KLEINSCHMIDT
Edward E. Kleinschmidt’s first direct contact with telegraph apparatus
was during his employment as a young man, in 1893, by John E. Wright,
whose firm had developed and was then manufacturing printing telegraph
equipment known as the Wright-Negron bulletin printer for the Havas News
Agency in Paris. These printers operated on the step-by-step principle
at 30 words per minute. (To attest to their ruggedness, as late as 1951
some of these machines were reported to be still in use!)
Five years later, in 1898, Kleinschmidt started an experimental shop at
122 Fulton Street in New York City. A sign over the door read,
“Inventions Developed,” and he did experimental and developmental work
for various customers (individuals as well as companies—including
Western Union) on a time-and-material basis. In the beginning he had a
project of his own going—a facsimile telegraph system. He submitted the
system to Western Union in 1900 with the suggestion that it might be
valuable for customer services, since a customer could write his
telegram in longhand and insert the written message in the transmitting
unit for transmission in facsimile to the telegraph central. The idea,
however, was rejected. At that time the photoelectric cell for scanning
the written message and electronic means for amplifying signals had not
yet been developed; while the apparatus operated quite well over short
circuits, evidently the time had not arrived for commercial facsimile
telegraphy.
The first telegraph apparatus job for the shop was brought in by Dr.
George A. Cardwell, a dentist by profession. It was a partially
developed printing telegraph using a three-unit code made up of
combinations of plus-minus-high-and-low-voltage pulses (the code we have
already discussed). The work for Dr. Cardwell was carried on until 1903
when a working model was completed. It had a typewheel for printing and
stops arranged in a circle; magnets under control of relay selection
were used to set the stops according to the received code combinations.
This arrangement operated well, and on a test over a Western Union
circuit from New York to Baltimore it gave satisfactory results. As we
have seen, however, the code arrangement proved unsatisfactory for
general telegraphic use.
Many customers came to the experimental shop with every type of idea
imaginable; vacuum cleaners (The “Vacuna”), elevator signals, some early
designs for Elmer Sperry’s gyrocompass were only a few. Kleinschmidt
also set up a couple of side-line businesses, one for manufacturing
automatic fishing reels under the trade name “Kelso,” another, the
Aseptuloid Company, for making vaccination shields (some readers may
well remember their childhood vaccinations being protected by a bubble
of celluloid).
Another customer was George M. Seely, who later was instrumental in
bringing Kleinschmidt’s work to the attention of Charles B. Goodspeed
and W. S. Moore (they were to become his financial backers—see page 14).
Mr. Seely came to the shop in 1906 with a partially developed block
system for electric trolley car railways. His plan was to use special
devices attached to the trolley pole which would cooperate with
stationary electrical controls at certain fixed points along the road.
After working along these lines for awhile it became apparent that some
inventive work would be required on Kleinschmidt’s part. Seely, in
addition to time and material, then offered him a retainer for the
assignment of any resulting patents.
As plans and studies progressed, a number of railway signaling devices
were developed, tested, and patented. A major item was the development
of a telephone train dispatching system. A complete set of apparatus was
exhibited in operation at the American Association of Railroads
Communications Convention held in Los Angeles in 1910. The company name
given this venture was the “National Telephone Selector Company,”
located at 235 Greenwich Street, New York City. The telephone train
dispatching system was installed on the Long Branch Railroad with 30
stations connected with dispatcher headquarters at Red Bank, New Jersey.
Another installation was made on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in West
Virginia, connecting 38 stations with dispatcher headquarters at
Fairbanks, West Virginia.
Most of the patents assigned to Mr. Seely were eventually sold to the
Hall Signal Company.
Doing development work for others and assigning patents for a retainer
did not satisfy Kleinschmidt’s ambitions. His interests being mainly in
the telegraph, he set out to design and build a piece of apparatus that
the telegraph companies could use. A keyboard-operated perforator to
punch the Morse code in a tape for automatic transmission at high speed
looked like a promising subject, since the tape punches in use at that
time had a three-key arrangement—one each for dot, dash, and space.
Kleinschmidt’s first keyboard-operated, Morse-code perforator was
constructed in 1911 and exhibited to the Western Union Telegraph
Company. Mr. G. R. Benjamin, their chief engineer, and Mr. Emmett R.
Shute, a vice president, thought well of the machine and, after testing
it, gave Kleinschmidt an order for fifty. This order spelled success. To
celebrate the event, Kleinschmidt invited his brothers, Bernard, Fred
and William, and their families to a dinner party at a distinguished
restaurant. Soon thereafter (1913), the Kleinschmidt Electric Company
was organized, with the brothers as incorporating officers.
