3M silentwriter model 1483?

From: Frank McConnell <fmc_at_reanimators.org>
Date: Wed Dec 2 21:25:00 1998

<cdrmool_at_interlog.com> wrote:
> Anyone know the story behind this? Its a small keyboard connected to a
> small thermal paper printer. It has an old 70's style phone jack
> (at least the kind we used in Ontario Canada) coming out the back of the
> printer. My father who found it says he thinks its one of the early
> devices used by the deaf. I think it was probably just a simple
> terminal.

Silentwriter or Whisperwriter? I think I remember the 3M flavor having
the latter name.

I played with one of them back in 1983 or 1984. That one had a
keyboard connected to a thermal printer by some sort of cord (they
were separate boxes), and I think an RJ11 phone jack for a POTS line.
As I recall it was an ASCII terminal plus modem with a memory buffer
that could be used for offline composition, and it came to us
recommended as a tool for composing and sending Telexes via Western
Union's Easylink service. (We sent it back and made an HP150 do the
job.) I don't remember if it could be made to do other codes than
ASCII.

More recently (early 1990s), I've seen one with a little CRT (again in
a separate box) used as a Telex terminal, but didn't inquire to find
out how it was connected or what was on the other end of the
connection.

-Frank McConnell
Received on Wed Dec 02 1998 - 21:25:00 GMT