1970's Reuters-Era Times Square Zipper Type
A re-creation of the character set in use as shown through the One Times Square zipper between near the end of 1971 and late 1977 (one of the most recent dates being Nov. 17 of that year), when it was operated by the Reuters news agency (in short, 10 x 11, with rows 2, 3, 5 and 6 doubled up, rows 1, 4 and 7 shown single, and all columns doubled up). This was the display font seen bringing such news as the Watergate scandal and President Nixon's resignation, the fall of Saigon, New York City's near-bankruptcy, the 1976 Bicentennial, and the early months of Jimmy Carter's Presidency. The original 5 x 7 type (seen here in order of the octal codes 040 through 137) appears to have emanated from Digital Equipment Corporation (designated as M7724) and was the first major dot matrix type for printing on the Centronics 101 and DECwriter LA30 printers, both first introduced in 1970; it was also used in other printers such as Facit 4552 and 4553, Practical Automation MatriDot - and, relevant to this, the Extel 70 teleprinter (tied to the DEC PDP-8 computer) of which Reuters bought thousands for their various news bureaus around the world during 1971. It was the first computer-controlled ASCII-based type to travel through a zipper (prior ones used perforator-based systems whether Trans-Lux' and Naxon Telesign's self-contained machines, or Time-O-Matic controls tied in to Teletype ASR-33's with Baudot / Murray / ITA2 code). This font was also used on early Daktronics displays (such as the scoreboards used on some days in one of the indoor venues of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Wan Chai Sports Ground in Hong Kong, and various indoor and outdoor venues of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY, in the former of which the U.S. hockey team carried out their "Miracle On Ice." This set preceded by a year or two the Signetics 2513 / CM2140 type font (also known in later years as General Instrument's RO3-2513, used on Apple II computers); would appreciate more info as to this display font's origin [Centronics characterized this type as C-8940 a.k.a. 27-001, and had differences in the positioning of the apostrophe (centered as opposed to shifted left) and ending hook of the 'J' (one instead of two pixels at lower left)].
1970's Reuters-Era Times Square Zipper Type
A re-creation of the character set in use as shown through the One Times Square zipper between near the end of 1971 and late 1977 (one of the most recent dates being Nov. 17 of that year), when it was operated by the Reuters news agency (in short, 10 x 11, with rows 2, 3, 5 and 6 doubled up, rows 1, 4 and 7 shown single, and all columns doubled up). This was the display font seen bringing such news as the Watergate scandal and President Nixon's resignation, the fall of Saigon, New York City's near-bankruptcy, the 1976 Bicentennial, and the early months of Jimmy Carter's Presidency. The original 5 x 7 type (seen here in order of the octal codes 040 through 137) appears to have emanated from Digital Equipment Corporation (designated as M7724) and was the first major dot matrix type for printing on the Centronics 101 and DECwriter LA30 printers, both first introduced in 1970; it was also used in other printers such as Facit 4552 and 4553, Practical Automation MatriDot - and, relevant to this, the Extel 70 teleprinter (tied to the DEC PDP-8 computer) of which Reuters bought thousands for their various news bureaus around the world during 1971. It was the first computer-controlled ASCII-based type to travel through a zipper (prior ones used perforator-based systems whether Trans-Lux' and Naxon Telesign's self-contained machines, or Time-O-Matic controls tied in to Teletype ASR-33's with Baudot / Murray / ITA2 code). This font was also used on early Daktronics displays (such as the scoreboards used on some days in one of the indoor venues of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Wan Chai Sports Ground in Hong Kong, and various indoor and outdoor venues of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY, in the former of which the U.S. hockey team carried out their "Miracle On Ice." This set preceded by a year or two the Signetics 2513 / CM2140 type font (also known in later years as General Instrument's RO3-2513, used on Apple II computers); would appreciate more info as to this display font's origin [Centronics characterized this type as C-8940 a.k.a. 27-001, and had differences in the positioning of the apostrophe (centered as opposed to shifted left) and ending hook of the 'J' (one instead of two pixels at lower left)].