The Kleinschmidt Keyboard Perforator came into use by telegraph and
cable companies throughout the world where Morse, Wheatstone, or Cable
codes were used to transmit telegrams. It was also used with Western
Union’s Barclay system which had its own code. The device was later
manufactured by Teletype Corporation under the name “Teletype
Perforator” and used by the U. S. Government where it served its purpose
for high-speed Morse transmission during the war period (see figure 1).
In the years 1911 and 1912, the Western Union Telegraph Company, in
looking toward higher operating efficiency over their trunk circuits,
decided to test the Creed high-speed Morse and the Murray Multiplex, and
invited both companies to bring their apparatus to New York. It was on
this occasion that Kleinschmidt became acquainted with Mr. F. G. Creed,
who, upon observing the Kleinschmidt keyboard perforator at Western
Union, was impressed by its performance and said that there would be a
good market for it in England, especially as a keyboard punch for the
Creed high-speed Continental-Morse-code system. As a result of that
conference he asked for ten as a trial order. These perforators were
shipped to London in due time and gave satisfactory service. The British
Post Office Telegraph evidently had heard about this new perforator and
sent a letter to the Kleinschmidt company asking for a demonstration at
their London headquarters.
Now it happened at that time that Kleinschmidt was extremely busy with
the development of a five-unit-code typebar printer for the new
Multiplex—and this was urgent since the first model was to be put on
competitive test with a typewheel printer submitted by L. M. Potts and
the Western Electric typewheel printer which was then in use. Therefore,
he felt he should not lose a month or two in this developmental work for
a trip to London. So, his answer to this important invitation was that
he could not personally bring one of his perforators for exhibit but
that he would ask Mr. F. G. Creed to do so. Mr. Creed agreed and set up
a formal exhibit for the Post Office engineers; he consequently received
an order for twenty Kleinschmidt perforators. Further correspondence
with Creed resulted in an order for one hundred and a request that
Kleinschmidt come to London the next year (1914) to negotiate a contract
to supply his keyboard perforators for the Creed high-speed Morse and to
set up a sales agency with Creed for certain territories.
While in London in the summer of 1914, Kleinschmidt visited the Managing
Director of the Post Office Telegraph at his office to apologize for
having had Mr. Creed exhibit the Kleinschmidt perforator instead of
bringing it personally as had been requested. The Managing Director
replied that Mr. Creed had indeed given a very good operating exhibition
of the device and that an order for twenty had been placed with him.
“However,” he added, “you know, we sent you an official invitation and
expected your appearance with your machine!”
To continue: Upon observing the change in systems at Western Union
(switching from the Barclay to the Murray Multiplex), the Kleinschmidt
Electric Company, who had been experimenting in the development of a
telegraph typewriter, built a receiving teletypewriter for the
multiplex. It was a magnet-operated, five-unit-code typebar page
printer, using the Underwood typewriter mechanisms as a basis; and it
was completed in time for test and evaluation at Western Union in
competition with the typewheel printers of both L. M. Potts and Western
Electric.
The Western Electric machine was given the number 1A, Mr. Potts’s, 2A,
and the Kleinschmidt printer was 3A. The final outcome of the tests was
the selection of the Kleinschmidt model, and the company received an
order for five machines, to include a spare, to equip the New York
terminal of a New York-to-Boston, four-channel multiplex system. The
order was filled in a short time and the machines were put on test.
[Illustration: Fig. 1
Kleinschmidt Keyboard-Operated Morse-Code Perforator (_this machine
returned to author by a customer after being used thirty years!_)]
[Illustration: Fig. 2
3B Typebar Page Printer of Kleinschmidt Electric Company
_from Museum of Kleinschmidt Division of SCM Corporation_]
Kleinschmidt watched the operation of his machines in service almost
every day and was continually on the lookout for possible ways to
improve and simplify the apparatus. The tests ran through to completion
satisfactorily, and, upon submitting an improved design, numbered the
3B, the Kleinschmidt Electric Company received an order for one hundred
typebar page printers. The 3B thereafter became standard apparatus and
additional orders were placed as the multiplex system at Western Union
expanded (see figure 2).
Several years later, Western Union efficiency engineers found that, due
to circuit failures, certain parts of messages would have to be
repeated. Because this meant retyping the message, they felt, and for
other reasons as well, that printing the received messages on tape would
be more economical, since corrections could be inserted without
repeating the entire message. To meet this requirement, the typebar page
printer was redesigned for printing on tape. This was accomplished by
using the same selection controls and operating the typebars to print
downward on the tape instead of upward against the platen as in the page
printer. A tape gummer to attach the tape to a message blank was also
designed. The 21A, later No. 22, tape printer was ordered in quantity
thereafter.
