KLEINSCHMIDT LABORATORIES
As we have seen, Edward Kleinschmidt, upon resigning from Teletype
Corporation as vice president when it was taken over by Western
Electric, had agreed to do development work for them, working
independently but assigning any inventions to the new Teletype
Corporation.
And so it was that Kleinschmidt Laboratories came into existence.
Incorporated on March 21, 1931, under Delaware laws, for the immediate
purpose of doing research and development work for Teletype, the
principals of the new company were Edward E. as president, and his two
sons, Edward F. as vice president and Bernard L. as secretary.
Kleinschmidt had earlier proposed a comprehensive and completely
automatic printing telegraph switching system in which messages are
automatically routed from the subscriber printer through telegraph
centrals of the addressee printer under control of address tape
perforations. Under his development contract with Teletype he continued
work on the system. Message storage in perforated tape was provided for
at all central switching points, and an answerback arrangement was
included in the system by the automatic return transmission of the
addressee’s number to the sender.
As the research and development work for Teletype continued, the
switching system was completed, and various other devices of more or
less importance were developed, with patents assigned to the Teletype
Corporation. In late 1934 the contract with Teletype expired.
At that time, son Bernard was operating a printing plant in rather close
quarters in Highland Park, Illinois. The operations of the Laboratories
had been carried on in rented quarters at the Merchandise Mart in
Chicago. Seeing that there would be no work for Teletype, it was decided
to set up working quarters in Highland Park where the family lived.
Since rented space was not available, a building was constructed on
Lincolnwood Road in the Braeside section of Highland Park to house both
the B. L. Kleinschmidt Printing Company and the machinery and other
equipment of the Laboratories. The Laboratories, now inactive, became a
personal holding company with 2300 shares to cover a book value of
approximately $230,000.00 (Kleinschmidt having distributed the major
portion of these shares to his children and grandchildren).
Son Edward F. turned his thoughts to other fields and carried on
experimental work in the new building in devices not connected with the
telegraph. Son Bernard was involved in his printing business. Their
father’s thoughts lay dormant for a long time, but still there was the
urge to continue with the telegraph, and a plan for operating a
five-unit-code selecting mechanism, operating on a progressive stop
principle to position a typewheel or to select a typebar for printing on
tape or page, was worked out.
When models of this new plan were completed and operating successfully,
Edward E. Kleinschmidt immediately thought of Teletype Corporation and
brought the apparatus to their attention, submitting models and patent
applications for their evaluation. After numerous conferences and
correspondence, however, his offer for the sale of patent rights and
models was rejected. Discouraged, he left the completed models at the
Highland Park lab and moved to Florida.
During the second world war, son Bernard abandoned his printing
establishment and started a tool and die shop, using the machinery and
facilities of the Laboratories as well as space occupied by his printing
shop. The B. L. Kleinschmidt Company was kept busy building tools, dies,
and special devices for the war effort.
Through Bernard’s associations he learned that the United States Signal
Corps needed a light-weight, transportable teleprinter for tactical
field use, and he asked his father if he could show the progressive stop
printer to the Signal Corps at their Chicago headquarters. His father,
in Miami at that time, gave his approval. Two days later, the telephone
rang in Miami and it was Bernard saying, “Dad, they are interested and
want you to bring the printer model to Army Headquarters in Washington.”
Nothing could have pleased his father more!
In February of 1944, Edward E. Kleinschmidt demonstrated a working model
of his teleprinter in Washington at the office of the Chief Signal
Officer. Officials of the Signal Corps were greatly interested in the
unit, not only because of its extreme lightness and small bulk, but
because of the representations that the basic design features of this
tape printer, exclusive of the printing mechanism, could be incorporated
in a page-type printer which could be constructed with a total weight of
approximately thirty pounds. The machine was subsequently informally
tested at the Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories and found to have
excellent margins when working without an intermediate relay on very low
line current, a highly desirable feature in a piece of tactical
teletypewriter equipment.
