Teletype Corp.,"chad," B. Popik

[Jan Ivarsson]

It might be paying to look also at another American firm, Morkrum-Kleinschmidt, producing equipment of the same type as Teletype's.

Jan Ivarsson
Translator, Subtitler
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SE-272 31 SIMRISHAMN Sweden
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Abate" <abatefr at earthlink.net>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: den 4 januari 2001 00:24
Subject: Re: Teletype Corp.,"chad," B. Popik


> Further to Gerald Cohen's below, I can report from research I did on the US
> Patent and Trademark Office website (a wonderful resource, btw, at:
> http://www.uspto.gov/web/menu/search.html) that the name of the company is
> (or was) definitely the Teletype Corporation.  Before the advent of faxes,
> email, etc., teletype machines were a very important means of long-distance
> communication for written data, used by all major businesses and governments
> worldwide, esp. after WWII.  Teletype machines looked like a very large
> electric typewriter on a stand, and many had paper-tape recording devices
> along with them.  Beneath the tape-punching device was a bin to catch the
> punched-out holes.
>
> However, punched-tape technology is much older than even teletypes.  There
> are US patents for paper-punching devices for telegraphy dating back to the
> early 1920s.  Some google.com searching revealed that the idea of coded
> paper tape goes back to the British engineer and inventor Sir Charles
> Wheatstone, who described the concept in 1857 as a way to record Morse code.
> Then Frenchman Emile Baudot (eponymous source of "baud") developed the
> Baudot code, a 5-bit system for encoding characters.  This was used on paper
> tape for decades, until it was replaced by an 8-bit system in the 1960s.
>
> Then there are punch cards, which go back at least to the 1890 US Census and
> its Hollerith machines.
>
> The point is that people have been creating (if not saying) chad or chips
> for many, many years, and the search for earlier uses may take us very far
> back before 1947.  I have not found an earlier cite as yet, but I suspect
> there may be good evidence from people who can access written records about
> telegraphy and the teletype.
>
> Frank Abate
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gerald Cohen" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 5:17 PM
> Subject: Teletype Corp.,"chad," B. Popik
>
>
> >    Earlier today I posted an e-mail I had received Mr. Chris Jensen
> > and commented that his mention of "The Teletype Corporation" might
> > furnish a lead as to who introduced "chad" into telegraphy jargon.
> >
> >     I just noticed that Barry Popik had already drawn attention to the
> > Teletype Corporation a month ago. So Jensen's information jibes with
> > Barry's and brings the date of Teletype usage back to 1952, while
> > Barry had already taken the lead a step further (recommending that
> > authors Adams and Butler be contacted).
> >
> > ---Gerald Cohen
> >
> > >Date:         Sun, 3 Dec 2000 23:03:02 EST
> > >Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > >Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > >From: Bapopik at AOL.COM
> > >Subject:      Teletype Corp. & "Chad"
> > >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > >
> > >    Try Teletype Corp.?
> > >    Several ads for the Teletype Corp. ran in BUSINESS AUTOMATION.
> > >One ad, July 1961, pg. 61:  "Tape Readers--Will read chadless or
> > >fully perforated tape. (...) Teletype Corporation manufactures this
> > >equipment for the Bell System and others who require the utmost
> > >reliability from their data communications facilities."
> > >    Teletype Corp. was a subsidiary of Western Electric Co., Inc.
> > >(now Lucent Technologies--or whatever).  Its address was 555 Touhy
> > >Avenue, Skokie, Illinois.  I have no idea when Teletype Corp.
> > >started, but Western Electric was around for a long while.
> > >    For further information on Teletype and "chad," perhaps someone
> > >can get in touch with Stephen B. Adams & Orville R. Butler, authors
> > >of MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE: A HISTORY OF WESTERN ELECTRIC
> > >(Cambridge University Press, 1999).
> > >
> > >MISC.
> > >
> > >August 1961, BUSINESS AUTOMATION, pg. 50.  Systematics tape punch
> > >has a "jam-proof chad disposal box."
> > >
> > >October 1961, BUSINESS AUTOMATION, pg. 6, col. 1 ad for Avery Label
> Company:
> > >4.  Clean punched pin-feed holes--no "confetti."
> > >5.  No bent edges or "dog-ears."
> >