Teletype

When I was finishing high school in the early 1970s, the closest normal people got to computers was using a teletype. These electromechanical monsters could convert bits received at glacially slow (110 baud) telephone rates into a veritable cacophany of sound. This acoustic din was produced by lots of metal parts slamming into a paper roll somewhere inside the machine. The paper was the same consistency and smoothness as the paper towels you find in restrooms, and the bit rate was caused partly by the constraints of the acoustic couplers used in those days. I probably still have
the pieces of the 300-baud modem I built out of two op-amps and two tennis shoes.

Computer Magazine, January 2005 (Vol. 38, No. 1)

Music Mood: Noura Rahal - 3ala Fekra