FCDC circa 1970

[Long Gone]

Uncle Sam, you are forgiven for your feelings about Uncle Louie.
Louie did bore and annoy a lot of people. But I liked him. I use to have nice conversations with him. I use to give him money for stamps for his letter writing campaign, but I also told him that if he wanted to score big ask the reges for money. (wink)

The Anabaptist Jacques

Sam, you forgave me for stealing from the DC government, so I forgive you for disliking Louie the Mooch.
And if I'd known how much money the regges were making back then I, like TAJ, would have sent hom to the regges for his stamp money!

 

[nozeno]

FCDC Letter Registrar's Office Circa 1971

Addresso machine not in shot.

 

[The Anabaptist Jacques]

Addresso machine not in shot.

Those women were so hot-to-trot!

The Anabaptist Jacques

 

[Dulloldfart]

Photo circa 1971.

Er, yes, very circa.

But it is funny, in that orgs sometimes do use very outdated equipment, so the idea is not so very off.

Paul

 

[nozeno]

Photo circa 1971.

Er, yes, very circa.

But it is funny, in that orgs sometimes do use very outdated equipment, so the idea is not so very off.

Paul

How true.

I remember the Letter Registrars using a device that looked like this. It wasn't easy finding a picture of this. It was almost lost in the scrap heap of dictation devices. As far as I can tell it was invented around 1947 and we were using it in 1971. Why we used it, I don't have a clue, since it was just as fast to simply type the letters without dictating first. I have some vague recollection that it was a machine that ElRon was fond of using, so it was probably one of those WWRD (what would Ron do?) sort of things. There may even be some policy letters that refer to this thing or else my imagination running wild.

Now if I could only find a picture of the Addresso machine. That's good for a few yuks too.

 

[Dulloldfart]

Now if I could only find a picture of the Addresso machine. That's good for a few yuks too.

The stuff at Saint Hill was made by Bradma and Addressograph-Multigraph, if that helps.

Paul

 

[Zinjifar]

The stuff at Saint Hill was made by Bradma and Addressograph-Multigraph, if that helps.

Paul

Zinj

 

[chipgallo]

Just speaking to organizations keeping old gear -- when I got to David Taylor Research Center (aka the Model Basin) in 1989, they still had punch card machines from the Grace Hopper era.

Another place I worked in the early 1990's had Selectrics and a Dictograph machine, "just in case."

People kept old IBM Displaywriters (dedicated word processors with 8" floppies) for years or until all the documents were moved to more modern equipment.

And of course, Scientology used Addressographs and Telex machines well into the 1980's. Adopting new technology has a learning curve and can even be painful to people who are well versed in earlier technology. Scientology also has policy that mires them in the past.

 

[nozeno]

The stuff at Saint Hill was made by Bradma and Addressograph-Multigraph, if that helps.

Paul

Thanks. This is a close as I could get. I think Escalus said at one time he spent a lot of time around this machine.

 

[Dulloldfart]

Zinj

Yes, that is similar to the one we had at Saint Hill. The magazine at the left would accept a metal tray with 100 metal plates in it (weighed about 25 lb. a tray), and the plates would travel left to right while the envelopes went front to back and where they met was a wide inked ribbon and a heavy stamper (wrong word--it was a pad about the size of the plate, maybe 4" by 2", that would smack the plate up against the inked ribbon and leave an impression of the name and address on the envelope, same principle as a typewriter [remember those?!]). It worked reasonably well, and if it didn't jam it would whack out maybe 50 impressions a minute. The plates went into another metal drawer, and the envelopes into a box, or whatever you put to catch them.

Paul

 

[Dulloldfart]

Thanks. This is a close as I could get. I think Escalus said at one time he spent a lot of time around this machine.

I couldn't find a good photo online of the one at Saint Hill. It was mainly a big heavy horizontal wheel in a housing. The characters were marked on the wheel, rather like a huge Dymo gun. You lined up the next character you wanted to stamp and pressed your foot on the foot-pedal. A honking great weight smacked down, and pressed the die for that letter into the metal plate. It was very noisy, and kinda violent. You wouldn't want to get your finger in the way. You'd then spin the wheel to the next letter, press--THWANG!!!--onto the next letter, and so on. There was no keyboard. I probably spent a total of ten hours using the thing over the years, mainly when I was a letter reg and someone needed off the mailing list and I personally nuked their address plates(s) as I knew it wouldn't happen otherwise.

Paul

 

[Escalus]

It was in the basement with us, but Guy Castle ran the addresso. He was a real good guy but not quite right sometimes. i remember once some dude from down in CF was walking around making these deep, huge belches, and Guy got up from behind his addresso, pushed him up against the door and said "this is a professional organization."

yeah well..... whatever.

