In the age of the Internet and smartphones, teletypes seem like relics from ancient times – the official teletype service in Germany was only discontinued at the end of 2007. Indeed, for decades from the thirties onwards, the rattling automaton dominated the picture of the rapid transmission of messages.
In the city museum of Unterschleißheim, whose online exhibition “Disappeared Things” is dedicated to everyday objects that were still in use not long ago, two teleprinter devices have now been restored and linked to a local network. A data transfer between the devices can be implemented for demonstration purposes. Museum employee Emil Schwarzer was in charge of the project. He was supported by Robert Castor, an electrical engineer who previously worked for Siemens. The museum’s two teleprinters are also from Siemens: the T 100A desktop model and the T 37H teleprinter.
E-mail, SMS and Insta-Post: the teletype was the state of the art for a long time.
(Photo: City of Unterschleißheim)
What exactly is a teletypewriter, also called a teleprinter, teleprinter or sheet writer? It is a telegraph device for the transmission of messages in written form using electrical signals. It is similar to a typewriter, but the keyboard and printer can work independently of each other. The printer is the receiver and the keyboard is the transmitter. The components are tape readers and tape punches. An official telex network was set up from 1938 onwards, which was managed by Deutsche Telekom until 2007. The Bundeswehr used a Bundeswehr basic network until 1986. Modern digital technology replaced telex as a communication method for texts and data at the end of the nineties.
The online exhibition “Disappeared Things” leads into several themed worlds.
(Photo: private)
In the exhibition “Disappeared Things”, conceived by museum director Stephan Bachter and Andreas Garitz, which has been online since April 2020, there is of course a lot more to discover. According to their motto “We mediate between the times, the generations and the technical worlds yesterday and today”, the visitor can click through various subject areas: this ranges from office work (including teletype) to computer worlds and mobility to smoking, toys and sound reproduction. These interesting things can be found with one click on the homepage www.verschwundene-dinge.de.