And so it was that Kleinschmidt Laboratories came into existence. Incorporated on March 21, 1931, under Delaware laws, for the immediate purpose of doing research and development work for Teletype, the principals of the new company were Edward E. as president, and his two sons, Edward F. as vice president and Bernard L. as secretary.
Kleinschmidt had earlier proposed a comprehensive and completely automatic printing telegraph switching system in which messages are automatically routed from the subscriber printer through telegraph centrals of the addressee printer under control of address tape perforations. Under his development contract with Teletype he continued work on the system. Message storage in perforated tape was provided for at all central switching points, and an answerback arrangement was included in the system by the automatic return transmission of the addressee’s number to the sender.
As the research and development work for Teletype continued, the switching system was completed, and various other devices of more or less importance were developed, with patents assigned to the Teletype Corporation. In late 1934 the contract with Teletype expired.
At that time, son Bernard was operating a printing plant in rather close quarters in Highland Park, Illinois. The operations of the Laboratories had been carried on in rented quarters at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. Seeing that there would be no work for Teletype, it was decided to set up working quarters in Highland Park where the family lived. Since rented space was not available, a building was constructed on Lincolnwood Road in the Braeside section of Highland Park to house both the B. L. Kleinschmidt Printing Company and the machinery and other equipment of the Laboratories. The Laboratories, now inactive, became a personal holding company with 2300 shares to cover a book value of approximately $230,000.00 (Kleinschmidt having distributed the major portion of these shares to his children and grandchildren).
Son Edward F. turned his thoughts to other fields and carried on experimental work in the new building in devices not connected with the telegraph. Son Bernard was involved in his printing business. Their father’s thoughts lay dormant for a long time, but still there was the urge to continue with the telegraph, and a plan for operating a five-unit-code selecting mechanism, operating on a progressive stop principle to position a typewheel or to select a typebar for printing on tape or page, was worked out.
When models of this new plan were completed and operating successfully, Edward E. Kleinschmidt immediately thought of Teletype Corporation and brought the apparatus to their attention, submitting models and patent applications for their evaluation. After numerous conferences and correspondence, however, his offer for the sale of patent rights and models was rejected. Discouraged, he left the completed models at the Highland Park lab and moved to Florida.
During the second world war, son Bernard abandoned his printing establishment and started a tool and die shop, using the machinery and facilities of the Laboratories as well as space occupied by his printing shop. The B. L. Kleinschmidt Company was kept busy building tools, dies, and special devices for the war effort.
Through Bernard’s associations he learned that the United States Signal Corps needed a light-weight, transportable teleprinter for tactical field use, and he asked his father if he could show the progressive stop printer to the Signal Corps at their Chicago headquarters. His father, in Miami at that time, gave his approval. Two days later, the telephone rang in Miami and it was Bernard saying, “Dad, they are interested and want you to bring the printer model to Army Headquarters in Washington.” Nothing could have pleased his father more!
In February of 1944, Edward E. Kleinschmidt demonstrated a working model of his teleprinter in Washington at the office of the Chief Signal Officer. Officials of the Signal Corps were greatly interested in the unit, not only because of its extreme lightness and small bulk, but because of the representations that the basic design features of this tape printer, exclusive of the printing mechanism, could be incorporated in a page-type printer which could be constructed with a total weight of approximately thirty pounds. The machine was subsequently informally tested at the Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories and found to have excellent margins when working without an intermediate relay on very low line current, a highly desirable feature in a piece of tactical teletypewriter equipment.
The exhibit at Headquarters was successful, and after operative tests at the Signal Corps’ Coles Signal Laboratories in Red Bank, New Jersey, where approval for further studies was given, the Kleinschmidt organization was asked to prepare plans toward a tactical light-weight printer for field use.