The teleprinter also known as (teletypewriter, teletype
or TTY) is mostly obsolete now. It is a electro-mechanical typewriter that
uses a electrical communications channel which is often just a pair of wires
to communicate typed messages from one point to another.
Modern forms of these devices are electronic and use a
screen instead of a printer. The deaf still use teletypewriters for typed
communications over the phone. They are usually called TDD or TTY.
The teleprinter came about from a number of inventions
by many engineers. Royal E. House, David Edwin Hughes, Charles Krum and
Emile Baudot were some of those men. Before the teleprinter, the stock
ticker machine was used as a method of displaying text transmitted over
wires. It was used as early as the 1870s. A specially designed telegraph
typewriter was used to deliver stock exchange information over telegraph
wires to the ticker machines.
more printer terms
