The motor speeds up until the flywheel disk touches the leather brake. The faster the motor turns, the harder the disk pushes against the brake pad, the more friction builds, which slows down the motor, which reduces the friction, etc. In other words: a feedback control loop. This same mechanism is used in old gramophone record players. However, as it is friction based, it is also temperature dependent, and the speed set point drifts rather noticeably over time. This is rather inconvenient, as it forces the receiving machine to continuously adjusts its local motor speed in order to follow the drift of the transmitting machine; like all Hellschreibers, the transmitting machine also prints its own text, but that is always perfectly horizontal, independent of the local motor speed.

Note that the centrifugal regulator in the Feld-Hell is not friction-based: the position of its fly-weight opens and closes an electrical contact, that switches a vacuum tube on/off, whose anode current controls the current in the governor windings of the motor. Its speed remains stable to within a fraction of a percent!

Close-up of the centrifugal speed regulator

(photo: Frank Dörenberg, N4SPP)

The Thomson machine has a character drum. However, it is much smaller (9.5 cm long, 3.4 cm diameter) than that of the Feld-Hell and appears to be very lightweight. It looks like a cylinder of a coarse resin-impregnated cloth material, onto which copper traces and pads are stitched. Each track has a wire spring-contact that is permanently engaged. This is mechanically much simpler than in the  Feld-Hell machine, where only the contact of the selected character is engaged. Of course, in the Feld-hell machine, the drum turns continuously.

Close-up of the character-drum

(photo: Frank Dörenberg, N4SPP)

The Thomson machine uses "start-stop" synchronization, like the Hell-72 and Hell-80. I still have to confirm if & how this is affected by the position of the "start-stop"/"continu" switch on the front of the unit. Maybe it is selectable, as with the Hell-80. Inspection of the three circuit cards in the machine shows a 4-diode rectifier bridge for detection of the pulses to drive the printer, but no separate start-pulse detection circuit...

The motor turns continuously, and both the character drum and the printer spindle are engaged via a clutch mechanism, as in the Hell-72.

Close-up of the start-stop cams on the shaft of the character drum

(photo: Frank Dörenberg, N4SPP)

The start-pulse is 2/14 of a character column, whereas it is 8/14 of a column in the Hell-72. This suggests that the Thomson machine is more susceptible to inadvertent start-pulse detections when receiving noisy signals.

Start-pulse in the first column of the character matrix

(screenshot: Frank Dörenberg, N4SPP)

The font of the Thomson machine is very similar to that of the Feld-Hell. However, the audio output of the machine is not an on/off-keyed 900 Hz tone. Instead it appears to be a 2-tone FSK signal, with a 1325 Hz "space" and a 1225 Hz "mark" tone. Hence, 100% duty-cycle. To print this signal with a Feld-Hell machine or equivalent software, the detector must be set to something close to the "mark" frequency, not close to the (near-constant) "space" tone. Printing can also be done with software in Hell FM105/245 mode, with the detector set to the "space" tone. Hell PSK mode also works. A recording of the audio output of the Thomson machine is here  (10 MB .wav file, 2x full character set).

Character set of the Thomson, with IZ8BLY software in Feld-Hell mode ("mark" tone)

(slant is due to speed offset of the Thomson machine)

Character set of the Thomson, with IZ8BLY software in FM105 mode ("space" tone)

Character set of the Thomson, with IZ8BLY software in FM245 mode ("space" tone)

(screenshots: Frank Dörenberg, N4SPP)

Audio spectrum of the output of the Thomson machine - waterfall display

(click on image or here to get full size)

Audio spectrum of the output of the Thomson machine - FFT display

(blue: "space" tone only; yellow: "mark" & "space" during character transmission)

As mentioned, the machine has three circuit cards and solid-state circuitry: five transistors of type 2N43. The 2N43 is a Germanium PNP transistor, intended for (relatively) high-gain (h(FE) = 30) low-power (300 mW) AF applications.  "Modern" equivalents are 2N2706, AC128, and AC152. The four basic transistor manufacturing processes are point-contact, grown- or rate-grown-junction, alloy- or fused-junction, and diffused-junction. The 2N43 is an alloy-fused junction, the first junction transistor developed by General Electric in 1953, to a US military specification. The transistor is housed in a hermetically-sealed can, referred to as "lady's top hat". Early versions have a pinched top. Based on gain, manufactured transistors where screened into three categories, and labeled 2N43, 2N44, and 2N45. Parts that exceeded the highest spec gain of the 2N43 or were below the lowest spec gain of the 2N45, were rejected. In 1955, GE started selling the rejects to the civil market, as 2N107. The 2N4x was manufactured in license by several manufacturers (Ratheon, RCA, Sylvania, Mullard, and... Thomson).

General Electric transistor of type 2N43

(the "pinched top" can on the lower right is an early model)

The three circuit cards in the Thomson machine are simple pertinax cards, with point-to-point wiring on the back. This suggests that the machine is a prototype.

