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Proceedings of the FIRST NATIONAL CONFERENCE of agents of TELETYPEWRITERS FOR THE DEAF, INC. Gallaudet College Washington, D.C. November 13-14, 1971 Published by TELETYPEWRITERS FOR THE DEAF, INC. P.O. Box 622 Indianapolis, Indiana 46206 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD 3 Report of the Conference 5 Appendices: A. TELETYPEWRITERS FOR THE DEAF, INC. Input Processing Routine 20 B. A Telephone-Teletypewriter System ..21 c. Telephone Pioneers and PTTY 50 This conference and the publication of the Proceed~ngs were supvorted by a contract D. Radio Teletypewriters for the Deaf.53 fro~ the Office of Public Service Programs, Gallaudet College. E. Commercial Telephone Answering Services 60 F. Effect on People's Lives 68 G. A Look into the Future 72 H. NY/NJ News Service 87 I. Distribution of TTYs by States ..... 91 J. Authorized Agents of TDI 92 2 , FIRST NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF AGENTS OF TELETYPEWRITERS FOR THE DEAF, INCORPORATED Gallaudet College Washington, D. C. November 13 - 14, 1971 A meeting was held at Gallaudet College in Washington, D. C. on November 13-14, 1971, involving 17 agents of Teletypewriters for the Deaf, Inc. (TDI). This National Agents Conference, at the urging of several agents, had been organized by the TDI President, Dr. H. Latham Breunig, in cooperation with Mr. Albert T. Pimentel, Director of Public Service Programs at Gallaudet College, whose office provided a contract enablin8 1UI to defray the expenses of assembling invited agents from allover the United States. The meeting was opened at approximately 8:45 o'clock in the morning on Saturday, November 13, by President Breunig who appointed Joseph S. Slotnick as conference secretary. Dr. Breunig introduced the participants and visitors. Greetings were delivered from Mr. Jess Smith of Indianapolis, TDI Vice President, who was unable to be present. Mr. Pimental welcomed the participants and made several announce- ments. Announcement was then made that the latest edition of the TDI National Directory--the so-called "Blue Book"-- was in publication and would be out shortly for all members in good standing in the organization. In the Blue Book is a capsule overview of the development of the national tele- phone-teletypewriter network as we know it. Dr. Breunig felt that this overview.in the Blue Book described our beginnings sufficiently for him to waive going into that detail. The organization of the TDI was briefly touch~d upon. It consisted of a "Board of Directors" of three persons: Dr. Breunig as the Chairman; his wife Nancy T. Breunig as the Secretary-Treasurer; and the aforementioned Mr. Jess Smith as Vice Chairman. These three members of the Board all reside in Indianapolis, which makes meetings there quite easy to arrange. However, now that membership in c: group of TTY mechanics available for repair work on the TDI numbers in the 1500's and is growing daily, a re- organization of TDI is probably a necessity in the near TTYs when needed. future. Mr. Tom Rule, from Winchester, Massachusetts, next An overview of operations within TDI was given by described the setup in the Boston and New England area. Breunig with the aid of a diagram (Appendix A) showing the There now exists a Massachusetts Deaf Messenger, headquar- generalized flow of work within the organization. Inputs tered in the Boston metropolitan area, and a Connecticut to this flow consist mostly of notices sent in by agents Deaf Messenger in the Hartford, Connecticut area. New England Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc., was whenever donated machines wer-e installed by them. These notices are of myriad sizes, shapes, and composition, which established in 1970 and incorporated to provide services for the people of New England within the framework of TDI. fact was illustrated by slides. Breunig urged the agents to standardize on 8}~x 5~ inch sheets containing not more than two listings per page, or not more than four entries Dr. James C. ~~rsters, from Pasadena, California and on a 8~ x 11 inch page. The desirability of standard forms Chairman of the West Coast general area for TDI operations, being provided by TDI was brought out by several agents gave a brief rundo\~ on operations in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, as did Mr. Harold Roach of Mexico, New present. York, for the Syracuse/Rochester, New York area. Next was Breunig suggested that a brochure about TDI would help Mr. Ben Hermelin of Cleveland, Ohio, for that city and its tremendously in disseminating information about the organi- vicinity. zation, and said that this project whould have high priority More briefings were given by the following men for in the future program of TDI. their respective areas: Other items of general interest were: Michael Moore for Dallas, Texas - where they use available 1. Many people have teleprinters obtained from private model 14 strip-printers on loan until page printers become available and are distributed on a first-come basis in sources and TDI doesn't always have the opportunity to offer exchange for the originally loaned strip-printers. these people memberships in TDI. George Ruby for Wichita, Kansas - where he reported TTYs 2. It is hoped that eventually there will be "yellow pages" in the TDI directory for advertising purposes and as being generally very hard to come by. as a revenue producer for TDI. Arthur Nelson for Omaha, Nebraska - (sporting a "Nebraska is No.1!" button). 