Fig. 10 Morkrum-Kleinschmidt Corporation No. 14 Start-Stop Typebar Tape PrinterPicture through courtesy of Teletype Corporation
Bringing together the engineering talent and patents of the two companies had an immediate effect toward further progress. The first thing the new company set out to do, through consolidation of their past efforts, was to perfect a satisfactory start-stop-operated tape printer for the Western Union Telegraph Company to use for circuit extension to customers who were extensively using the telegraph for immediate, written communication. (This was to speed up telegraphic communication and eliminate the need for messenger service which had been the custom.) The Morkrum company had submitted their start-stop-operated Baudot tape printer, and the Kleinschmidt company had proposed the Western Union No. 22 tape printer in a redesign to start-stop operation. Now, the new company was able to combine both plans and as a result came up with their first development, a typebar, start-stop-operated, tape printer, the No. 14 (see [figure 10]). In the final design, Howard Krum and his production engineers took a large part. After tests and evaluation, Western Union’s first order was for 10,000 machines at $317.00 each. This amounted to a total of $3,170,000.00. No such quantity had ever been heard of before!
It is quite evident that while the two companies were separated, each coming up with improved and new designs of telegraph apparatus, there was a lack of decision by telegraph companies as to which type of apparatus to adopt in expanding their operations, and therefore they did not buy in quantity. The largest previous order to the Kleinschmidt Electric Company was for 800 No. 22 typebar tape printers for the Western Union Multiplex.
At Morkrum-Kleinschmidt more space was needed. The corner property on Wrightwood Avenue adjoining the Morkrum plant was purchased, and a four-story building was erected.
The design of a telegraph typewriter that would be more efficient and require a minimum of maintenance service was the most important project, and Morkrum-Kleinschmidt was working with Bell Laboratories engineers endeavoring to meet all the requirements of the Bell Telephone system. A typebar printer with a stationary printing platen and moving typebar printing unit was specified. These requirements were finally met with the design of the No. 15 page printer to operate at 60 words per minute, and manufacture of this apparatus was started in 1927 (see [figure 11]). The No. 15 page printer became the standard for nationwide intercommunicating telegraph service for many years.
In 1926, soon after the No. 14 tape printer was put into service, Morkrum-Kleinschmidt received a request from the police department of Berlin, Germany, for detailed information, stating that they were interested in the purchase of about sixty No. 14 printers. The letter asked if Morkrum-Kleinschmidt was represented by an agent in Germany whom they could contact. At an executive meeting, Mr. Morton and Mr. Krum asked Mr. Kleinschmidt to take care of this matter since his company, before joining them, had sold apparatus in some foreign countries. After further correspondence with the Berlin police officials, Kleinschmidt decided personally to take a No. 14 printer to Germany and arrange for a representative there. After visiting and conferring with several companies experienced in the telegraph and associated apparatus field, a satisfactory arrangement was consummated with the C. Lorenz Company, on October 25, 1926, for the manufacture and sale of Morkrum-Kleinschmidt equipment in Germany, on a royalty-licensing basis. At that time the Lorenz company manufactured telegraph and telephone equipment and railway signaling apparatus. Their engineering department was under the supervision of Dr. Gerhard Grimsen who took the matter in hand for further exploitation toward an intercommunicating printing telegraph system, using the No. 15 page teletypewriter. Siemens & Halske, the principal manufacturers of telegraph equipment in Germany, were also licensed by the Morkrum-Kleinschmidt Corporation, on June 1, 1929, with the consent of the Lorenz company.
Fig. 11 Morkrum-Kleinschmidt No. 15 Page PrinterPicture through courtesy of Teletype Corporation
(As may be seen in the [following chapter], it was these licensing arrangements which led to the establishment of the TELEX intercommunicating teleprinter system in Europe.)