On 14/01/2025 20:59, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
Baudot, of course, was several domain-specific versions. They didn't even all
have the same letter/figure shift code, never mind the same symbols in the same
place. You had to just know what the wierdnesses were on any teleprinter that
wasn't an original Creed (as supplied by Elliott). I've still got a Baudot
ASR33 in the shed, although I might have scavenged it for parts for the ASCII.
Mostly common linkage parts on the Baudot - just fewer of them :-)
That would be an ASR32.
I remember seeing a listing of some of the variations of Baudot. One of them was the
"weather" version, which had a pile of meteorology symbols in the figures set for use by
weather station reporting. There were many versions. An odd one I remember is the Electrologica
X8 console, which has printable characters for the 000 code point (# for ltrs and * for figures).
Not to mention a figures character the users referred to as "iron cross".
For even more strangeness consider the various flavors of six-bit teleprinter codes, which were
used in the typesetting business. Services like Associated Press would distribute their news
stories using those codes. A special variant came with a pile of different fractions, for sending
stock listings. Those codes would give you upper and lower case, but there was still a shift code
called "upper rail" or "lower rail", a reference to Linotype line-casting
machines. Upper rail meant italics, as I recall.
paul
It could well be been a 32 - I don't think they're labelled. The thing
is that I don't think it's much different from the ASCII 33 inside - it
just looks like some of the control rods are missing. I don't think the
keyboard is any different. But I don't think I've looked at it for 40
years... This isn't what you'd expect from a pre-ASCII model, unless
they were planning ahead. Although thinking about it, it was the most
modern Baudot machine in the building so perhaps they were designed
together.
Not a whole lot of use to me - I kept with a Data Dynamic 390 into the
1980s, which was a 33 in a heavy sound-proof box more suitable for a
domestic environment. You couldn't hear it chattering away, but you
could feel the rumble throughout the house even though I stood it on
foam blocks. Where it remains today.
