RFT T 51a – PL 2 teleprinter

The teleprinter is a device for long-distance text communication. Unlike the Morse telegraph, it does not require the operator to know a special code – characters entered on the transmitter keyboard are printed on paper by the receiving device. The RFT 51a – PL 2 teleprinter was manufactured in the GDR by the former branch of the Siemens & Halske factories in Chemnitz. After World War II the establishment was nationalised, and the name of the city was changed to Karl-Marx-Stadt. Despite the expiry of Siemens’ licence, the design of this teleprinter is almost identical to that of the Siemens & Halske products of the 1930s and 1940s. The model presented here was manufactured for a special order from Communist Poland, mostly for the Polish Post. It was equipped with the ability to print the Polish characters “Ł” and “Ż”. Manufacturer: VEB Gerätewerk Karl-Marx-Stadt R.F.T, Karl Marx Stadt Inv. No.: MIM74/VIII-2 Model prepared on the basis of photogrammetric measurements Licence: CC BY-NC-SA