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Siemens T-37 → ← T-34
Although the T-36 was a further development of the T-25
(of which just 223 machines had been made), it supported the standard
ITA2 alphabet
rather than the proprietary 29-character set of the T-25.
This made the machine compatible with other
ITA2-compatible
equipment such as the devices of the American Teletype brand.
Although Crypto Museum does not have a T-36 in its collection, the machine is
featured here, as it forms the basis on which the high-level
T-52 cipher machine (Geheimschreiber)
is built. It was used by the German Army during
World War II.
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It is the first teleprinter in the world that used an
electronic circuit for latching a received character. This circuit
consists of large capacitors – to temporarily memorise the five bits –
and polar relays – also known as latching relays
– to hold the bits for the next operation.
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This way, the serially received character was converted to a parallel
data word that could be handled by the machine's printer.
In other machines, this was done purely mechanically.
Although the electronic circuit of the T-36
made the mechanical construction of the teleprinter simpler and therefore
cheaper, in practice it appeared to be unreliable due to unpredictable
behaviour of the polar relays and quality issues with the storage
capacitors [2]. For that reason, the later T-37 was mechanical again.
The same issues arose with the
T-52 Geheimschreiber.
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Below is the block diagram of the Siemens T-36 teletypewriter, as it was
introduced in 1931. The upper half shows the transmitter path, whilst the
lower half shows the receiver. When receiving a character (RX), the serial line
signal is first converted into individual bits by means of a rotating
commutator. As the bits are received sequentially (rather than in
parallel), they are first stored in a 5-bit memory that consists of five
capacitors. As the energy that is stored in the capacitors is not enough
to drive the printing mechanism, the bits are first latched in five
polar relays (R1-R5).
The signals from the polar relays are then fed to the translator
(German: Übersetzer), which is responsible for releasing the print
hammer at the right moment, in synchronism with the rotating print head.
The upper half of the diagram shows the transmitter. When typing a character
on the keyboard, five single-pole double-throw (SPDT) switches are used to
create a 5-bit pattern of 1s and 0s. In the original German documentation,
these signals are referred to as (+) and (-), as they are created with
the voltages from the +60V and -60V power supply. The resulting data word
is then converted to a serial signal by means of rotating commutator,
and sent to the line (TX).
In the transmission path, a punched tape reader (TR) can be connected
instead of the keyboard. It allows a previously prepared tape to be
transmitted as if it was entered on the keyboard.
Likewise, a tape puncher (TP) can be connected to the receiver,
in parallel to the output of the 5-bit memory.
It can be used to store an incoming message, which can then be
duplicated later.
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The name T-36Si was used to discriminate the Siemens (Si) version from the
T-36Lo that was made by Lorenz. The two machines are totally different.
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? DF3OE's Fernschreiber Museum, Germany [1]
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Monday 15 January 2018. Last changed: Friday, 13 September 2024 - 10:39 CET.
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