09.20.2008
Categories: Equipment
So these two machines are connected via a telephone cable.
You start them up and set them both to online. On one, press CMD and then O and it will write out “originate”. This sets it up to put a tone out on the wire that initiates contact.
On the other machine you press CMD A and it will write out “answer” and then they are connected.
Whatever you type on one is typed on the other as well. We had a little bit of luck hooking it up to a computer and attempting to cripple the modem to speak at 300 baud.
Back when these came out in 1983, these terminals were $4000.
“Back when these came out in 1983, these terminals were $4000.”
Unless you were deaf. My grandmother was supplied one of these, free of charge, by the government.
Later on, they had various models that would print the I/O on a one-line screen. You connected them by dialing on a regular phone and then sticking the handset on top of a big microphone/speaker pair which would transmit the sounds (which were really loud and could be heard all over the house).
Bre,
I had a silent 700 in 1977, it had rubber cups for the handset to set in. I was the system engineer for a unmanned test platform a 100mi out in the gulf. I stayed in the French quarter for 6 months and drove around Lousiana in a Ford Fairmount eating, drinking and taking pictures, stopping at phone booths along the way to interogate the Varian computer system on the platform. Best assignment ever! Thanks for the memories.
Regards, Alymar