The exhibit at Headquarters was successful, and after operative tests at
the Signal Corps’ Coles Signal Laboratories in Red Bank, New Jersey,
where approval for further studies was given, the Kleinschmidt
organization was asked to prepare plans toward a tactical light-weight
printer for field use.
It should be pointed out that teletypewriters at that time were heavy,
cumbersome, and intended for use only at telegraph offices or at other
plant or office fixed installations.
The plans for a light-weight page printer were submitted to the Signal
Corps as requested and were well received by their engineers. These
engineers then wrote up specifications detailing their requirements for
a rugged, light-weight portable set for hand-carrying through jungles
and swamps, and operable under severe climatic conditions; the
specifications were submitted to the Teletype Corporation, the Western
Union Telegraph Company, and to the Kleinschmidt organization. Western
Union did not take on the development job, but Teletype and Kleinschmidt
accepted. A contract for the development of a teletypewriter according
to Signal Corps specifications was closed with both companies in 1945.
The Kleinschmidt Laboratories were not in active operation at this time,
so the first development contract was closed with the B. L. Kleinschmidt
Company which was fully equipped to carry on the work. Expert tool and
model makers were in his employ, some of whom turned out to do well at
the drawing board and were of great help in working out mechanical
functions. As a matter of fact, five or six of Bernard’s employees are
still with the Kleinschmidt Division of SCM Corporation at this writing,
some having attained supervisory positions.
Edward F. joined his father in further engineering and development work,
and models of a typebar page printer and a typewheel page printer to
operate at 60 words per minute were built. Upon evaluation by the Signal
Corps and Army engineers, a printer with a higher operating speed, up to
100 words per minute, was demanded. This new requirement meant a
complete redesign of apparatus, but it was successfully carried through
and experimental models were submitted by both companies. Thereupon both
Kleinschmidt and Teletype were asked to build ten printers for field
tests. This was done, and after extensive field testing, the
Kleinschmidt-designed, keyboard-operated, 100-words-per-minute typebar
page printer was accepted, and, by order of the then Secretary of War,
it was made the standard for the Military, effective on January 1, 1949.
(This printer was later to be known as the TT-4 tactical page printer,
the principal component of Teletypewriter Set AN/PGC-1.) (See fig. 13.)
An announcement from the Department of the Army, in a document released
for publication on February 13, 1949,[16] read as follows:
_Portable Teletypewriter Developed by Signal Corps_
Portable teletypewriter equipment so light that a parachutist can
carry it on a jump from an airplane has been developed and adopted by
the Army, promising a major advancement in military communications,
the Signal Corps announced today.
Weighing but 45 pounds, compared with current field equipment that
weighs 225 pounds, the new portable teletypewriter is but one-fourth
the size of the old, has 300 fewer parts, is considerably stronger and
consequently requires far less maintenance. The new equipment is
capable of transmitting and receiving messages 66 per cent faster than
existing types and will operate on both wire and radio circuits. It is
waterproof and should it be used in amphibious operations, could be
floated onto a beach.
The development is the fruition of a 20-year-old project that did not
get under way in earnest, however, until World War II was nearly over.
Because of its light weight, the new teletypewriter can be used much
closer to the front lines than has been the case. During World War II,
teletyped messages could go only as far forward as a division
headquarters. How much farther forward the new equipment can be used,
will be determined in forthcoming field tests.
The portable teletypewriter was developed by the Signal Corps
Engineering Laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, through a
research and development contract with Kleinschmidt Laboratories,
Incorporated, of Highland Park, Illinois.
There are three components to a complete field unit: the
teletypewriter itself, weighing 45 pounds; a power unit, and a case of
accessories. The three together weigh 116 pounds. All units are
waterproof, both to permit flotation in amphibious activities and to
provide complete protection from weather. One man can carry the
teletypewriter itself, while two men can carry all three units.
The field teletypewriter in current use weighs 225 pounds and—if a
vehicle is not available—requires four men to carry it. With power
unit and accessories, present field equipment totals more than 400
pounds and requires seven men to carry it.
While development work for the Signal Corps was progressing, Bernard
kept busy managing general operations and Edward F. took hold in the
general design and devised important features that were patented in his
name.
