Brief History of Data Communication
Brief History of Data Communication
Brief History of Data Communication
1922
1930
1930
1932
1941
1946-1950 1951
The M14 tape punch was first marketed. Approximately 50,000 units were sold through the late 1950s when the device was manufacture discontinued. About 90% of all effort at Teletype was devoted to the war. Models 19 and 20 developed for auto-control of transmission - 19ASR and for 6 unit teletypesetting the Model 20 The first M28 page printer was delivered to the Navy. This represented approximately 12 years of research and development effort. The M28 line was accepted by the Bell System as a successor to the M14, 15 and 19 lines of equipment in 1956. The M28 design principle constituted the corporations basic approach to both message and data recording equipment until 1960. The first "DataPhone" is developed by Bell Laboratories. About the size of a small desk it operates totally analog circuitry at the speed of 50 bps. Model 29 was scheduled to replace the Model 20, but it never happened. Model 31RO and KSR Tape Printer is invented for the miliary. Teletype Corporation assembles for the first time under one roof in their new quarters in Skokie, Illinois. A multi-million dollar plant with a million and a half square feet of operating area and employing over 6,000 workers, it represented a milestone in the history of the Teletype Corporation. Manual TWX stations are all converted to dial. The Model TT-242 is rejected by the Navy in favor of the MITE compact teletypewriter. It becomes the basis for the model 32 and 33. The M35 and M33 lines of equipment. While the M35 is merely an 8 level version of the M28, the M33 represented the marriage of many proven designs into a totally new design, best described by the term "low cost concept." Approximately 6 years of research and development went into the Models 242, 32 and 33. American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) as a standard code set is developed and standardized by Electronic Industry Association (EIA) Analog Wide-Band Data service is first offered using specially built facilities able to transmit and receive data at 50 kilobits per second. Don House starts with Illinois Bell Telephone Co., the highest revenue earner in the Bell System with over 44,000 employees. The first and longest strike against the Bell System by members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The strike lasts almost 6 months. Digital Data Service (DDS) is started up by the Bell System offering synchronous digital data communications services from 2400 bits per second (bps) to 56000 (56K) bps. DDS is the single greatest advance in the history of data communications by pioneering the transmission of totally high speed digital signals. Much development goes into new concepts and new forms of data station equipment. "Machines that make data move" becomes Teletypes trade slogan. Devices such as the Dataspeed paper tape senders and receivers operating at 750 - 2000 words per minute. The Inktronic printer that sprayed 80 characters at a time on a roll of paper at 2400 words a minute. R & D is working overtime on new projects for the Bell System and the government. TWX is sold to Western Union. The Teletype Corporation produced the newer "Black line" of Model 40, 4540 electronic display terminals and chain type based printers. The Models 42 and 43 dot matrix terminals are introduced. They also produced the Magnetic Tape Terminal as an adjunct for both the Models 43, and 40 lines of equipment. Divestiture of the Bell System. Teletype name is dropped along with its logo to be replaced by AT&T and the "Death Star" logo. Operations in Skokie are discontinued and operations consolidate in Little Rock, Arkansas. Many employees are laid off. Then the operation in Little Rock manufacturing the 5310 terminals and printers is closed down and moved to Singapore, China. It was during this period that Don House founded and began what is now incorporated as the North American Data Communications Museum (NADCOMM) a California Not-For-Profit, Public Benefit Corporation. The museum collective now has 5 locations across the country. The museum is operated and administered solely by volunteers, mostly veterans of the data communication revolution All that is left of the Bell System and Teletype Corporation is what is in the history books and in our memories. Approximately 12,000 Teletype machines world wide still exist in the hands of third world countries, amateur radio operators and collectors.
1953
1960
1961
1962-1974 1966
1968 1972
1968-1978
1979-1984
1984-1989
1984-1996
2001