Justape JR., Teletype Perforator
I need some information on a few Linotype “accessories”. The Justape JR and a teletype perforator which works with the Elektron model Linotype machine. These machines eliminated the operator and put out a teletype ribbon (is that the right term?) which fit in the magazines for linotype. Does anyone have any idea what i am talking about, where I can find more info on them and how they work? Does any one have an Elektron model Linotype machine who would want to use these? Thanks!
I was head machinist for Rocky Mtn News for years. We had battery of Elektrons run by 6-level perforated tape. The forerunner to Merganthaler devices for tape driven linos was the Fairchild Perforator and the Fairchild operating unit that plugged onto the keyboards of these machines. I have not heard of the Adjust Tape Jr but ours was called the Linomatic system. It consisted of a tape reader that had a zillion little relays in the cabinet and the reader head on top. The punched tape was fed into the reader and then converted into analog pulses that went out to a small box that was bolted to the back of the keybars on the machine. This was a solenoid controlled device that moved bars back and forth and actuated the keybars which in turn operated the little rocker arms in the magazines thus letting down one selected mat at a time. Originally “Tape Punchers” (or operators) read copy and punched all the tape on their manual tape machines. They had to make all the decisions as to line endings and making sure the ouput lines would fit in the jaws on the lino and justify properly. Later on this process went to computer generated tape which made the operaton faster and more reliable. All good things come to an end and the photo typesetting era came in with the Merganthaler LINOFILM which was run by a 15 level (yes 15 levels of punched holes). Later they made it so the Linofilm could accept 6-level tape with a special reader. There was also a COMPSTAR 191 made by Star Parts that would use 6 level tape and put out straight matter and stock markets at high speeds. Of course after that computers took over and the process today is entirely digital.Today there a but a few Elektrons still running. I still have lots of spare parts for the ELEKTRON.
My friend John Boyden sent this info:
Walt
It wasn’t Adjustape jr, it was Justape Jr. It was put out by Compugraphic in
the late 60s, I’m not sure just when. We had one of the first at one of our
West Virginia plants, I think it was at Elkins. It took raw punched paper tape
and turned it into justified tape for the TTY-enabled Linotypes. I don’t know
if I still have prints on it, as I cleared out a bunch of my old printing stuff a
year or so ago.
John
AH! ok… that explains why I can’t find any info online. Justape and EleKtron… All this info was given to me orally, so I misheard! Thanks for clearing that up. I’ll keep digging!
PS: Is there anywhere that would be interested in this stuff as a donation? If anyone knows it well enough to use it, please message me. I’d hate for it to go in the scrap heap.
There’s a good overview of the tele-typesetting process, using Elektrons, on this 1971 video here:
http://www.metaltype.co.uk/photos/photo88.shtml
You could also advertise the items free of charge, here:
http://www.metaltype.co.uk/cgi-bin/suite/classifieds/classifieds.cgi