In the first post I mentioned the dag was missing from the monitor, so while the tube is out, lets give the monitor some attention…
Continue reading “At&t 513 Terminal, Part II”At&t Model 513 Terminal, or Teletype 56D, or…
Talk about an identity crisis! I recently stopped by the swap meet at System Source, a computer museum just outside of Baltimore, Maryland, where I picked up this eighties masterpiece of a terminal. This…style terminal I believe is known by many monikers. This actual unit is labeled an At&t “513” on the front, and “Teletype 56D” on the back. (At&t bought Teletype Corp and often branded some of their final products with At&t nomenclature.) This unit was likely paired to an At&t Definity PBX, and simliar units could also be At&t 4425 as well as many other models (likely only minor firmware tweaks between them).
Posted on it was a sign that basically mentioned it was a “barn find”, and as such, no guarantees on it working, or ever working. As I’m a glutton for punishment, naturally I bought it. (I know the seller and he gave me a good deal on it).
Let’s see what’s inside…
Continue reading “At&t Model 513 Terminal, or Teletype 56D, or…”Telephony Home Lab – Part 1 (featuring the At&t Merlin Phone System)
Well, after December 2020 was quite a doozy of a month, December 2021 said “hold my beer” and blew away whatever crappy stuff was happening in 2020, to the point where for the first time in my life (since I can remember), I actually did not celebrate Christmas with my family. More on that later, but long story short despite having more projects than I know what to do with, my ADD brain led me to hyperfocus on telephony; something that I hold dear to me as exposure to most of ma bell’s refuse (equipment, phones, switches, computers, etc) in my childhood is what led me to technology in the first place. I had access to a ton of gear (even just seeing some of it) through a family friend that owned a recycling plant near my uncle’s house, and got to bring home some stuff like old phones (2500 sets) and tinker with them.
One thing I distinctly remember were many “Merlin” phones; and of course getting a nostalgia kick, I found a couple “analog” Merlin phones that had that silver/sleek 1980s futuristic look I remember, with membrane buttons and the At&t logo.
Continue reading “Telephony Home Lab – Part 1 (featuring the At&t Merlin Phone System)”At&t Tech/Archive Channel on Youtube is Addictive!
So the past few days I’ve been poking around in the Youtube channel “At&t Tech Channel”. Within that is the “At&t Archive” that hosts tons of old videos from At&t, Bell Labs and MA Bell. These videos are awesome for a variety of reasons; but other than the retro-futurism of them, it shows just how much MA Bell either “thought” or “was” the technology provider of the people back then. (At least until the Carterfone Decision)
It’s really interesting to see the concept videos showing paging for farms, how the “central office” was obsolete and going away, leading to *gasp* DIALING (and later push-button dialing), amongst other things.
It’s also interesting how a handful of these videos are somewhat local to the PA/NJ area, as the NJ Bell labs building was a substantial part of them back then, and (if I’m not mistaken) where a number of major innovations, including the invention of the transistor happened.
If you’re nerdy like me and need a new time waster, definitely check out this channel!
At&t Tech Channel (and archive): https://www.youtube.com/user/ATTTechChannel