Teletype Music! A mechanical Christmas song.

[@MacRetroFly-ef8cc]

Curios Marc entering the "Tattoo & Piercing Shop": "I need body piercing needles. Are you selling some?" "Sure! Do you need any help or advice? What do you want to do?" "Don't ask. Don't ask..." 😄

[@Richardincancale]

Back in the day (1970s) we had a tape splicer to correct mistakes in our computer programs. It used the sprocket holes to line up the tape, a razor to cut at exactly the right point, and special stickers with sprocket holes to connect sections of tape. There were two types of stickers, all solid (except for the sprocket holes) and a kind of ‘dibber’ to punch new holes via correctly positioned holes in the tape clamp, or ones with holes in every position to just connect two pieces of otherwise correct tape. Happy days!

[@CuriousMarc]

Boy, I **need** that contraption for Christmas!

[@Richardincancale]

@@CuriousMarc They seem to have almost disappeared from existence… There is a 5-hole punch / splicer on eBay right now, and self adhesive 8-hole splicing stickers…

[@dano6187]

No need to buy special equipment. You can make your own splice tape by putting a strip of scotch tape (the sticky kind) on a new paper tape and running it through the punch to punch all the holes. @@CuriousMarc

[@CuriousMarc]

On an ASR33 8-bit punch you could. But you can’t do that with the Model 19 or 14 5-bit punch. No way to open up the punch and have it punch in the middle, nor to feed an already punched portion through it without repunching it.

[@zeno2712]

When I was learning Algol 60 at school in 1973, we had an IBM teletype (maybe a Model 33?). We had to punch our programs onto tape and then post it to a local college that had an Elliott 4100. They would run the program and send the printout back by post. Getting the tape right before it was sent off was essential! I made up a small device that allowed me to accurately punch holes to correct errors as Marc did. Because the tape holes were on 0.1 inch centres, a piece of 0.1 inch Veroboard was perfect so I used that and a piece of Perspex to make a clamp that aligned with the sprocket holes so I could accurately punch the holes with a nail that I had shaped into a hole punch. It worked very well and saved me weeks of frustration - I was mainly writing a program for my physics project.

[@Richardincancale]

At university in 1975 and used an ASR33 to punch Algol and Fortran for our Elliott 903, which really was a personal computer. We loaded the compilers using a two pass process with a very fast tape reader, generating intermediate code and then the second compiler pass to make the load able tape. Then the loader and the loads left object tape and then… you tried to figure out why it didn’t work!

[@JamesHalfHorse]

I am glad you did this now. We would go to my grandfathers this time of year and friends would call his teletype. The lights would flash around the house, he would put the phone on the coupler and it would start hammering out a christmas message. I can even remember the warm machine oil smell right now. That was 40ish years ago. Thanks for the memories.

[@musiqtee]

Audio engineer since 1982…: Please make a multitrack recording of “Jingle Bells for three teletypes and a Juno 6” for posterity. Can be mixed in stereo and whatever surround system the future will bring…😅🎶🎅🏼 Merry Christmas & best wishes for 2024 from 🇳🇴 to Marc & team - you are just awesome… 💛

[@mike94560]

As a kid I had a borrowed Model 15. I just tuned in on a strong RTTY station when the dinner bell rang. I left the basement and went upstairs to eat. Imagine my surprise when I opened the basement door to go back down and I heard Jingle Bells playing. And that was 50 years ago.

[@GeoffereyEakinsTech]

I bet it felt like magic! Thanks for sharing this!

[@fgaviator]

Merry Teletype Christmas!

[@larsbr4519]

When I started working at DataSaab back in 1974, we had a special small hand tool tool and small bits of tape, so you could add a piece of tape. And then push new holes, to save a worn-out bootstrap. God Jul och Gott nytt år from Sweden.

[@freddieastaire6312]

A Curious Marc Episode is an awesome Christmas Gift ❤ Merry Christmas to all of you! 🎉

[@landspide]

And on the 25th day of Christmas, blah blah blah, 2 teletypes, 1 Maestro Engineer, and a jingle for us to glee!

[@Damien.D]

very touching to hear this long forgotten music score being played again, with the correct instruments. I'm pretty sure that the guy who wrote it would have never imagined it will be heard decades later, and on a distant modern sibling of the teletype network... It's also nicely composed, the typed characters being part of the tune too. The @DeviceOrchestra also uses typewriters as percussions (snare and bass drum)

[@jeremiefaucher-goulet3365]

The floppotron has been challenged using paper, body piercing needles and a 50mA current loop

[@Colaholiker]

You gotta be careful when copying the program from the printed copy onto punch tape manually. You just had Usagi Electric in the lab, so you may end up with a Hellorld. 😂 Merry Christmas to you!

[@CuriousMarc]

Merrystmas!

[@thesteelrodent1796]

there's nothing like TTYing a christmas tune. Merry Christmas Marc, to you and yours :)

[@Digital-Dan]

I am impressed that you have not only restored those machines, but brought them back to full reliability. Sturdy beasts.