3. A $10,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. of Indianapolis was made to TDI for its operations. Financi- William Ragland for Kansas City, Missouri. ally TDI has had an operating loss over its first 3 years. Gordon Allen for the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota area. Mr. Paul Taylor from St. Louis indicated that he feels Robert Lankenau (President of the National Association of strongly that we should have the TDI brochure. He also the Deaf) for Akron, Ohio area. mentioned that he feels that agent qualification for work Henry "Bud" Dorsey for the Washington, D. C. metropolitan in TDI should be developed. Each TDI agent was asked to area. give a five minute report on the beginning development of services in his area and the problems encountered in acquir- Lee Brody for the New York/New Jersey PTTY for the Deaf in ing and distributing t.eLetypewr i ter machines in his area. the New York City general area - this area has seen phenomenal Problems discussed included the supply of teletypewriters, growth. Brody is the sole TDI agent and is Chairman of the storage, cost of machines, methods of payment, and mainte- committee of 18 which was organized to procure, service, and nance. Taylor described the network he and his group have maintain donated teleprinters. developed in St. Louis. There are presently some 100 or so TTY Itowners", a news messenger ("Hot Line"), weather Andrew Saks for the San Francisco and general Bay area in California - there was initially a big surplus of donated reports via TTY, and an answering service as well as a 7 6 teleprinters, many of which were "farmed out" to other companies, government surplus and other miscellaneous sources. localities needing them. The situation recently, however, It was suggested that agents keep in constant touch with the was that machines were scarcer and the demand for them telephone companies, e.g., wee kLy calls. Hr. Karshall from greater. It seemed that the fact that Western Union had the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company wanted to be purchased the TWX system from the American Telephone and sure that the agents knew that in some areas, particularly Telegraph Company had created a "freeze" on available sur- large metropolitan areas, there are often several different plus printers from the Bell System telephone companies. phone companies, and it would be necessary to contact each individually. He also said that he expects the phone com- Next to be discussed was the availability of surplus panies to have some Hodel 28s available soon. teletype\llriters. Lankenau had mentioned this during his report on the situation in the Akron, Ohio area. Machines Mr. Brody suggested another means of locating TTYs. can be obtained from government surplus agencies, often via The RTTY Journal (printed in Oak Ridge, Illinois, he thought) a bidding process. Interest was expressed on getting infor- often has advertisements of small quantities of available mation about procedures on such biddings. Rule and others TTYs--usually only one or two at a time. The RTTY Newsletter indicated a method of getting 1. D. cards allowing them to (printed in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida) also has ~uncements obtain listings of surplus government equipment and submit- of available TTYs sometimes. ting bids for those items of interest to them. Brody of New Jersey answered Hermelin's question on procurement of When the used machines are located, they are often in teleprinters through private sources. Among Brody's quite bad condition. Some may not be repairable, but if the agents extensive resources were: want the machines they often have to pick them up immediately and they have to take the bad with the good. But bad machines Advertising in radio teletypewriter magazines; can serve to supply parts for others. Storage is another looking at ads put in by other people in these complication. For example, where is the agent who lives in magazines and ~~swering them. an apartment supposed to store TTYs while he is repairing Publicizing the existence of the TDI network via them? newspaper' articles and TV news programs; some- times these brought responses from interested It was s~ggested that agents should understand the people. operation of the TTYs whether or not they are responsible for maintenance of the equipment since complaints are usually Cooperation among TDI agents is a necessity, according directed to them.