26 Feb
2010
26 Feb
'10
11:43 a.m.
My Dad worked on these (mechanical designer designing jigs and fixtures for assembly) at
QYX in Lionville, PA in the late 70's
There claim to fame was that you could type a letter and then have another one type the
same thing over the phone lines as an original document....all pre facsimile machine.
It is said that the technology was stolen to help create the fax machine.
They did have a FBI Investigation for items stolen from trash bins.
Brian McElroy
Project Manager
DAVID MILLER/ASSOCIATES, INC.
1076 Centerville Road, Lancaster, PA 17601
Phone (717) 898-3402 ext. 41 or Toll Free (877) 516-3740
Fax: (717) 898-9365
Visit our website at www.dmai.com<http://www.dmai.com/>
CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL: This message is intended only for the use of recipient to which it
is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, and exempt from
disclosure under applicable law. If received in error, please notify the sender by return
e-mail and destroy all copies of the original transmission and any attachments. Thank
You.
26 Feb
26 Feb
1 p.m.
On 26 Feb 2010 at 11:43, Brian McElroy wrote:
My Dad worked on these (mechanical designer designing
jigs and
fixtures for assembly) at QYX in Lionville, PA in the late 70's
There claim to fame was that you could type a letter and then have
another one type the same thing over the phone lines as an original
document....all pre facsimile machine.
It is said that the technology was stolen to help create the fax
machine.
I thought it was the Exxon Qwip that was the prototype for the modern
FAX machine. I can remember the spinning-drum types from much
earlier.
One related item that was deployed all around the steel mill where I
worked was the Telautograph--basically a machine that duplicated pen
movements on a piece of paper via a couple of drive motors and a
pantograph. You scribbled your tracking information for a batch; it
was immediately duplicated in a number of places, such as the quality
lab, the main office and other lines. The paper was fed from a roll.
I haven't seen one of those in many many years, but there must still
be some in existence somewhere.
--Chuck
4:30 p.m.
New subject: early fax / Re: Exxon Qyx Typewriter thingy
Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 26 Feb 2010 at 11:43, Brian McElroy wrote:
Reffing my own pages but here's a little about one version of those drum
machines and service (no claim to the earliest, as per other messages):
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/deskfax/index.html
My Dad worked on these (mechanical designer
designing jigs and
fixtures for assembly) at QYX in Lionville, PA in the late 70's
There claim to fame was that you could type a letter and then have
another one type the same thing over the phone lines as an original
document....all pre facsimile machine.
It is said that the technology was stolen to help create the fax
machine.
I thought it was the Exxon Qwip that was the prototype for the modern
FAX machine. I can remember the spinning-drum types from much
earlier. 
4:55 p.m.
New subject: early fax / Re: Exxon Qyx Typewriter thingy
I remember a rotating drum machine knocking about at the Burton upon
Trent Radio Club, iirc it was a british, it used to be kept carefully.
A quick google has found it mentioned on the current website:-
One interesting item is a Fultograph, dated 1928, this was a device
used for receiving pictures which were transmitted by wireless from
various stations including the Eiffel Tower in Paris. This device was
driven by a clockwork motor which was synchronised by pulses from the
transmitter. It seems it was an early version of the fax machine
A picture of one is mid page http://www.technikum29.de/en/communication/fax.shtm
Dave Caroline
5:08 p.m.
New subject: early fax / Re: Exxon Qyx Typewriter thingy
On 26 Feb 2010 at 13:30, Brent Hilpert wrote:
Reffing my own pages but here's a little about one
version of those
drum machines and service (no claim to the earliest, as per other
messages):
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/deskfax/index.html
Airports always had one or more of these spinning-drum fax machines
for receiving weather maps. I don't know when it started, but it
must have been very shortly after WWII.
I haven't listened to the commercial SW bands much lately, but over-
the-air fax transmissions (weather maps?) used to be quite common.
--Chuck
7:21 p.m.
