The elephant in the room

Well, I found a place for the elephantine Lorenz teletype that I picked up yesterday (at risk to my T11 and T12 vertebrae, as Scott Kernaghan pointed out).

Some of you will have thought of this before it occurred to me, but that's why I need a smartphone. It dawned on me only when I was there: this object belongs in WordPlay's Urban Legend Institute. So it's now on extended loan to the ULI.

Here's the machine ensconced in its nice wooden cabinet:

... with the top open:

... and with the central part open too, so you can admire the machinery:

Now for some panoramic shots of the room (thanks, iPhone). If a teletype belongs anywhere in the year 2014, maybe this is it. (Click to enlarge.)

And finally, a view through the shop window from the street. Sleep tight, Lorenz!

Lorenz Lo15 teletype: the elephant in the back seat

I thought that my library exhibit might lead to some tips on typewriters, but no one contacted me until yesterday, just before the closing of the show. Her brother-in-law was moving and had to sell some stuff, she said, including a typewriter called a Lorenz.

The name rang a distant bell and I recognized it as a brand of teletype, or teleprinter. I was curious and agreed to come out and see it (it was located just 15 minutes from my daughter's school). That's how I ended up with a 60-pound passenger in my back seat.

I don't know where I'm going to put this, and can't imagine that I'll keep it permanently, but how could I resist? They offered to give it to me, but I insisted on paying them a little something.

This is the case, or cabinet, that fits over the mechanism. It's all very clean. The owner got the whole thing for free from a business that was ready to throw it out years ago.

I don't think this label is correct. This page dates a similar machine at 1955, which fits my impression of the paint, keys, and styling. However, the model was in fact in use during the war, according to the German Wikipedia page on C. Lorenz AG, which claims that the Lo15 model was introduced in 1932, based on an American design.

Here's a video from someone who hooked a Lorenz up to a laptop and made it work. That's well beyond my skills!

My machine is a Blattschreiber or "page printer." Collector Michael Brandes has a more elaborate machine, the Lo15B, including a phone dial. Was the Blattschreiber intended only for receiving messages, not for sending them?

I welcome information from readers who understand this device better than I do.