Seeing the possibility of using their typebar page printer for
direct-line service, the Kleinschmidt company built a motor-driven
send-receive unit having a single contact transmitter which operated
under control of a code-perforated tape to transmit seven signals in
succession: one start, five code, and a stop signal. The receiving unit
had a seven-segment commutator, one segment for start, five for code,
and one for stop, and a rotating brush to pick up and transmit the
received code signals to the printing unit. This apparatus was installed
at the United Press for news distribution to their connected newspapers.
Another set was installed at the Louisville and Nashville Railroad for
station communications, and still another in New York City at the
Equitable Life Assurance Society between their downtown and uptown
offices. In connection with the latter installation, the Equitable
people asked permission to install the printing apparatus on the
telephone line and there was objection from the telephone company.
However, after some consideration they finally agreed that the apparatus
could be installed but warning that should it create interference with
the telephone line it would be removed immediately. As it turned out,
the printer operation over this telephone circuit did not create any
interference and the apparatus remained in service a long time (figure 3
).
[Illustration: Fig. 3
Kleinschmidt Electric Company
Teletypewriter Apparatus for Direct-Line Service]
The Kleinschmidt Electric Company now began to have financial
difficulties. Edward Kleinschmidt was borrowing wherever he could. There
was no large quantity production and evidently his charges for the
apparatus delivered were too low. At any rate, early in 1917, Mr. Seely
suggested that he get financial help to carry on and it was here that
the following gentlemen entered the picture: Charles B. Goodspeed of the
Buckeye Steel Casting Company; Paul M. Benedict, assistant to the
president of the C. B. & Q.; Edward Moore, son of Judge Moore of the
American Can Company; Eldon Bisbee, a New York lawyer; and one of Mr.
Bisbee’s clients, Albert Henry Wiggen, who was then president of the
Chase National Bank. With their financial backing, the company was able
to continue with further developmental work on simplified and more
efficient apparatus. Orders for various types of equipment for the
Western Union Multiplex and for the Morse code keyboard perforator came
along, but developmental costs were high and still more capital
investment was required; Kleinschmidt would then borrow from the Chase
Bank. Every so often at the Kleinschmidt company’s directors’ meetings,
Mr. Holly, cashier of the bank and also a director of the company, would
state that the Kleinschmidt loan “stood out like a lighthouse,” so a
vote for an additional stock issue was carried and the loan paid.
Along about 1919 the Kleinschmidt company had completed a satisfactory
keyboard-operated typebar teleprinter for intercommunication systems
(see figure 4). The Kleinschmidt Telegraph Typewriter, as it was called,
was installed at the New York City News, the Panama Canal, and at the
Brooklyn Union Gas Company (fig. 5).
In 1922, Edward Kleinschmidt, having learned that Mr. J. E. Wright had
discontinued further developments in the telegraph field, proposed the
purchase of his patents, stating that this acquisition would broaden the
Kleinschmidt company’s patent situation. The proposal was carried, and,
after negotiations, Mr. Wright’s patents were bought for 100 shares of
the Kleinschmidt Electric Company’s common stock.
In 1923, the Kleinschmidt Telegraph Typewriter was exhibited at the 20th
Annual Business Show in New York and created a great deal of interest.
In 1924, a complete telegraph system was engineered and set up for the
Mexican government. (An engineer from Western Union was borrowed to help
with this job.)
One day, in 1923, after some correspondence with Samuel Samuel & Co.,
Ltd., through whom the Kleinschmidt company received orders from Japan
for the Morse code keyboard perforator, the Japanese Telegraph
Administration sent one of their telegraph engineers, Mr. Y. Okomoto, to
the company’s headquarters to assist in working out a keyboard
arrangement of Japanese characters for a simplified alphabet consisting
of 88 characters which the Japanese Telegraph Administration had
devised. The five-unit code could not be used since only 64 selective
positions could be had. So the telegraph typewriter mechanisms were
changed to six-unit-code operation, which worked out very well. The
Kleinschmidt company, and later Morkrum-Kleinschmidt, received
continuing orders for the six-unit-code telegraph typewriters.
[Illustration: Fig. 4
Kleinschmidt Electric Company Telegraph Typewriter
(_keyboard-operated typebar teleprinter_)]
[Illustration: Fig. 5
Kleinschmidt Telegraph Typewriters
(_installation at Brooklyn Union Gas Co._)]