EXTEL - Printers and Reuters and more...
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EXTEL - Reuters News Service and Printers

 

 

 

Picked up an EXTEL printer tagged with REUTERS logo .. this is for the "tools of the journalist" display

 

 

 

EXTEL KSR!  

(need manuals and  an actual machine ! - Email me Please info@smecc.org)

 

1978 Extel Electronic Teleprinter Telex TWX Private Telecommunicat ions Print Ad

 

 

 

Here is the manual  for the  AE and AF Models. The AC-31 pictured above is close to the AE but  I would think earlier.

 

EXTEL MANUALS 
These Teleprinters were used by REUTERS News Service and ?  ... you tell us!  
 There are  2 PDF  files    PART1   and PART2

(Thanks to Jerry Murphy sending to us to scan.)

EXTEL CORPORATION

A Brief History
As recoded by Jim Haynes

August 27, 2001 



Shortly after Walt Zenner retired as Vice President of Research and Development
at the Teletype Corporation in 1964 he and Peter Mero, developer of the Electrowriter,
formed the Quotemasrer Corp.

The company started small with just a couple of technicians working under the
direction of Zenner in a leased building in Rosemont near the O'Hare airport. Their first
product was a stock ticker. It had a continuously running typewheel and printing was
done on the fly. There were already stock tickers on the market but the Quotemaster had
a unique selection feature. A customer could gel up the stock symbols he was following
and the ticket would print only those symbols as trades were made on the exchanges.
This eliminated the usual searching through hundreds of feet or paper tape for the stock
trades a customer was interested in.

TransLux, the company that made projectors for the stock exchange purchased
the right to the product and planned for its manufacture. Shortly thereafter, the economy
took a downturn and production plans were put on hold.

In addition to the product Translux wanted the right to the name Quotemaster.
This was granted but now the company had to find a new name. In England the telegraph
systems are operated by the federal government along with the telephone and post office.
The London stock exchange had a private telegraph company for its ticker and financial
news operations. This company was called the Exchange Telegraph but people used a
very popular nick name, Ex Tel. This nick name was not registered so Peter adopted it
for the new name of this small company. The name added prestige in Europe out of
proportion to the American company with a staff or five.

With the inflow of funds from the sale of the ticker, work began on a dot matrix
printer. By 1969 a first model had been developed. Electronics for the printer was solid­
state transistor logic, with the mechanical parts limited to a stepping motor to control the
position of the print head and magnet driven needles to print the matrix character. The
mechanical part of the printer was almost ridiculously simple. The logic that converted
the incoming teletypewriter characters to the 5 x 7 matrix characters was a major part of
the electronics. As the first model approached completion Texas Instrument announced
the development of a single chip which was perfectly suited for this purpose, It was
immediately included in the product, resulting in an excellent system.

The small staff had started with a totally new concept and after one year, had a
working model of a very attractive product. The bank account, however, was gone.

Mero had never been enthusiastic about the product but now had to sell it - - there
was no alternative. He took it to New York and demonstrated it to Reuters, the business
news company. He returned from the trip and told Zenner excitedly and with some awe
in his voice "They liked it."

As the sales negotiation proceeded, a group of Reuters executives visited the
Extel factory, Mero arranged for eleven additional people to populate the factory floor
during the exhibit and demonstrations, since there were only five people on staff in the
company at that time.

Reuters ordered a substantial number of printers and with their order in hand,
Mereo set about to raise funds for the forthcoming manufacture of the printers. Kemper
Insurance Company bought 51% of the company, and with new funds the company
leased factory space in the: northern suburb of Northbrook. At this point Zenner lost
interest as the company's activities changed from research and development to mass
production and he resigned from the company, (still holding his half of the 49% of the
remaining shares).

Peter Mero continued as President and Vice President of Sales. As production
increased and printers were put in service, he sold this specialized printer to about 30
different news companies around the world.

Extel continued to produce the printer and manufactured about a quarter million printers.

Zenner said that, in his opinion the Extel printer was the first successful dot matrix teleprinter.

 

==========================================================================

Added  commentary  by Jim Haynes to Ed Sharpe - 

 

You probably know that it is frequently asserted that ExTel came from
"ex-Teletype" and now you know from the co-founder that is not true.
However there were ex-Teletype people at Extel.

