CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Teletype Corporation

American teleprinter manufacturer

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ7696897
Source-derived summary

The Teletype Corporation was an American manufacturer of teleprinters and other data and record communications equipment.

A part of American Telephone and Telegraph Company's Western Electric manufacturing arm from 1930, it came into being in 1928 when the Morkrum-Kleinschmidt Company changed its name to the name of its trademark equipment.

Unlike its parent, Western Electric, Teletype had customers outside the Bell System, which it served with its own sales force. Its primary external customer was the United States Government.

The Teletype Corporation continued in this manner until January 8, 1982, the date of settlement of United States v. AT&T, a 1974 United States Department of Justice antitrust suit against AT&T. At that time, Western Electric was fully absorbed into AT&T as AT&T Technologies, and the Teletype Corporation became AT&T Teletype. The last vestiges of what had been the Teletype Corporation ceased in 1990.

History

The Teletype Corporation had its roots in the Morkrum Company. In 1902, electrical engineer Frank Pearne approached Joy Morton, head of Morton Salt, seeking a sponsor for Pearne's research into the practicalities of developing a printing telegraph system. Joy Morton needed to determine whether this was worthwhile and so consulted mechanical engineer Charles Krum, who was vice president of the Western Cold Storage Company, which was run by Morton’s brother Mark Morton.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Teletype Corporation” is american teleprinter manufacturer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Teletype, Corporation and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1930, 1928, 1982, 1974—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1928. For this dossier, Teletype, Corporation and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american teleprinter manufacturer” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7696897. VIAF identifies the subject as 135150095. The Library of Congress control number is no90024661. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1930, 1928, 1982 and 1974.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Teletype Corporation”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Teletype Corporation primary sources, Teletype Corporation archive and Teletype research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Teletype Corporation”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Teletype Corporation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.