Teletypesetter

device

Also known as: TTS

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Last updated

July 14, 2026

Quick Summary

The Teletypesetter (TTS) was an apparatus that automated the operation of keyboard slugcasting machines, such as Linotype or Intertype machines. It worked by using a separate keyboard to perforate a tape. This perforated tape could then be fed into an attachment on the slugcasting machine or transmitted telegraphically to other machines.12

The TTS system allowed for the separation of keyboarding and typesetting functions, enabling tapes to be prepared in one location and sent to be set in another, even in a different city. The tape itself had six channels, allowing for 64 different combinations of perforations, which represented characters and functions. This system significantly streamlined the process of setting type for printing.2

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printing
Automatic composition (perforated tape)
The Teletypesetter (TTS) system extends to slugcasting machines the principle of separation of function originally characteristic of the Monotype: it enables Linotype or Intertype machines to be controlled by a perforated tape produced on a separate keyboard, even situated in a different city, since the combination…
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The Teletypesetter (TTS) system extends to slugcasting machines the principle of separation of function originally characteristic of the Monotype: it enables Linotype or Intertype machines to be controlled by a perforated tape produced on a separate keyboard, even situated in a different city, since the combination…
Read More

printing
Automation of composition (after 1929)
The perfection of teletypesetter remote-control composing equipment in the United States by about 1929 permitted widespread application of the principle of separation of human function on the one hand and mechanized function on the other. The operator produces a tape on which each letter, symbol, and space is…
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The perfection of teletypesetter remote-control composing equipment in the United States by about 1929 permitted widespread application of the principle of separation of human function on the one hand and mechanized function on the other. The operator produces a tape on which each letter, symbol, and space is…
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history of publishing
Technological developments
…when Walter Morey developed the Teletypesetter (first demonstrated in 1928). This machine was an improvement on the telegraph, which was widely used by reporters in the field and by the wire services, such as Reuters and Associated Press, to send news items in draft form to editorial offices miles away.…
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…when Walter Morey developed the Teletypesetter (first demonstrated in 1928). This machine was an improvement on the telegraph, which was widely used by reporters in the field and by the wire services, such as Reuters and Associated Press, to send news items in draft form to editorial offices miles away.…
Read More