Another player in this game was Qwint, which had at least one ex-Teletype,
ex-Extel guy on its staff. They were located a bit north of Skokie and
Northbrook, in Lake County. See http://juliepalooza.8m.com/sl/qwint.htm

which says it was a cleverly designed product, but came to market about
the time hardcopy terminals were disappearing.

The UGC-129 printer was made by Tracor in Austin for the Air Force.
There were two models. The original used a type element just like that
of the MITE printer; however everything was done with stepper motors
rather than with mechanical "logic". The second model used a dot-matrix
print head, and also had an LED or LCD display bar.

The UGC-74 printer was developed by Kleinschmidt but manufactured by
others. The original model used a print drum. Kleinschmidt had earlier
made some drum printers; and Teletype had done one for the Signal Corps
back in the 50s and decided not to pursue that technology. Later models
of the UGC-74 used dot matrix printing. All models are excessively heavy.
I've heard these were used by the military as late as the Iraq war
because they are well sealed against sand. Keyboards have terrible
touch, but then I guess that is necessary with the moving parts shielded
from sand by rubber boots.


_________________________________________________________

 

Jim Haynes Comments on Patents  


For patents see 2,977,180 3,114,490 3,116,964 3,143,599 and one
that probably leads to something more, 3,150,915. Also 3,185,993

3,249,922 is the Quotemaster.

The thing about 3,150,915 is that it was issued to Dixon and Darsie
of Dixon Automatic Tool Co. in Rockford IL. Mostly that company
made factory machinery, including doing a lot of work for Teletype.
And when Teletype was charged with developing a fax machine, Dixon
was chosen as the subcontractor.

_________________________________________________________

 

                            BELTS

Jerry Murphy tells us: "Regarding belts: There are at least two companies
that sell cogged belts on-line: One is B and B Manufacturing -- www.bbman.com
 -- and the other is Stock Drive Products / Sterling Instrument -- www.sdp-si.com.
 They both have extensive catalogs and you may be able to find a suitable belt 
for your EXTEL machine."

_________________________________________________________

 

 

 


 


 

 

 

Ed Says - if you tire of the Extel printer with RCA logo we would display it in the 'tools of the journalist display. not as cool as a 15 but still one of the tools and as the old guard passes will be people that remember the Extel as 'THEIR UPI PRINTER"
Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC
 

Bill says - 

Ahh, so it was UPI.

ok that makes sense as there is an RCA service sticker on the side.

there are two boards in the Extel case that holds the printer and one appears to be a tone demod.

another list member did note that some Extels used 60 ma current loop interfaces.

I'll check for the contacts on the carriage sides.

now to find an IBM serial card from the PC XT days so I can try to get it to print.

the IBM 8 bit single DB25 port serial cards are jumper convertible for current loop.


after I find the card I should be able to get the unit to print providing
I can find the connection points for the tone demod and bypass it to feed the loop.

it's gonna be awhile as the serial cards are getting hard to find and other converters are pricey.

I find your 30 year old memory quote interesting as this printer was found in the cold storage area of a local TV station and has been there for 20 to 30 years!

the poor thing was in an Okidata printer box and all these years we thought an old Okidata was in the box - imagine my surprise when we opened the box during spring cleaning and I saw a teleprinter!

I kindda miss the model 33 asr's I once had but there is a model 18 or 19 in a radio stations storage I may ask for.

not sure about the exact model but is has a keyboard so it is SR and it had typewriter style printing keys (no type ball or cyl) and the grey or black crinkle finish case.

Bill




Sheldon wrote:


I am going to go out on a limb, as I am having to go from memory of things I knew more about, roughly 30 years ago.

If the Extel printer had an RCA logo on it, it was probably in UPI use. UPI used RCA Service to maintain their equipment, while the AP tended to use in-house technical staff to keep their machines working.

The print head is seven pin, with a small electromagnet to drive that pin to print the portions of the completed printed item, as the print head stepped across the paper.

Any possibility the model is an AH-11R?

The AP Extels were generally loop current driven, as the AP had numerous Lenkurt 25A stand-alone single channel VF demodulators.

The UPI Extels were generally outfitted with a tone demodulator which was installed in the Extel case.


