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Whats the deal with antique stock tickers and why do we not seem them in our vintage conputer circles.

VERAULT

VERAULT

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Joined
Jan 30, 2012
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Location
Connecticut, USA
I was watchingthe movie "the hudsucker proxy"

universal-historic-photo.jpg


A thought occured to me. I see teletype machines going back to the I dunno lste 20s / early 30s being restored and used as modern terminals.. But what about Those old tickertape stock tickers of the past?



According to this is was invented just after the American civil war in 1867:
en.m.wikipedia.org

Ticker symbol - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

So why arent we collecting and integrating these brass era devices into our vintage collections?
 
They're kinda variations of paper tape punches, which I'm sure some of us have in our collections.

In answer to your question I think a lot of people here collect these machines because they were a direct or indirect part of our past. I remember bootstrapping IMSAI's and using teletypes in Jr. high school, etc. And that's the seed of our interest.

Very few of us have direct experience with stock tickers.
 
Well, I don't know that there are not conversations about them. They are removed from 'normal' vintage computers by age and also because they are a very narrow niche area. That is a telegraph for the financial markets. A bit like getting a modem but nobody ever calls in and you can't call out. At least that's my take.

This fellow did a really nice build of his own - worth checking out.
 
syzygy said:
Well, I don't know that there are not conversations about them. They are removed from 'normal' vintage computers by age and also because they are a very narrow niche area. That is a telegraph for the financial markets. A bit like getting a modem but nobody ever calls in and you can't call out. At least that's my take.

This fellow did a really nice build of his own - worth checking out.
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That's a really nice build. It also explains why it's not common.
Stock tickers are a collector item so very expensive.
A home build requires a home shop and a lot of skill at building.

That excludes most hobbyists..
A stock ticker is not normally thought of as a computer peripheral.
 
As mentioned they are less of a computing device and more a historical relic from the Brass Era. They are all now in excess of 100 years old and the target for collectors is a whole other circle who are more into telephone and telegraphs rather than computers. It's the same thing I found when working briefly on NCR cash registers. Brass machines have this niche of square and out of touch old men who will happily pay $3000 for a restored 120 year old register. I have seen several (edison tickers) come up for sale and they all sold between $700 to $1000 and that was years ago. I'm sure they go for quite a lot more now.
 
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Lets say price is not an issue. Many of us have gotten very pricey computers for practically nothing or free. Who is to say someone cant do the same and stumble upon these things. Model T's are (the first half of the production run anyway) over 100 years old as well. I see several in this area driving around occasionally.

100 years ago isnt what it used to be. When I was a kid 100 years ago meant a whole different thing than it does right now as far as what was happening at the time.
 
Model T's ironically are the cheaper of antique automobiles due to their popularity. There's still lots of spare parts floating around and ironically, there's still a big enough market that rebuild and aftermarket parts are still being made for the transmission, engine and pretty much everything down to many of the stamped panels.
 
So whats your argument? "You may have to machine parts you cant get.." So what. How many hobbies have the same predicament?

Im sure they are not common by any means. Neither are teletypes. And like teletypes they made many different versions into the 20th century. So it stands to reason.. like teletypes, there would be small caches of these still out there.

Im assumptions are the finders simply go... oh, an old stock ticker.. And thats it. Maybe it sits on a shelf, maybe donated to a museum. I guess the thing it doesnt occur to most to do something with it.

And I know the point to follow. It simply cant work as is. It will need maintenance etc. True. But so would my parents Royal typewriter I used as a kid if I ever found it today and tried to use it.
 
VERAULT said:
Most "hobbyists" dont even do repairs.

I dont see much of a difference between them and early teletypes (sans the typewriter).
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I would say its utility. A strip of printed paper isn't much use if you are trying to debug a program or print results. They also have limited character set. Apparently some use a stepper and wheel and are very slow.
When I started building home computers, yes the cheap teletypes were also 5-level but they printed on paper rolls at a solid 50 baud. If you were lucky you could find a 75baud machine.
They were also cheaper than ticker tape machines which even then had become collectable, just like candle stick telephones.
So never really were used in computing ciecles....
 
Funny we have a nice Radio and TV museum here in CT. With a pretty nice collection of everything from teletype to very early CRT TV's and player pianos.... Not a single stock ticker in the showroom.
 
VERAULT said:
Im sure they are not common by any means. Neither are teletypes. And like teletypes they made many different versions into the 20th century. .
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Baudot teletypes are pretty common. They have been preserved because Radio Hams used them for Radio Teletype. They come up on the greenkeys list every few weeks. I have three. There are even servers that transmit RTTY tones so y7ou can print on your vintage TTY..

There are fewer ASR33s. Not sure why as these are ASCII so a doodle to interface to most any computer. Not so a Ticker Machine which needs pulse steams..
 
I remember seeing an actual working ticker tape machine as a kid when visiting the NYSE. At the time it seemed very impressive, I think it would be fun to restore one and build an interface for it. No idea where you could get the paper tape though. And we'd need a lot of them to recreate a ticker-tape parade! (If anyone remembers those).
 
I just checked Ebay and there are a ton of listings for ticker-tape replicas, (oddly) ticker tape machine lighters, and some that may be actual antique ticker-tape machines. So, there's availability if anyone wants to experiment!
 
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