UFO UpDates Mailing List
From: Neil Morris <Neil@adm1.ph.man.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 13:04:59 +0100
Fwd Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 09:13:51 -0400
Subject: Re: RIPT & MJ-12
>From: Roger Evans <moviestuff@cyberjunkie.com>
>Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 00:18:34 +0000
>To: UFO UpDates - Toronto <updates@globalserve.net>
>Subject: Re: RIPT & MJ-12
>Re: RIPT & MJ-12
Hi Rodger,
Some excellent points to chew over here,
>>From: Neil Morris <Neil@adm1.ph.man.ac.uk>
>>Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 15:37:14 +0100
>>Fwd Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 10:55:07 -0400
>>Subject: Re: RIPT & MJ-12
>Previously, Neil had offered:
>>The paper is also clearly not a teletype message, as Kevin
>>points out teletype machines used (and still do) continuous roll
>>paper which is just torn away as the message is complete, this
>>makes a large "letter heading" on the paper impossible if it
>>were teletype output.
> <snip>
>>And the document seems to mention:
>>"4" "VICTIMS" "WRECK" "CONVAY" "CRASHES" "MIDDAY" "STORY ADV"
>>and might I also offer "EVEN PUT THEORY WEATATN BALLOONS"
>Hi, Neil.
>Some things I thought I'd throw into the mix.
>First, when I was a kid, there was an old (or I suppose new, at
>that time) teletype machine at the TV station where my father
>worked. The type it put out was identical to that of an old
>Remington typerwriter my parents still have. Therefore, I'm not
>sure that based on type, alone, could someone determine whether
>the memo in question originated from a teletype machine though
>some teletypes used upper case only.
The conclusion about the message not being teletype output
wasn't arrived at by the "style" of format of the typeface etc
but by the fact that on what can be "just" seen at the very top
of the paper. Just visible is what appears to be the impression
of a heading in larger print and possibly underlined, the last
letter(s) possibly being a capitol "L". Unless this was a large
"rubber stamped" impression we must assume it was preprinted on
the sheet, there is also the Seal/Monogram just visible in the
top left corner of the message sheet both these items taken
together seem to point to the paper being printed stationery,
and as tyletype machines used continuous roll paper feed, sheet
headings were impossible, and teletype machines had a fixed font
size too.
>Second, I remember the news guys bitching and moaning about how
>unreliable the teletype was. Things were always coming in
>spelled incorrectly due to machine error (as well as error on
>the part of the original "typist", I'm sure).
Teletype machine in those days were pure mechine technology the
only 2 electrical components were the drive motor and
send/receive electromagnet keyer, wonderful pieces of noisy cogs
and gears, I have a Creed 7b machine (1960's vintage) in the
garage that I used to use receiving teletype off HF radio in the
days before computers took over the job. The big problem with
them was keeping the damb things in sync, most had a governed
motor with some form of "stobe" markings so that using the local
mains electric AC light 50hz (uk) 60hz (us) the machine could be
speed regulated to a resonable accuracy, if you didn't do this
on a regular basis and the machine drifted off speed, then you
got into errors in a big way, but they could cope with low grade
lines quite well.
>Third, the feed on the machine was not always on the mark, which
>resulted in uneven lines of type more often than not. As we've
>become used to laser printers and ink jet printers, it's good to
>remember that some of the old equipment wasn't always up to
>snuff, even when hitting on all cylinders! (hell, my ink jet
>printer still screws up from time to time)
A lot depended of the type of print head used, in the case of my
Creed it used a rotating drum print head and gave rock solid
lines with very little verticle jitter, some used a "basket" as
per a std typewriter these too would give a resonable line of
print, later designs used a variation of the "golfball", now
those did give very "variable" results if the timings were out
on selector cams.
It must be remembered that the teletype (in those days) didn't
use a full set of typewriter characters. The code used to
transmit telex was limited to 5 data bits, a maximum of 32
codes, 5 of these were command codes to select two alternate
banks of characters plus some of the codes were non printable
command codes ie "Carr return" "Line feed". Upper and lower
cases were not used, you either had a fixed upper case OR lower
A-Z, all those I've seen used upper case, you also had the
numbers 0-9 and a limited set of symbols and that was it!. It
wasn't until the advent of the computer that extended telex
codes or normal ASCII and higher speeds (above 110/300 baud)
became the norm, but back in 1947 they would have been stuck
with the few speeds used in the US 45.5, 54 , 60 baud and the
old 5 bit code.
