Electronic Mail and Word Processing Pioneer: An Early Look at Email and Text Editing Technology
Groundbreaking Gadgets: The Teleprinter's Unstoppable Rise and Lasting Impact
In the realm of communication, some devices take the generic product's name, becoming household terms. Xerox, Velcro, or even Teleprinter - yes, you read that right! The teleprinter, a game-changer in its time, transformed the way we communicate. Let's take a stroll down memory lane and uncover the story of this amazing machine.
Misunderstood Messages: The earlier days
At the heart of communication was the telegraph, where making and breaking a circuit could send a message from one station to another. Dot-and-dash Morse code was the only way messages could be sent, but it required skill to master. Sometimes, these messages would be recorded on paper strips resembling a strip recorder. In the mid-1800s, various attempts were made to create devices that could remotely print characters.
The Baudot Code: Let's get binary
Fast forward to 1874 when Èmile Baudot, a French genius, came up with a 5-bit code known as the Baudot code. This code represented characters over a teleprinter line. The genius of this code lay in using two shift characters (LTRS and FIGS) to represent uppercase letters, figures, and punctuation marks – quite the feat in those days!
Donald Murray's Paper Tape Revolution
In 1901, Donald Murray added a significant improvement to the teleprinter. Instead of sending characters directly from the keyboard, the operator punched a paper tape. Once the other station received the tape, a machine used it to print the characters. Murray rearranged the Baudot code slightly, introducing things we still use today, such as the carriage return and line feed.
Syncing up the Stations
Synchronizing the two ends of the circuit remained a challenge. Engineers working for Morton Salt Company solved this, with Edward Kleinschmidt independently improving on the idea, developing the concept of using a start pulse to kick off each character. These patents around 1919 made it possible to keep the ends of the circuit in sync.
The Birth of the Modern Teleprinter
In 1924, Morkrum (partly owned by the owner of Morton Salt) and Klienschmitt merged to create an even better machine. This partnership gave birth to the modern teleprinter, with the company eventually becoming The Teletype Corporation and being bought by AT&T in 1930.
The Teleprinter's Double Life: Word Processing and Beyond
While replacing telegraphs was an obvious application, teleprinters were also used as crude word processors. Remember, we're talking about the early 1900s here! This was made possible due to the paper tape and a simple paper tape trick. Teleprinters allowed users to easily create and copy documents with just a few punches.
Final Breaths: The Decline of the Teleprinter
The glass teletype revolution proved to be the teleprinter's undoing as CRT-based terminals replaced the once-popular machines. Technology marched on, and real word processors and magnetic media took over the wordprocessing and typesetting applications. Today, teleprinters are relics of the past – old-fashioned artifacts of an era that revolutionized communication.
And yet, if you look closely, you'll find traces of the teleprinter in today's communication systems. Linux, for instance, allows you to log in using a terminal. So, there you have it – a look back at one of history's most impactful communication devices.
- In the realms of home-and-garden technology, the modern teleprinter's paper tape mechanism serves as a precursor to today's data-and-cloud computing, as seen in Linux's terminal login system.
- The early radio broadcasters, lacking advanced text-to-speech techniques, often resorted to manually punching Morse code onto paper tapes, mirroring the transcription process of the teleprinter.
- In the ever-evolving landscape of lifestyle and entertainment, nostalgic hobbyists take delight in collecting and refurbishing vintage teleprinters, transforming their home-and-garden spaces into sanctuaries of technological history.
