User:MBlairMartin/Teletype Model 37

Teletype Model 37. On display at the Living Computer Museum in Seattle, Washington.

The Teletype Model 37 is an electromechanical teleprinter manufactured by the Teletype Corporation in 1968. Unfortunately the end was approaching for electromechanical user interfaces and a year later in 1969 the Computer Terminal Corporation introduced the electronic terminal with a screen.

The Model 37 came with many features including upper- and lowercase letters, reverse page feed for printing charts, red and black ink and could print 150 Baud (15 characters/second) and optional tape and punch reader. This made it 50% faster than its predecessor the Model 33.

The Model 37 terminal utilizes a serial input / output 10 unit code signal consisting of a start bit, seven information bits, an even parity bit and a stop bit. It was produced in ASR (Automatic Send and Receive), KSR (Keyboard Send and Receive) and RO (Receive Only) versions.

The Model 37 handles USASI X3.4-1968 ASCII Code and prints 94 graphics of this code with letters in both upper and lower case, with the option to print in two colors. It uses a six-row removable typebox with provisions for 96 type pallet positions. When the Shift-Out feature is included, the six-row typebox is replaced with a seven-row typebox allowing 112 pallet positions, or it can be replaced with an eight-row typebox allowing 128 type pallet positions.

The Model 37 interface meets the requirements of EIA RS-232-B and has a recommended maintenance interval of every six months or every 1500 hours. The Model 37 is 36.25 inches high and 27.5 inches deep. The ASR weighs approx. 340 pounds and KSR and RO weighs approximately 185 pounds.

Fun Facts

• Most Model 37s were re-purchased from customers and sold to the Soviet Union with antiquated mainframe computer systems.

Further Reading

• Dolotta, T., A., & Dorn, William. (1970). Functional Specifications for Typewriter-Like Time-Sharing Terminals. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 2(1), 5-31.

External links

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