History of Teletypewriter Development
R. A. Nelson
K. M. Lovitt, Editor
Teletype Corporation
5555 West Touhy Avenue
Skokie, Illinois
October 1963
(Document Notes)
Abstract
The success of the modern teletypewriter began with Howard L. Krum's
conception of the start-stop method of synchronization for permutation code
telegraph systems. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief historical
account of events which led to that achievement and of those which ensued.
Four areas of development will be covered:
(1) The contributions of Sterling Morton, Charles L. Krum and Howard L. Krum
(2) The contributions of E. E. Kleinschmidt
(3) The contributions of AT&T and Western Electric
(4) The contributions of L. M. Potts
Area I. In 1902 a young electrical engineer named Frank Pearne
solicited financial support from Joy Morton, head of the Morton Salt interests.
Pearne had been experimenting with a printing telegraph system and needed
sponsorship to continue his work. Morton discussed the matter with his
friend, Charles L. Krum, a distinguished mechanical engineer and vice
president of the Western Cold Storage Company (which was operated by
Joy's brother, Mark Morton). The verdict for Pearne was favorable, and
he was given laboratory space in the attic of the Western Cold Storage Company.
After about a year of unsuccessful experimenting, Pearne lost interest
and decided to enter the teaching field. Charles Krum continued the work
and by 1906 had developed a promising model. In that year his son, Howard,
a newly graduated electrical engineer, plunged into the work alongside his
father. The fruit of these early efforts was a typebar page printer (Patent
No. 888,335; filed August 22, 1903; issued May 19, 1908) and a typewheel
printing telegraph machine (Patent No. 862,402; filed August 6, 1904;
issued August 6, 1907). Neither of these machines used a permutation code.
They experimented with transmitters as well, applications filed in
1904 and 1906 maturing into Patents No. 929,602 and No. 929,603. These
patents covered modes of transmission which depended both on alternation
of polarity and change in current level.
By 1908 the Krums were able to test an experimental printer on an
actual telegraph line. The typing portion of this machine was a modified
Oliver typewriter mounted on a desk with the necessary relays, contacts,
magnets, and interconnecting wires (Patent No. 1,137,146; filed February 4,
1909;issued April 27, 1915). As a result of the successful test of this printer,
Charles and Howard Krum continued their experiments with a view to
developing a direct keyboard typewheel printer.
They sought most of all to discover a way of synchronizing transmitting
and receiving units so that they would stay "in step." It was Howard Krum
who worked out the start-stop method of synchronization (Patent No. 1,286,351;
filed May 31, 1910; issued December 3, 1918). This achievement, which more
than anything else put printing telegraphy on a practical basis, was first
embodied (for commercial purposes) in the "Green Code" Printer, a typewheel
page printer (Patent No. 1,232,045;filed November 28, 1909;issued July 3, 1917).
The transmitters first used by the Krums were of the continuously-moving-
tape variety. (A stepped tape feed, they maintained, would have reduced
transmission speed.) In order to permit sequential sensing, the rows of code
holes were arranged in a slightly oblique pattern (with respect to tape edges).
This method of transmission is more fully elaborated in Krum Patents
No. 1,326,456, No. 1,360,231, and No. 1,366,812.
Keyboard-controlled cam-type start-stop permutation code transmitters
were developed by Charles and Howard Krum in about 1919. Such a device is
the transmitter component of the Morkrum 11-Type tape printer (Krum Patent
No. 1,635,486). This kind of transmitter employs a single contact to open
or close the signal line.
In about 1924 the Morkrum Company introduced the No. 12-Type tape
printer (H. L. Krum Patent No. 1,665,594). On December 23, 1924, Howard Krum
and Sterling Morton (son of Joy Morton) filed an application on the 14-Type
type-bar tape printer which matured into Patent No. 1,745,633.
Area II. It appears that the early efforts of E. E. Kleinschmidt were
directed toward development of facsimile printing apparatus and automatic
Morse code equipment. He patented first a Morse keyboard transmitter
(Patent No. 964,372; filed February 7, 1095; issued January 11, 1910) and
later a Morse keyboard perforator (Patents No. 1,045,855, No. 1,085,984,
and No. 1,085,985). (The latter became known as the Wheatstone Perforator.)
In 1916 Kleinschmidt filed an application for a type-bar page printer
(Patent No. 1,448,750 issued March 20, 1923). This printer utilized Baudot
code but was not start-stop. It was intended for use on multiplex circuits,
and its printing was controlled from a local segment on a receiving distributor
of the sunflower type. Later, around 1919, Kleinschmidt appeared to be
concerned chiefly with development of multiplex transmitters for use with this
printer (Kleinschmidt Patent No. 1,460,357).
It seems that Kleinschmidt first became interested in modern start-stop
permutation code telegraph systems when H. L. Krum's basic start-stop
patent was issued in December 1918. Shortly after that Kleinschmidt filed
an application entitled "Method of and Apparatus for Operating Printing
Telegraphs" (Patent No. 1,463,136; filed May 1, 1919; issued July 24, 1923).
The system described therein employed the start-stop principle with a
modified version of his earlier multiplex distributor. That patent, accordingly,
was dominated by the Krum start-stop patent. The conflict of patent rights
between the Morkrum Company and the Kleinschmidt Electric Company
eventually led to a merger of the two interests.
Shortly after the new Morkrum-Kleinschmidt Corporation
(later called the Teletype Corporation) had been established, Sterling Morton,
Howard Krum, and E. E. Kleinschmidt filed an application covering the
commercial form of the well-known 15-Type page printer (Patent No. 1,904,164).
Area III. Teletype entered the Bell System in 1930. From this point
on, advances in the Teletype product can be considered the result of the
pooled efforts of the AT&T Company, the Western Electric Company, and
the Teletype Corporation. Teletype Corporation, of course, holder of the
basic patents and expert in the art, was the chief contributor.
Although it appears from the report of R. E. Pierce, dated December 24,
1934, that the Bell System was active in the development of telegraph printers
and transmitters as early as the year 1909, a review of the patents issued
to Bell reveals no significant contribution to modern teletypewriter development
(using start-stop permutation code) until the introduction in 1920 of the
10-A teletypewriter (Pfannenstiehl Patents No. 1,374,606, No. 1,399,933,
No. 1,426,768, No. 1,623,809, and No. 1,661,012).
The 10-A teletypewriter was the first embodiment of such basic design
features of the 15-Type printer as stationary platen, moving type basket, and
selector vane assembly, but the majority of improvements incorporated in the
15-Type were proprietary to the Teletype Corporation.
Area IV. The earliest contribution of Dr. L. M. Potts to the start-stop
method of synchronization appears to have been set forth in a patent
application filed November 18, 1911, covering a reed-type start-stop
selector (Patent No. 1,151,216).
In 1914, Dr. Potts filed an application for a single magnet page printer
which used an eight-unit code (Patent No. 1,229,202; issued June 5, 1917).
In 1915, Dr. Potts filed an application covering another single magnet
page printer, this one using the start-stop permutation code (Patent
No. 1,370,669; assigned to AT&T March 8, 1921).
Potts Patents No. 1,517,381 and No. 1,570,923 were also assigned to
AT&T.
Document Notes
Note by Jim Haynes: Dr. Potts had died by 1951, and patents issued in that year
through 1953 were issued to his estate and assigned to Teletype.
This document was formatted by
Gil Smith, July 2001.
The original file,
nelson&lovitt--tty-development.txt, is courtesy of Jim Haynes.