TELETYPEWRITERS MADE EASY!  - How it came to be  - 
  by Sally Taylor  <from www.smecc.org>

 

The year was 1974.  A realization came that with so many obsolete TTYs being distributed all over the United States, there was a need for knowledge on how to rewire the machines so deaf people could use them with the recently-developed TTY modem invented by Robert H. Weitbrecht.  The St. Louis group had been fortunate to have John Woodard from Western Union, St. Louis, to train some of the guys to redo the machines.  During discussions, they agreed that a manual would be a very helpful with lots of photos and less technical words to make it easier for those who wanted to learn.  Paul Taylor shared this idea with Dr. Latham Breunig who was coordinating deliveries of TTYs throughout the nation (along with Jess Smith) and getting the machines registered by each new owner.  At that time, Latham Breunig & Jess Smith were heading this organization called “Teletypwriters for the Deaf, Inc”.

 

Breunig worked as a statistician for Eli Lily, and he was able to obtain a grant from the Eli Lily Foundation in Indianapolis to assist with the publication of the manual.  The grant was for $10,000.  Soon a manual-writing committee was formed.

 

Paul headed this committee, assisted by Robert Weitbrecht, who flew to St. Louis from California.  Others who were enlisted were Tom Rule of Boston, an illustration specialist; three TTY maintenance men, Fred Stewart, Gene McDowell and Tom Schwarz of St. Louis; and Dan Skinner (the only hearing guy in this group) of the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in St. Louis.  Two deaf women, Sally Taylor and Peggy McLaughlin, were assigned to do the typing (pre-computer days), using an electric IBM typewriter.  Another local deaf man who pitched in at the last minute was Tommy Markham who developed and printed pictures each evening after they were taken, and delivered to the guys each morning for work on the book. 

 

One thousand copies of the manual, titled “Teletypewriters Made Easy” were printed.  This “Red Book” as it was called, made its debut at the first TDI Convention in Chicago, in June 1974, and sold for $12.95.  They quickly became very sought-after.  Sally Taylor handled the shipping of the manuals from St. Louis, working closely with Dr. Breunig.

 

All of this was done on a volunteer basis.  Truly a labor of love!

(C-SMECC: From  the  Paul and Sally Taylor Collection at  SMECC.)

VOLUNTEERS COMPLETE NEW PROJECT TO HELP DEAF

By SHEILA RULE 
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff 

A small group or persons worked more than 100 hours each during the week in a cramped room at a motel here to make life easier for their special interest group. 

Amid a clutter of photographs and printed materials, they put together a service manual for machines that enable deaf persons to use the telephone.  

Paul L. Taylor, a St. Louis en­gineer, organized the week-long workshop, formed to devise a 300-page book on the care of Te­letypewriters. The session was financed by the Lilly Endow­ment, a philanthropic organization.  

Taylor, who is deaf, was one of the first persons in the country to use the Teletypewriter system, which allows deaf persons to communicate by means of telephones connected to Tele­type machines.  

Now, 10 years after its inception, the communications network serves about 5000 families in all 50 states and in Canada, Great Britain, the Philippines and Israel. About 130 of the families are in the St. Louis area. 


Teletypewriters "allow deaf people 10 talk to other people with the equipment by typing back and forth on the machines over regular telephone lines," Taylor, 34 years old explained.

But most persons who use the machines have no easy-to-follow instructions on maintaining them, Taylor said. "The problem with most manuals is that they are too deep for people' to follow. We have tried to use simple instructions in ours. We have put much more emphasis on pictures than on words," he commented. "The hardest part has been trying to tell the average person, who doesn't know much about the Teletypewriters, how the machine works and how to take jot apart. In our manual, we're trying to bring the language level down to everybody's
level."

Five deaf mechanics who can service the machines live' St. 'Louis area, he said. 

The Teletypewriters used in the network are outmoded, surplus machines donated by telephone companies and Western Union. They are distributed by Teletypewriters for the Deaf, Inc., a nonprofit organization of which Taylor is a director.

 Bright lights flash when phone rings at Taylor's house. Taylor or his wife, Sally, who a l s o is deaf, answers it  and places the handset into a device called an acoustical coupler. (This device allows a standard telephone to carry teletype signals by transforming characters into high - or low - pitched sounds.) 

Taylor then turns on his Teletypewriter and types out an identification, such as "Paul Taylor here. GA (go ahead)." The caller at the other end then types out a message on his machine. That message is relayed by phone and typed onto the roll of paper in Taylor's machine. 

If the Taylors feel like calling a friend who owns a machine, they simply dial the telephone and watch a monitor light on the coupler. The pattern of flashes denotes a busy signal or a ringing or answered telephone. Deaf persons may call non deaf persons on a standard phone through the use of an answering service that has a Teletypewriter.

All three of the Taylors' children, who have normal hearing, use the machine. David, 9 years old, and Lucy, 7, are old hands at typing by now: Even Irene, their 3-year-old, can turn on the machine and hit a key that will signal her parents to the phone.

"The only requirement is that a person be able to type," Taylor said. "We are pushing for the day when all deaf people can use the machine. 

"But we don't have enough Teletypes available, and the cost of a person buying one is about $300. Many people can't afford this. And in small towns, no one knows how to hook them up. So it will take time."

(C-SMECC: From  the  Paul and Sally Taylor Collection at  SMECC.)
Robert H. Weitbrecht

(C-SMECC: From  the  Paul and Sally Taylor Collection at  SMECC.)
Paul Taylor

Tom Schwarz and 

         and Robert H. Weitbrecht

Tom Rule and  Tom Schwarz

Gene McDowell  and   Dan Skinner

Paul L. Taylor, Editor
Frederick N. Stewart, Assistant Editor
Robert H. Weitbrecht, Model 15
Dan Skinner, Model 28
J. Thomas Rule, Model 28
Eugene L. McDowell, Model 32
Thomas R. Schwarz, Model 32

Teletypewriters for the Deaf, Inc.
Indianapolis, Indiana May 1974
Copyrighted 1974 by "Teletypewriters For The Deaf, Inc."

From left to right: Dan Skinner, Tom Schwarz, Gene McDowell,
Paul Taylor, Fred Stewart, Bob Weitbrecht, and Tom Rule.