Bernard died in March, 1948. However, development work went along with
the B. L. Kleinschmidt facilities until 1949, when a production order
for 2,000 teleprinters, conforming to the now approved Kleinschmidt
design, was to be placed. Now that Bernard was no longer there to take
over business details, and as a certain amount of basic capital was
needed to operate a production establishment, arrangements were made to
transfer Bernard’s equipment to Kleinschmidt Laboratories which
thereafter closed a contract to manufacture the required quantity of
teleprinters now designated as the TT-4 telegraph typewriter.
Kleinschmidt senior, now seventy-four, was not eager to take over the
management of production activities, and while manufacturers in the
office equipment and radio field were ready and anxious to take on the
manufacture of these new teleprinters, he sought to keep the future of
this new development with the Kleinschmidt Laboratories—now owned by all
members of his family. His son-in-law, Emerson E. (Bud) Mead, was
operating a manufacturing plant, producing electrical control devices
quite successfully, so, “Why not ask Bud, then Secretary of Kleinschmidt
Laboratories, to take over? He could no doubt sell the Mead company at a
profit.” Bud did find a buyer for his company and he was then made vice
president of Kleinschmidt Laboratories; later, when Edward E.
Kleinschmidt turned over full management to him, Mead became executive
vice president.
The immediate problem at the Laboratories was to find manufacturing
space. The first thought was to rent, but then there would be no room to
expand should larger orders follow, and this could be expected since
Kleinschmidt teleprinter apparatus was now made standard equipment for
all U.S. Armed Services. Upon further investigation, Bud Mead found a
plot in Deerfield, Illinois, facing County Line Road, consisting of
thirteen acres, which could be purchased at a reasonable price. This
area would give plenty of building room and space for parking cars.
Kleinschmidt Laboratories’ first building, 200 × 150 feet, was soon
erected.
[Illustration: Fig. 13
Kleinschmidt Laboratories, Inc. Portable TT-4 Tactical Page Printer]
[Illustration: Fig. 14
Kleinschmidt Laboratories, Inc. AN/FGC-20 Fixed-Station Teletypewriter Set]
Preliminary work toward manufacturing, drawings, ordering of production
machinery, special tools, standard parts, and other items was carried on
at the Braeside laboratory.
The efforts of all of the people of the Kleinschmidt organization,
working with great enthusiasm and wonderful cooperation, sometimes
around the clock, were rewarded when on April 17, 1950, preproduction
samples of light-weight teletypewriter sets were delivered on schedule
to the Signal Corps in Fort Monmouth for approval and acceptance.
Immediately upon receipt of their approval, production began on the
contract awarded in June of 1949.
Kleinschmidt Laboratories subsequently received contracts and built
thousands of their teleprinters, including the filling of orders for the
AN/FGC-20 fixed station teleprinters (see fig. 14).
Later, the Laboratories, together with the Automatic Electric Company,
then of Chicago, now of Northlake, Ill., designed and built switching
apparatus and set up high-speed, 100-words-per-minute, automatic
teleprinter switching centers for the Military. These systems had trunk
switching controls located at key distributing points in the United
States and abroad, interconnected by microwave circuitry.
As further orders for teleprinters and associated equipment came along,
manufacturing facilities were expanded into more building area;
additions to the first unit brought that building to 200 × 500 feet.
Another building, 250 × 350 feet, of special design to house belt-line
apparatus assembly and parts storage, also testing, inspection, and
shipping, was erected in 1958.
In August, 1956, Kleinschmidt Laboratories merged with Smith-Corona
Inc., on an exchange-of-shares basis, which eventually gave Kleinschmidt
Laboratories’ shareholders 60 shares of Smith-Corona (later Smith-Corona
Marchant Inc., and then SCM Corporation) stock for one share of
Kleinschmidt Laboratories’. Bud Mead was elected a director and a member
of the executive committee. Later, he became vice president of
operations. When Smith-Corona merged with Marchant Calculators, Inc.
(June, 1958), he was made executive vice president; then, in October of
1960, he was named president of Smith-Corona Marchant Inc. (now known as
SCM Corporation).