[@bradnelson3595]

It's a Wonderful Lipe. It's a Womderfub Life. It's a Wonterfil Lofe. Teletype is hard. Can I borrow your hole punch, Mark?

[@russellhltn1396]

I thought there was a way to edit the tape by playing the old one back and punching a new one. Stop prior to the first error, hand key the correction on they keyboard, the open the reader and advance the tape past the error and continue. It works in normal situations, but I'm not sure but what it might "eat" some the spacing characters (FIGS).

[@ifitsrusteditsmine]

Merry Xmas to you Marc, and thank you for so many hours of wonder and entertainment

[@justinmijnbuis]

The Mite teletype is a decidedly funky machine, hitting the backbeat quite well!

[@fritzkinderhoffen2369]

Richard Feynman's calculators at Los Alamos did something similar to prank him. They had their equipment play a tune. He thought it a good joke. Merry Christmas to you and your elves.

[@AmauryJacquot]

I would have expected Ken helping into building an ethernet connected contraption (say with a beaglebone) to control the punch, so as to be able to generate the tape from the comfort of a current computer 🤣

[@zoidberg552]

Merry Xmas and best wishes from Lithuania 🌲

[@MLX1401]

The most wholesome, ear-piercing seasonal delight I've missed the TTYs so much!!! Happy Holidays to all Lab meters, printers, readers, repros, writers, plotters, drives, calculators and computers! And to the whole Curious Team, of course 😊

[@richardhole8429]

You guys are nuts. And what is more Christmassy than nuts! 2 thumbs up.

[@simontay4851]

Teletypes playing jingle bells.

[@richardhole8429]

And people think engineers are dull and without sense of humor!

Un très joyeux Noël à toi aussi, Marc!

[@hanznel8488]

My favourite nerd channel. Love you guys, and a merry Christmas to everyone. Looking forward to all the videos of the new year.

[@richardhole8429]

As a teen in the late 60s when I got my model 15 running my parents moved my bedroom to the other end of the house!

[@fragglet]

"Jingle bells" is certainly the right song to use

[@IanDarley]

Merry Christmas.

[@dhirun4]

Merry Christmas Marc, keep the great work coming

[@dri50]

OK - I envision a MIDI interface from the keyboard to the teletype. It will convert certain MIDI "sounds" to Teletype sounds for "live" performances !

[@rnts08]

@lookmumnocomputer and he'll do it 110%

[@bryanb3352]

I sometimes have a dream where I have to get a sequence of something correct and never can because something keeps messing up. Thanks for the nightmare fuel, Marc!

[@islandhopperstuart]

Merry Christmas Marc! RYRYRYRYRYRY.....

[@pappakilo3965]

Merry Christmas! An interesting video. It makes me think... For my 2nd or 3rd Motorola 68k assembly language assignment at college around 30 years ago I had to program the board's speaker to play Jingle Bells using interrupts to set the tones and time between notes. In another couple of decades will somebody resurrect that 'old microprocessor' technology to do the same on an ancient college SBC?

[@ReneKnuvers74rk]

Merry Christmas from the Netherlands, Marc and the rest of the team!

[@tim0steele]

I remember sharing this tape using my Creed 7ERP on the 2m band in the UK. It was known as Jingle Bell. In those days you built your own TU (RTTY modem). I can still smell the oil. As someone else said, the easy way to edit was to read a tape, stop it before the error, key the new characters, then restart the reader after moving the tape past the error. Paper tape was cheap :)

[@matthewnirenberg]

Merry Christmas Marc

[@pglick123]

When I was a kid, I spent much time in a switch-bar central office. The mechanical noise of all your Teletypes running has a similar clatter. The central office noise was often from "trouble" cards being printed. I was 8, I would often read the cards and busy out "troubled" circuits. I started early!

[@chriholt]

Merry Christmas and a Joyeux Noël to you, your family and the whole Curious Marc team!

[@jank330]

Thanks!

[@CuriousMarc]

Thank YOU!

[@johncloar1692]

Merry Christmas to all of the Curious Mark Family and Team.

[@North49Radio]

Awesome! Merry Christmas Marc

[@johnm7723]

Happy New Year to all of you. A bright star in an often dull 2023. Looking forward to 2024 and an even brighter and perhaps peaceful year. You guys rock (can't believe I just typed that).

[@tuppyglossop222]

Made my day. Merry xmas and a happy new year...

[@neilsmith5762]

Merry Xmas and have a great new year.

[@Quad_Awesome]

This is my favorite Christmas video this year.

[@Shineyongs.]

Playing Christmas carols using communication equipment that can be found in museums!!

[@tony359]

Merry Christmas to you all!

[@skizzofly]

super video Marc! Merry xmas!

[@ptonpc]

Merry Xmas and a great new year to you all!

[@your_utube]

Blessed Christmas and God bless the whole retro computer team!

[@gordonwedman3179]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and all your Elves. Look forward to new videos in 2024.

[@TubeTimeUS]

Merry Christmas! 🔔

[@fabiomuzzi7047]

Now if you just managed to have 2 ttys in sync with different bells and different punch tapes feed to them, you could actually also play two different notes with the bells.

