ASCII provided a common framework for how computers stored and transmitted letters and numbers, allowing many different brands of computers to easily communicate with each other.
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Unlike most other teleprinters at the time, the Model 33 could understand the ASCII standard, which the American National Standards Institute had recently developed as a standard code for electronic devices and computers. One of the biggest reasons that the term “teletype” became so strongly associated with computing was the Teletype Corporation Model 33 (sometimes called the “ASR 33”), which was first introduced in 1963. As time-sharing became more common in the 1960s, organizations with mainframe computers began to buy off-the-shelf commercial teletype machines to use as terminals more frequently. The invention of time-sharing in 1959 allowed multiple users to share an interactive computer system at the same time, making low-cost, single-personal terminals like teletypes desirable for computer use. Many of these computers, such as the Bendix G-15 (1956) and the IBM 610 (1954) used modified electric typewriters as either input or output devices, but not necessarily commercial teleprinters. IBMĪlongside batch computing in the mid-1950s, engineers began to experiment with interactive computing, where a computer operator could provide input and get results back in almost real-time in a sort of interactive “conversation” with the machine. The IBM 610 (1954) was an early interactive computer that used a modified typewriter for printed output. The output stack would then be fed into a tabulating machine or a printer that would print the results in human-readable form. Many early large computer systems (especially those sold by IBM) were batch operated, which meant that a program would be typed onto punched cards, the punched cards would be fed into the machine with other programs (in a batch), and then the results would be written onto another stack of punched cards. The computer could be in the same room, in another part of a building, or even halfway across the world when linked by a telephone network. Instead of communicating with a remote teleprinter, you’re sending and receiving human-readable text to and from a computer. To imagine why a teletype would be useful with a computer, recall those two remotely linked typewriters from the last example and replace one of them with an interactive computer system. Why Did People Use Teletypes with Computers? A single teletype operator familiar with operating a typewriter could replace two trained telegraph operators, and news could be dispatched instantly across the world to receiving teletype units that didn’t need to have keyboards. In the early 1900s, teleprinters became more reliable and easier to use, adding a familiar QWERTY keyboard and the ability to record messages on paper tape for repeated re-transmission. Primitive teleprinters first emerged as early as the 1840s and provided an advantage over Morse code operations with a telegraph key, because a teleprinter’s output was instantly human-readable without the need for special training. Now imagine that these two typewriters can be any distance away thanks to wired networks or radio transmissions, and you’ll understand what a revolution in communications they represented in the early 20th century.
Whatever you type on one typewriter gets automatically printed out on the other. To understand the basic principle behind teleprinters, imagine two electric typewriters linked together by wires (or a wireless radio link). An excerpt from a 1929 Teletype advertisement.
Teletype Corporation’s products became so ubiquitous that “teletype” evolved into a generic term synonymous with “teleprinter,” especially in the field of computers. The term “teletype” originated as a trademarked term for a brand of teleprinters created by the Teletype Corporation in 1928. A teletype (or more precisely, a teleprinter) is a communications device that allows operators to send and receive text-based messages using a typewriter-style keyboard and printed paper output.