This is my Western-Union-branded M33-ASR TWX machine. This one has a touch-tone
dialer, but TWX machines also came with rotary dialers. Also having rotary dialers
are the similar-looking Telex machines, which can be identified by four pushbuttons
below the dialer, whereas the TWX units have six buttons. But I believe that Telex
only used baudot machines (like the M32), not ascii units (like the M33).
More pics here.
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This M33-ASR has a "private-wire" CCU, for 20- or 60-mil current loop use.
The CCU panel on the right should be blank, but someone added a light to it.
It's getting harder to find the removable copy stand, as well as the plastic
(or metal) chad box, which is hanging under the punch on the left.
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The small box at the top of the stand is the power supply for the tape reader -- in
3300-series machines, this is built into the CCU.
In a private-wire unit, like this one, the stand is empty except for the reader supply.
In a TWX unit, there is a large dataset (modem) that sits in here.
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This 33-ASR is pretty clean. Too bad it has chipped plastic at the front.
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The front unit is the standard tape reader with the three-position START/STOP/FREE lever.
The less-common "auto" reader would have a fourth AUTO position -- it
could be commanded on and off remotely.
The tape punch is the unit directly behind the reader
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This unit has a Carterfone modem (a third-party modification) added to a standard
private-wire CCU.
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This Carterfone machine belongs to Clarence Turk.
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The 3300-series machines usually had a one-piece plastic cover, so the
tape units did not look like they were bolted-on afterthoughts.
I don't know if there was a Model 3300 or not -- the only one I have heard
of was labelled Model 3320. The later 33 manuals discuss 3300-series machines,
but don't mention specific model numbers.
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This later 3300-series machine has the auto-reader.
The DC1 (XON) and DC3 (XOFF) control characters are used as start/stop commands
for the auto tape reader. Since XON/XOFF chars are used today as software-handshaking
flow-control characters, you want to disable software handshaking if you are connecting
to a 33 with something like a terminal emulation program.
Supposedly, DC2/DC4 have been used as auto tape punch on/off commands in the M33asr,
but I have not seen any more info on an auto tape punch. Anyone?
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This 3320 machine has the standard tape reader.
Another CCU panel is ruined by hacking lights and switches on it.
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This 3320 machine has the auto-reader, but not the one-piece case.
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This is an earlier auto-reader. Too bad the plastic tape cover has broken off.
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Some TWX machines had an optional auto-dialing card-reader gizmo -- these are
blank card that were used with it.
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