Typing And Sending A Telex
| Field | Telecommunication |
| Went Obsolete | Late 1980s/Early-1990s |
| Made Obsolete By | Fax machines, modems, and e-mail |
| Knowledge Assumed | Proper use of Telex terminals. Knowing the telex destination |
| When useful | When this skill could still be used in the real world |
A Telex machine was a method for sending typed text, via a modem-like connection, via special phone lines to other Telex machines. In order to save expensive long distance phone time, the message was first typed on a keyboard, which converted the text into holes on a paper tape.
A slow typist could take their time, and when the message was done, the tape was loaded into the player, and the long distance coll was made. When the machine at the other end connected, the paper tape was played at a high speed, like a player piano roll, transmitting the message as code.
The machine was a teletype machine, with a keyboard, that also made a paper copy of the message, and the paper punching and playing mechanism. They were used into the 1980s and were replaced by fax and computer.
To move to another line of type the keyboard required the typist punch three keys: Carriage Return, Line Feed, Letters.
Long messages would create a long strip of tape. A skillful teletype operator would learn to make a boat of the tape. By starting with the end of the message, the tape would be wound around the thumb and forefinger in a figure-eight pattern leaving the first part of the message nestled in the centre of the boat. This tight little package could be laid on the floor and the front part of the message drawn up and fed into the starting block. The rest of the message would feed itself into the machine smoothly and unattended. This prevented long threads of tape lying on the floor, tangling and getting torn. Of course, the tape that passed through the machine did, indeed, spill onto the floor and the operator would have to gather it up and if resending it, make a new boat.