Download the document "The New Look At Teletype" which appeared in 1960 that offers a glimpse into the operation of one of the largest data communications companies of its time.

The Teletype Corporation of Skokie IL,  a part of American Telephone and Telegraph Company's Western Electric manufacturing arm since 1930, came into being in 1928 when the Morkrum-Kleinschmidt Company changed its name to the name of the trademark used on its telepinters.   Teletype was responsible for the research, development and manufacture of data and record communications equipment, but it is primarily remembered for the manufacture of electromechanical teleprinters.

Because of the nature of its business,  Teletype Corporation was allowed a unique mode of operation within Western Electric,  organized as a separate entity, and containing all the elements of a separate corporation.    Teletype's charter permitted the sale of equipment to customers outside the AT&T Bell System, which necessitated a separate sales force. The primary customer outside of the Bell System was the United States Government but Teletype equipment was sold and used around the world.

The Teletype Corporation operated in this way until January 8, 1982, the date of settlement of United States v. AT&T, a 1974 United States Department of Justice antitrust suit against AT&T.    At that time Western Electric was fully absorbed into AT&T as AT&T Technologies, and the Teletype Corporation became AT&T Teletype. The last vestiges of what had been the Teletype Corporation ceased in 1990, bringing to a close the dedicated teleprinter business. 

While the core of Teletype's business was electromechanical, it successfully negotiated the transition to digital electronics with several printing and CRT-based terminals that replaced the older technology.   An ironic statement can be found in the attached document

"We have a strong feeling that in a few years, data communications will exceed in sheer volume, the communication of speech"

Remember this was fair radical in the early 60s when even long-distance phone calls were expensive and rare, and the average citizen conducted business either in person, over the telephone, or by mail.  Teletype certainly benefited from the digital transformation that was to come, but being part of AT&T and thus hindered to innovate as quickly as the microcomputer upstarts left the company in the dust.    The abiding memory many have is of an ASR-33 connected to a single board computer as a learning tool, but quickly discarded for real work.   Yet for decades, teletype machines were vital to the real work of the world.