Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 13, 2022 13:45:18 GMT -8
Restoring a Model 19 Teletype
Pictured above is the very unit they restored. Apparently the Model 19 is the military version of the commercial Model 15 (which both Marc and one of his friends own and have mostly restored). If you want to sort of skip to the end, here is a video of them playing with the restored machine:
Marc is French but don't hold that against him. He seems like a splendid fellow, along with most of his team (that one big guy you see seems a bit off). He has done a little bit of everything including restoring a NASA Apollo guidance computer.
This guy is extremely talented but he's so awe-shucks about it all. Frankly, most of the detailed electronics I haven't got a clue about. But everyone can understand when levers don't work. Or when a vacuum tube burns out.
And with these teletype machines (which, as Marc, points out, do not use any electronic components other than electric motors or relays), you can see just what was possible before the age of electronics. This is Rube Goldberg stuff all the way. But at the same time, it's truly ingenious.
But this series of videos doesn't particularly delve too deeply into the technology (or even the refurbishing). It's sort of a fly-by look as they progress. But you can certainly check out some of the other projects on Marc's YouTube channel. Not all of them (or even most of them) are interesting to me. But once in a while he hits on something that I find fascinating.
If you want to know some of the things I spend my time watching, it is stuff like this. I love the old mechanical stuff. And as Marc notes, this was one of the first use of communicating via transmitting bits (5, in this case) of information.
Pictured above is the very unit they restored. Apparently the Model 19 is the military version of the commercial Model 15 (which both Marc and one of his friends own and have mostly restored). If you want to sort of skip to the end, here is a video of them playing with the restored machine:
Marc is French but don't hold that against him. He seems like a splendid fellow, along with most of his team (that one big guy you see seems a bit off). He has done a little bit of everything including restoring a NASA Apollo guidance computer.
This guy is extremely talented but he's so awe-shucks about it all. Frankly, most of the detailed electronics I haven't got a clue about. But everyone can understand when levers don't work. Or when a vacuum tube burns out.
And with these teletype machines (which, as Marc, points out, do not use any electronic components other than electric motors or relays), you can see just what was possible before the age of electronics. This is Rube Goldberg stuff all the way. But at the same time, it's truly ingenious.
But this series of videos doesn't particularly delve too deeply into the technology (or even the refurbishing). It's sort of a fly-by look as they progress. But you can certainly check out some of the other projects on Marc's YouTube channel. Not all of them (or even most of them) are interesting to me. But once in a while he hits on something that I find fascinating.