[@AmiPurple]

Merry Christmas to you all and your marvelous machines and a happy New year to you all

[@alanclarke4646]

Merry Christmas, Marc.

[@Faselbob]

Merry christmas and a happy new year to alsl

[@EVPaddy]

I’m glad I‘m young enough to have entered IT when sound was a bit better 😂

[@chuckinwyoming8526]

I wrote a paper tape editor for a numeric controlled Bridgeport milling machine in 1977. Written in BASIC running on multi user IBM System 360 main frame using remote dial up 300 BAUD acoustic MODEM CRT terminal or 110 BAUD Model 33 teletype. The NC mill ignored the RUBOUT punches every time you backed up and corrected an OOPS. But was still very difficult to directly type a paper tape to create a perfect NC program. Any extra RUBOUT punches would mess up your musical bell timing. Common practice was to create short parts of the NC program then use the teletype's tape duplication function to create a final long tape from the short sections. The editor was great for creating long and complex machine control tapes with no errors. Sorry I don't have the editor's code anymore.....

[@DerKlemm-Crafter]

Merry Christmas!

[@brunoramey50]

- Hello, What's your name ? - CuriousMarc - What are you doing ? - I'm a musical instrument tuner - Which instrument ? - Teletype - Okay

[@graemedavidson499]

MERRYRYRYRYRY Christmas!

[@portcruiser]

Merveiileux , Marc ! Merci et Joyeux Noel !

[@mycosys]

Merry Curiosity!!

[@av_kovko]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Curious Marc!

[@bigsarge2085]

Incredible.

[@jdos2]

I always preferred the "half puncher" on the model 28 - it allowed easy looping without tape by just hooking the tapes together by what would otherwise be the chaff. Fun video, Marc!

[@halfben7991]

Beautiful

[@paulmorley1225]

Merry Christmas to Marc and all of his elfs!

[@andersslangerup7464]

Merry Christmas 😊

[@jamesbrewer3020]

Merry Christmas

[@messedupfmj]

Merry Christmas Marc🎄, thank you to you and all of the crew for the amazing things you all find for us to learn about!

[@624Dudley]

Marvelous! Merry Christmas Marc!

[@ShainAndrews]

Surprised... I am not. Merry Christmas everybody!

[@PCBWay]

Happy New Year, Marc! 🥳

[@McTroyd]

Love it! Maybe for next year, tune the bells to different notes, and get "Usagi Electric" David to mux them on his Centurion for a teletype chorus. Merry Christmas! 🎄

[@muadeeb]

Very excellent rendition of Vive le Vent. Thank you, Marc

[@PRRGG1]

Wow memories. Remember when newsrooms used to install microphones JUST for the teletype sound to use in the audio mix just under the person reading the news.

[@justincaldarella]

Love the channel! Can we get some more milspec content please? Happy Holidays!

[@CuriousMarc]

Yes, more mil analog-mechanical goodness coming soon

[@BlackHoleForge]

Each teletype becomes a new musical instrument in a midi track. Mix in some stepper motor control, and you could have a full on orchestra.

[@thebiggerbyte5991]

Excellent! A most CuriousMarc Christmas gift! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!🌲

[@blenderbuch]

So next year get more teletypes 😅 some do the drums and rythm... and tuned bells...

[@nmccw3245]

Je vous souhaite un joyeux Noël Marc

[@rsmrsm2000]

uuuuuuaaaaaauuuuuu fantastic

[@TheDoctorhuw]

Wonderful unnecessary cacophony, Just fantastic Merry Christmas, & Thank you.

[@Coffeebreak6329]

🎄Merry Christmas🎅

[@hymermobiler]

Great fun Merry Christmas to you all!

[@michaelmiller641]

Wonderful! Merry teletypemas!

[@nesagljivic]

CM , marry X-mas!

[@k-c]

I imagine that these things must be mind blowing back then

[@68hoffman]

kool merry x-mas every one :)

[@maskddingo1779]

Ooo Juno 6!

[@jlwilliams]

This is exactly what KZbin was made for. Well, this and cats. Thank you!

[@juliankandlhofer7553]

i wonder if you could tune the bells of the different machines to the individual notes to play 🤔 sounds a bit monotonous as it is :D merry Christmas 🎄:)

[@zebo-the-fat]

I was just going to say the same thing!

[@edgeeffect]

"Monotonus" 😂😂😂

[@ludmilascoles1195]

You need a chad tool. I will see if I have one in the back 😅

[@eduardoschubert5738]

awesome.

[@td4dotnet]

All the best wishes Marc, thanks for all your great content!! Sadly Santa didn't bring me a teletype but I got a VNA! :-D

[@gertebert]

I watched everything from this channel and did so too regarding Cracking the Cryptic. Does that mean my IQ is also 160+ ?

[@danmenes3143]

Now you need to wire Baudot-to-midi and midi-to-Baudot interfaces, and you'll give Martin of Wintergatan a run for his money!

[@Digital-Dan]

Should be a piece of cake to do Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter."