File:The electric teleprinter Automatik Lo 133 (2)

English: The electric teleprinter „Automatik Lo 133“ of the company Lorenz is a telegraphy device and was used by the police of the city of Essen (Germany) in the 1960s-1970s. It was used to transmit and receive written messages (for example arrest warrants) by means of electric signals. Today the device is an exhibit of the historic collection of the NRW police.
The text is typed with a typewriter keyboard and – just like a usual typewriter – printed onto paper with types. In addition the press of a key translates the telegraphed letters into electric signals through an encoding mechasnism, which are sent to the receiver. At the receiver’s side the electric signals control a printing mechanism (with local electric energy), which prints the text onto paper - also with an encoding device.
The teleprinter works with the „start-stop-system“. The combination of these steps for every sign is determined in the International Telegraph Alphabet No. 2. Every sign is preceded by a start-step (no electric