The tone-detector / solenoid-driver circuit card

(diode bridge at the center)

Back of the tone-detector / solenoid-driver circuit card

The second circuit card

The third circuit card

The large rectangular capacitors (2-in-a-can), inductors and transformers are made by the "Transmissions - Composants" division of the French company ”Lignes télégraphiques et téléphoniques" (L.T.T.). L.L.T was founded in 1920, and had a history similar to and coinciding with that of  Thomson.  International Western Electric acquired an minority interest in the company in 1922.  Starting in 1927, they made iron dust cores for transformers, paper capacitors; polystyrene capacitors started in 1938. In 1978 it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Thomson CSF.

1955 LTT advertising

(photo: courtesy Jean-Claude, F5PU)

(photo: courtesy Bernard, F7ZB)

(photo: courtesy Jean-Claude, F5PU)

 

The interconnect panel on the rear of the unit.

Interfacing to telephone lines or a radio transceiver is done via the interconnect panel on the rear of the unit. There are four banana plug jacks for connecting to a phone line (far left in the above photo). Not sure if this accommodates 2- and 4-wire interfacing. The eight jacks on the right are for transceiver interfacing. "EMIS" ("emission") is the audio output to the transmitter. "RON" is short for "ReceptiON", hence, the input for audio from the receiver. Don't know yet what "SUP" ("supplementary"?) and "PED" mean. "MASSE" is of course simply "ground/earth". There does not appear to be a PTT output.

A 3-position switch on the front panel is used to select between RON, TEL, and EM. This suggests manual switching between the telephone line and the transceiver interface (makes sense), and also between transmission and reception, if the radio interface is selected.

The "M" / "A" toggle switch simply turns the machine on and off ("Marche" / "Arrêt").

Controls and fuse on the front of the unit

The "Facit" company was established in Stockholm in 1918 to build a line of hand-operated calculators. Later (mid-late 1960s) they built electrically powered mechanical desktop calculators, and electronic desktop calculators. The company ventured into computer and tape printer and sheet printer products in the 1970s.

The FACIT 4452 printers print on pressure sensitive paper tape. The actual printer is basically a Hellschreiber-type spindle-and-hammer mechanism. The hammer is, of course,  actuated by an electromagnet. The spindle ("cam" in the diagram below) is actually a gear-wheel with the teeth at an angle. The shortest print pulses are 1 msec (1000 hammer actuations per sec). Maximum printing speed is 15 characters per second. The paper tape is 17.5 mm wide (same as 11/16” telex punch tape).

(source: ref. 1 below)

Characters are 7x5 dot matrix. Printed characters measure ⅛ x 0.1 inch (HxW; 0.32 x 0.25 mm). These printers have a digital input  (serial or parallel) and were not used with radios; some models  had a built-in character generator.  FACIT model 4553 is a continuous-form sheet line printer, where the printer helix is mounted on a carriage that traverses back and forth underneath the paper. It is the equivalent of a "needle" or "comb" printer head.

 
(source: ref. 1 below)

(source: "Product Profile," Computer, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 57, Jan./Feb. 1973)
 

	Ref. 1: “FACIT 4552 Strip printer - Technical description”, 4552.13.01.Eng.10M.9.71, 12 pp, 1971 (courtesy Arie van Oijen, PE1AQB)
	Ref. 2: “Facit 4552 Alphanumeric Strip Printer” [brochure], 4552.02.03 Eng 10M.12.72, 2 pp., 1972 (courtesy Arie van Oijen, PE1AQB)
	Ref. 3: “Facit 4553 alphanumeric serial page printer” [sheet printer], 4553.02.03 Eng 5M.7.74, 4 pp., 1974, (courtesy Arie van Oijen, PE1AQB)

During one of my web-searches, I came across a reference to the manual for a Moser-Baer CW/Hellschreiber machine model UV200a. Moser-Baer SA is a small Swiss company that currently specializes industrial time systems ("clocks"), fine-mechanics, and electronic systems. I contacted them and they were kind enough to provide me with the only pertinent material left in their archives: a series of photos from a document titled Schnelltelegraphieanlage Moser-Baer 1942-1954 (high-speed telegraphy system). The most interesting ones are shown below.

If you have any additional information or documentation on these machines, please contact me.

Moser-Baer Schnelltelegraphieanlage Typ  200
(courtesy Moser-Baer SA)

Left to right in the photo above are:

	Schreibgerät (printer) UV200a
	Tastgerät (punch tape reader and tone or transmitter keyer)
	Streifenlocher (paper tape punch) SL200a.

Stromlieferungsgerät (power supply) Typ SU200a is not shown.

Moser-Baer Schreibgerät Typ UV 200 a

(note item nr. 8: the characteristic felt ink roller)
 

Tubes: AZ1 , EF22 , ECH21 ,EL5

Front of the Moser-Baer Streifenlocher Typ SL 200 a
 

Rear of the Moser-Baer Streifenlocher Typ SL 200 a
 

Moser-Baer Tastgerät UV 200 a
 

Allegedly, "Q", the gadget-guru of Her Majesty's secret service, provided James Bond with a wrist-watch Hellschreiber in the 1977 movie The Spy Who Loved Me.  It is an "upgraded" Seiko model 0674.
 

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©2004-2009 F. Dörenberg N4SPP

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