 

George says - 

Looking at the Arizona Museum's Extel Photo reminded me of something few knew. The Carriage Return spring on the left side of the machine must be treated carefully. The entire spring is coated with teflon, which is the key to its successful operation. If you have an Extel, treat that spring very tenderly. Without the teflon coating, they will bind and drag and make life miserable!   - W7TTY

 



Jim Haynes Collection at SMECC

Jim Haynes Collection at SMECC

Jim Haynes Collection at SMECC

Jim Haynes says: 

Extel material is included because some Extel employees, notably
including Walt Zenner, were former Teletype people.

In 2007 I acquired a Trans-Lux teleprinter for Telex, and some Extel
manuals. Apparently there was a continuing relationship between
Extel and Trans-Lux, as the printer mechanism in this teleprinter
is Extel but most of the design is by Trans-Lux. In particular there
is a patent 4,252,994 assigned to Trans-Lux covering the whole set.
Something was posted on a web site saying that Trans-Lux had built
keyboards for Extel.

 

TLPT-4.jpg (91735 bytes)  caption4.jpg (46788 bytes)

Jim Haynes Collection at SMECC

TLPT-2.jpg (108035 bytes)  caption2.jpg (46520 bytes)

Jim Haynes Collection at SMECC

 

TLPT-5.jpg (92659 bytes)caption56.jpg (52170 bytes)

Jim Haynes Collection at SMECC

 

TLPT-6.jpg (119803 bytes)

Jim Haynes Collection at SMECC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




yet another   use of the name.... http://www.extelsurveys.com/AboutUs/AboutUsHome.aspx

The Extel Story

The name Extel has an illustrious past. The Exchange Telegraph company was founded in 1872 with its initial undertaking being the laying of the first telegraphic cable on the Atlantic seabed to electronically connect London and New York.

Over the next 100+ years Extel (the name coming into common use for the company in the 1950's) grew into one of the leading news agencies, provider of financial information and associated businesses. Among the many notable achievement were 'Extel Cards', the very first corporate snapshots/tear-sheets with brief data on P&L, employees, business activities and executive management. Extel Cards, naturally in hard copy, were first produced in 1922.

Between the late 1970's and 1990's Extel was subsumed into various media groups, including United Business Media (UBM) and Pearson. The loss of its own identity and independence undeniably reduced the effectiveness of the business, and in 1999/2000 the historical datasets (essentially the modern version of Extel Cards), along with the Extel Survey were acquired by Thomson, now of course Thomson Reuters.

The Extel Survey itself began in 1974, when an independent consultant, Geoffrey Osmint, conceived the idea of collecting views and votes from fund managers on the services and advice they were getting from research analysts at stockbroking houses (or investment statisticians as analysts were then called).

The first Survey, produced in October 1974, saw some 53 fund management firms take part (compared to 1,615 in 2008), and interest quickly grew to around 120 asset management firms giving their views. The Survey was run independently by Geoffrey Osmint. Between 1974 and 1985 it was sponsored by Continental Illinois Bank of the USA (perhaps the more experienced North American financial professionals will remember the name!).

With the demise of Continental Illinois in 1985, the Survey became the Extel Survey, although it continued under the careful direction of Geoffrey Osmint until 1998, when on completion of the 25th annual Survey he left the scene.

Initially the Survey focused on the UK investment market only, and still in 1999 it had a significant UK bias, in the data collected and the location of respondents.

Since Extel Surveys became the Thomson Extel Surveys and now Thomson Reuters Extel there have been a range of enhancements.

In brief -

  • Website for voting and results
  • Global expansion - in participation in the Survey, and encompassing other market studies in Asia and North America
  • Rankings of Corporates and Fund Managers alongside the fundamental rankings of brokers
  • The much-valued independent assessment of the Survey data and processes by Deloitte
  • Introduction of Extel IBR - an internal broker voting tool for individual fund management firms

Extel now runs market surveys and produces bespoke studies for clients worldwide - helping all three sides of the investment community to identify excellence and inform investment decisions.

 

And a newer  newsroom  yet  with an EXTEL  printer!
From a VHS  dub   video tape Gary Edens KOY collection at  SMECC)

 

 

 

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