New subject: early fax / Re: Exxon Qyx Typewriter thingy
On Feb 26, 2010, at 4:30 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
Reffing my own pages but here's a little about one version of those
drum
machines and service (no claim to the earliest, as per other
messages):
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/deskfax/index.html
I have one of exactly that model! I picked it up on eBay several
years ago, along with some docs, some paper, and a copy of an old ham
radio magazine article about how to use it for HF FAX. It's a neat
device!
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
My Dad worked on these (mechanical designer designing
jigs and
fixtures for assembly) at QYX in Lionville, PA in the late 70's
There claim to fame was that you could type a letter and then have
another one type the same thing over the phone lines as an original
document....all pre facsimile machine.
It is said that the technology was stolen to help create the fax
machine.
I thought it was the Exxon Qwip that was the prototype for the modern
FAX machine. I can remember the spinning-drum types from much
earlier.
10:30 p.m.
New subject: early fax / Re: Exxon Qyx Typewriter thingy
Dave McGuire wrote:
On Feb 26, 2010, at 4:30 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
Indeed, they are one of those archaic, but interesting, combinations of old
technology and techniques.
If you haven't done so or looked into it already, it should be possible with
just one unit to interface it to a couple of bits of a port on something
modern, with not much hardware. A little program to process the signal could
permit scanning and/or printing to/from a modern computer. Could be fun, for
example, to see a scan build line-by-line on the screen of your computer as it
is scanned on the clunky Desk-Fax.
I haven't done the above but was instead working on an interface to permit two
units to transfer to each other.
Reffing my own pages but here's a little
about one version of those
drum
machines and service (no claim to the earliest, as per other
messages):
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/deskfax/index.html
I have one of exactly that model! I picked it up on eBay several
years ago, along with some docs, some paper, and a copy of an old ham
radio magazine article about how to use it for HF FAX. It's a neat
device! 
3:17 p.m.
My Dad worked on these (mechanical designer designing
jigs and fixtures for=
assembly) at QYX in Lionville, PA in the late 70's
There claim to fame was that you could type a letter and then have another =
one type the same thing over the phone lines as an original document....all=
pre facsimile machine.
It is said that the technology was stolen to help create the fax machine.
Err, the analogue fax machine goes back (at least) to the Fultograph iu
the 1920s, and there were older ideas than that.
I still have my Muirhead Picture Trasnmitter, a portable battery/mains
traansmitter part of an analogue fax system, It would guess (based o nthe
valves in it) it's 1950s vintage.
-tony
3:33 p.m.
Quite a bit older than that...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fax#History
In 1861, the first practical operational electro-mechanical commercially exploited telefax
machine, the Pantelegraph, was invented by the Italian physicist Giovanni Caselli.
He introduced the first commercial telefax service between Paris and
Lyon in 1865, some 11 years before the invention of workable telephones.
________________________________
From: Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Sent: Fri, February 26, 2010 2:17:24 PM
Subject: Re: Exxon Qyx Typewriter thingy
My Dad worked on these (mechanical designer designing
jigs and fixtures for=
assembly) at QYX in Lionville, PA in the late 70's
There claim to fame was that you could type a letter and then have another =
one type the same thing over the phone lines as an original document....all=
pre facsimile machine.
It is said that the technology was stolen to help create the fax machine.
Err, the analogue fax machine goes back (at least) to the Fultograph iu
the 1920s, and there were older ideas than that.
I still have my Muirhead Picture Trasnmitter, a portable battery/mains
traansmitter part of an analogue fax system, It would guess (based o nthe
valves in it) it's 1950s vintage.
-tony
4:39 p.m.
On Fri, 26 Feb 2010, Brian McElroy wrote:
There claim to fame was that you could type a letter
and then have
another one type the same thing over the phone lines as an original
document....all pre facsimile machine.
Fax machines have been around a LONG time. There are mentions before 1900
for technology to transmit pictures over wire.
5331
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5332
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9 comments
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participants (8)
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
BMcElroy＠dmai.com -
cclist＠sydex.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
dave.thearchivist＠gmail.com -
hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
oltmansg＠bellsouth.net