This was the std code used:
w b ¦ cmds
r £ e ¦s r l f
Figs. 3 - 7 ( 5 9 . = , 8 ' u 8 4 ) $ : 6 % ? l / 2 0 @ 1¦p t l t i
Lett. E A U K T O M V N I S D Z R L H C Y F B J X W P G Q¦c n f r g
1 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
B 2 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
i spkt o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
t 3 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
s 4 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
5 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Notes... wru = who are you? get the auto id transmitter to send
the id of the machine you'r connected to.
£ $ = money symbol for locality.
bel = Just ring my bell!.
spc = Space character.
rtn = Carriage return character.
lf = Line feed character.
ltr = Shift to using letter set of characters.
fig = Shift to using figure set of characters.
If you were a real "guru" using the chart above you could learn
to "read" the punched paper tape that was also used with the
teletype machines, the chart "bits" refer directly to the puched
holes in the tape the sproket hole(spkt) is shown how it
appeared in the tape.
As a point of interest, though the US military used all modes of
communications, phone, teletype, radio, both phone and teletype
were not classed as "secure". It wasn't until around 1955 that
the mechanical "crypto" units were thought secure enough to be
fitted to the military teletype network and "secure" traffic
could be sent in an automated fashion. Prior to this all
"secure" traffic went via courier or encrypted radio telegraphy
(morse key and handy dandy code book!). This is why I feel the
"message" could be a "secure" signal, it could have been
received as "secure R/T", jotted down in pencil in it's code
groups and forwarded to the "crypto" unit were it would be
decoded and typed up on sheet stationery by a unit clerk ready
for presentation. But if the message is related to the events at
Roswell would the enormaty of the situation even allow this type
of traffic to go via a manual "crypto unit" ?. What sort of
security clearance did the people in those units have? as they
would have to handle at some point the traffic in "clear" and,
of course have to read and understand it to process it. So,
could it be the other "secure" alternative, a "courier"
delivered message typed on the senders "unit stationery". It is
the most secure (least eyes) method, but it would also have the
disadvantage of being the slowest too.
>And lastly, the news department had a habit of stamping the top
>of a teletype after it came in, for whatever reason. I'm not
>familiar with the habits of the military back in those days. Is
>it possible that they, too, stamped teletypes upon receipt? If
>so, it might explain the "header" at the top of the memo. Just a
>thought...
This sort of ties in with your first point, both the "heading"
and the "seal" could be "stamped", but their placement seems
quite accurate and ordered, not the result of "stamping", I also
feel the size of the "header" works against it being stamped.
The "seal", what can be made out of it, also seems a lot more
detailed than the samples of circular "stamped" seals I have
seen on documents of this date, many were of just the std
"received" or automated "received/date /time" type or simple
dept/group identifiers and didn't include the amount of detail
the "message" seal seems to have.
Neil.
--
* * * * * * * *
Neil Morris. /101101101 Virtual Bumper Stickers Inc 10110101010\
Dept of Physics. 1 1
Univ of Manchester 0 0
Schuster Labs. 1 Computer Programmers DO IT with BITS of BYTES 1
Brunswick St. 0 0
Manchester. 1 1
UK. \0101010110010110110010110101101011011110101011010/
G8KOQ
E-mail: neil@adm1.ph.man.ac.uk
Roswell and Alien Autopsy Archive-> http://adm2.ph.man.ac.uk/
Dave Willetts Home Page-> http://adm2.ph.man.ac.uk/dave_willetts/
Mike Sterling Home Page-> http://adm2.ph.man.ac.uk/mike-s/
Tim Morgan Home Page -> http://adm2.ph.man.ac.uk/tim-m/
* * * * * * * *
UFO UpDates - Toronto -
updates@globalserve.net
Operated by Errol Bruce-Knapp - ++ 416-696-0304
A Hand-Operated E-Mail Subscription Service for the Study of UFO Related
Phenomena.
To subscribe please send your first and last name to
updates@globalserve.net
Message submissions should be sent to the same address.
|
Link it to the appropriate Ufologist or UFO Topic page. |
Archived as a public service by Area 51 Research Center which is not
responsible for content.
Financial support for this web server is provided by the
Research Center Catalog.
Software by Glenn Campbell.
Technical contact:
webmaster@ufomind.com