Kleinschmidt, as a Division of SCM Corporation, continues to supply the
Military and also commercial users with teleprinter equipment. The
conclusion of this chapter tells briefly the direction the Kleinschmidt
Division is going in the printed communications field.
Before the Kleinschmidt 100-words-per-minute teleprinter was put into
service on intercommunicating circuits, the operating speed on standard
circuits had been limited to 60 words per minute. Noting this important
change in operating speed, other manufacturers had to redesign their
teleprinter equipment to meet the new 100-words-per-minute speed.
Teletype Corporation came up with a new design, the No. 28, in which all
the type pallets are moveably mounted in a rectangular box that is
positioned to move a selected type pallet into printing position by a
system of levers operated in aggregate motions under control of the code
selecting mechanisms (fig. 15). When so positioned, a print hammer
strikes the type pallet to print the character.
Creed, in England, later brought out a new design, their No. 75, using a
segmented typewheel having four rows of type faces. The typewheel is set
in the selected printing position by a lever and linkage system
operating in aggregate motion under control of the code selecting
mechanism. To print the selected character, the typewheel is struck
against the printing paper (fig. 16).
Siemens and Halske, in Germany, produced their No. 100, a redesign of
the No. 15 Teletype, using lighter and faster moving parts for operation
at 100 words per minute. Among other improved features were a type bar
shift to replace the platen shift for printing letters or figures, and a
two-color ribbon which is automatically shifted to print in red or black
to distinguish between sent and received messages—a feature of
convenience in TELEX communication. The Siemens No. 100 was designed
especially for the TELEX system, operating at 66 words per minute, where
it is used extensively (fig. 17).
[Illustration: Fig. 15
Teletype Corporation Model 28 100-words-per-minute Teletypewriter
_Picture through courtesy of Teletype Corporation_]
[Illustration: Fig. 16
Creed & Company Ltd. Model 75 Teleprinter with attachments
_Picture by courtesy of Creed & Co. Ltd._]
[Illustration: Fig. 17
Siemens & Halske Model 100 Teleprinter
_Picture by courtesy of Siemens & Halske_]
The Kleinschmidt printer, designed to operate at 100 to 150 words a
minute, employs a new method for operating a typebar printing mechanism,
comprising a type basket movable across the printed page and carrying
the required set of type bars. Each type bar has a connected push rod
extending to the rear of the type basket and is made operative to cause
printing when a rotating finger, selectively positioned by a coded stop
cage, is struck against the push rod. To meet the requirements of the
Military for a teleprinter operable in any angular position, the letter
spacing and carriage return with deceleration to the stop position is
under positive control of the motor drive.
[Illustration: Kleinschmidt Division of SCM Corporation AN/FGC-25
Send-Receive Fixed-Station Teletypewriter Set (used by the
Military)]
In 1948, scientists at Bell Telephone Laboratories, engaged in
semiconductor research, announced the birth of their famous brainchild,
the transistor. Now the little transistor and his friends, the diode and
advanced techniques in electromagnetic inductive devices, have gradually
taken over in the communications field, permitting startling speed
increases and changes in equipment design.
In the 100-words-per-minute teletypewriters, the permutation code
equivalent of the character to be transmitted or received was at some
point “set up” mechanically by positioning levers or vanes. The inertial
properties of these mechanical parts placed low-level limitations on the
operating set-up speed. By using the binary code and electronic
switching circuits, the set-up time has been reduced from milliseconds
to microseconds, making higher speeds more easily obtainable. Also,
electronic approaches to printing on page or tape have contributed to
the speed-up of telegraph receiving devices. Now, both tape and page
devices are available at operating speeds up to 10,000 words per minute.
