How Telegraphs and Teletypes Influenced the Computer

I posted this elsewhere, but @maiki suggested it might of interest over here. Hopefully this is the right category for this.

So the title suggests this is about teletypes, and there is truth to that title. However, the part of the story that most intrigued me was the part discussing that the early motivation for modems was to enable TTY communication over the acoustic phone network for use by deaf people. Otherwise TTY communication would be limited to special (a.k.a. expensive) TTY networks. I knew the acoustic coupler was a hack to get around the AT&T monopoly that prevented connecting to the network directly, but I had no idea how this monopoly was preventing accessibility. But Mr. Weitbrecht found a way around the monopoly! While reading this, even though it happened long go, I couldn’t help but cheer him on. Go! Go! GO!

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