Thanks to the Bell System, also, is the development of Data-Phone
service, started in 1958. Data-Phone makes use of all the telephone
switching devices and repeating apparatus so that any type of
communicating system using frequencies within the voice range may be
used. For such systems the telephone company will install equipment to
separate the different types of electrical transmission to prevent
interference. Because Data-Phone enables not only the sound of the human
voice to be sent over a telephone circuit, but information from a
teletypewriter or business machine as well, this new use for the
telephone system has expanded its service to many types of business
communications. At this writing, the Bell System advertises, “Data-Phone
‘talks’ 16 times faster than people talk. It can send punched card or
taped data anywhere—at speeds up to 2500 words per minute.”
While these advances have been taking place, the transistor and its
companions have made a similar impact in the field of data processing.
The rapid evolution of computers and other high-speed switching devices
has generated a need for higher speed equipment to supply input and
output requirements. The changeover to electronics has realized
minification, lighter weight, reduction of mechanical parts with a
corresponding reduction in maintenance, quieter operation, and greater
adaptability to code and language conversion.
KLEINSCHMIDT DIVISION OF SCM CORPORATION
At the Kleinschmidt Division where Mr. Emilio J. Cadamagnani, Executive
Vice President, is in charge, their engineering department, under the
supervision of Mr. Robert L. Kearney, is keeping up with the change from
electromechanically- to electronically-controlled devices. Their new
Model 311 Electronic Data Printer shown here is an example. Operating at
speeds from 60 to 400 words per minute and capable of receiving 5-, 6-,
7-, or 8-level code information in either serial or parallel form, it is
designed for use in high-speed communications or data processing
systems.
Also illustrated is still another new Kleinschmidt device, the Model 321
Automatic Data Set, which includes not only a page printer with keyboard
but a tape perforator and a tape reader, all compactly mounted in a
console.
Both the Model 311 and Model 321 are compatible with existing data
modems, conventional printing telegraph equipment, electronic computers,
and data processing equipment. This compatibility permits their use in
on-line or off-line communications and data-handling applications.
More exciting devices may be anticipated in the rapidly moving field of
printed communications.
[Illustration: Kleinschmidt Division of SCM Corporation
Model 311 Electronic Data Printer]
[Illustration: Kleinschmidt Division of SCM Corporation
Model 321 Automatic Data Set]
Footnotes
[1]_Der Pendel-Telegraph von Siemens & Halske_, by E. Ehrhardt, 6 Jan.
1917.
[2]_Telegraphy, A Detailed Exposition of the Telegraph System of the
British Post Office_, by T. E. Herbert, Fourth Edition (with
Addendum), Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., London, 1920.
[3]“Teletype’s Salty Past,” _The AP World_, Autumn 1962, p. 29.
[4]_AP, The Story of News_, by Oliver Gramling, illustrated by Henry C.
Barrow, Farrar and Rinehart, Inc., New York-Toronto, 1940.
[5]“Some Recollections of AP’s First Field Maintenance Man,” _The AP
World_, Autumn 1962, p. 28.
[6]“Some Recollections of AP’s First Field Maintenance Man,” _The AP
World_, Autumn 1962, p. 28.
[7]See page 30.
[8]_The Romance of Time_, by Brooks Palmer for The Clock Manufacturers
Association of America, Inc., New Haven, Conn., 1954 (copies may be
purchased from American Clock & Watch Museum, Inc., 100 Maple
Street, Bristol, Conn.).
[9]“$30,000,000 Worth of Teletype,” _Fortune_, March 1932.
[10]“$30,000,000 Worth of Teletype,” _Fortune_, March 1932.
[11]“Walter J. Zenner Retires,” _Teletype News_, February 1964.
[12]_Telegraphy_, by J. W. Freebody, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd.,
London, 1958.
[13]From brochure published by American Telephone and Telegraph Company,
1-9-28.
[14]“Communications from Morse to Satellites,” by George A. Shaw, RCA
Communications, Inc., _Wire and Radio Communications_, Sept. 1962.
[15]“Telex in the U.S.A.,” _Communications & Electronics_, Sept. 1962.
[16]National Military Establishment, Dept. of the Army, Wash. 25, D.C.,
for release Sunday, Feb. 13, 1949.
Transcriber’s Notes
—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
is public-domain in the country of publication.
—Corrected a few palpable typographical errors.
—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
_underscores_.