 

[Bikerchick]

I'm really enjoying reading all these posts. Bringing back alot of memories. There was a girl in CF who used to belch alot, maybe it was her that Guy got upset with.

Anyone remember the mimeograph machine, which was located in the attic at 2125, it was a dinosaur machine too. Alot of us used to go up there to yell at ashtrays and you could climb out the back window and sit on the roof which was really nice to do. What a fire hazzard that attic full of lrh pol files was!

There was a pizza place on the corner down from People Pickle that had video games. Astroids!! I spent a lot of quarters on that machine. Kramer Books and Afterwards?

 

[GoButtonIsBlowButton]

Addresso, the beginning of the end...

I actually was able to get FP to OK folding and mailing the crap we sent out by going to a local mailing house and having them do the printing thru mailing and pricing it on a per piece basis for the printing only. We had less Wednesday all-nighters that way. That suppressive act came up in my comm-ev.

The fucking orgs were in the Ron-Age because they had to memorize policy and stifle initiative. It's Stalin, I keep tellin' ya!

And Chip, you work in the Washington area, where old computers are in use reguarly by the government and its contractors. Take a look at your $600 tax check. STILL written on a line printer, with no spellout of the number, so it's STILL easy to counterfeit or alter (despite 3 60 Minutes expose's!). Bureaucracies, like the orgs, are glacial to change when there's no incentive to.

p.s. Saw poor Guy Castle out on M Street many years ago -- a piss-smelling, babbling homeless person, probably dead or incarcerated now. He and Adriana were from a hugely rich family......... go figger.

 

[nozeno]

I actually was able to get FP to OK folding and mailing the crap we sent out by going to a local mailing house and having them do the printing thru mailing and pricing it on a per piece basis for the printing only. We had less Wednesday all-nighters that way. That suppressive act came up in my comm-ev.

The fucking orgs were in the Ron-Age because they had to memorize policy and stifle initiative. It's Stalin, I keep tellin' ya!

And Chip, you work in the Washington area, where old computers are in use reguarly by the government and its contractors. Take a look at your $600 tax check. STILL written on a line printer, with no spellout of the number, so it's STILL easy to counterfeit or alter (despite 3 60 Minutes expose's!). Bureaucracies, like the orgs, are glacial to change when there's no incentive to.

p.s. Saw poor Guy Castle out on M Street many years ago -- a piss-smelling, babbling homeless person, probably dead or incarcerated now. He and Adriana were from a hugely rich family......... go figger.

Serves ya right you SP. How dare you? I can't believe you would actually do something to eliminate all hands.

Guy Castle was at times a very gentle soul and as described by you and Escalus a little whacked.

Adriana, now that's another story. I know what you're thinking G and NO, I didn't.

 

[uncle sam]

Hey Gobutton

I request that you tell us about your comm ev-that's got to be one funny story......We are listening

 

[The Anabaptist Jacques]

I'm really enjoying reading all these posts. Bringing back alot of memories. There was a girl in CF who used to belch alot, maybe it was her that Guy got upset with.

Anyone remember the mimeograph machine, which was located in the attic at 2125, it was a dinosaur machine too. Alot of us used to go up there to yell at ashtrays and you could climb out the back window and sit on the roof which was really nice to do. What a fire hazzard that attic full of lrh pol files was!

There was a pizza place on the corner down from People Pickle that had video games. Astroids!! I spent a lot of quarters on that machine. Kramer Books and Afterwards?

I remember that old mimeograph machine. It started out in the front room of the basement of 1812 19th street. Then HCO was switched with all of CF one night in 1973, and it ended up in the front room of the basement of 1812. Then when the org moved to 2125 S St. it ended up in the attic, right by Savikas trail. Savikas trail was the path first pioneered by Joe Savikas to get out of All-Hands. It went out that back attic window and along some roof tops to the alleyway behind the org. I can only imagine what the machines history was before 1972.

The Anabaptist Jacques

 

[nozeno]

I request that you tell us about your comm ev-that's got to be one funny story......We are listening

Unc, are you huffing again?

 

[chipgallo]

They had a stencil cutter in the attic at 2125 "S" Street too, and kept the old inked stencils hanging around for years. Bet those puppies were pretty flammable too. When the New Era Dianetics (NED) bulletins came out, FP wouldn't always allocate $$ so the Dir Comm was paying for ink out of his meager org salary!

There was also an old IBM Composer, which had a set of Selectric balls and a mechanical memory of 10K I think. What a dinosaur. Back when the org was allowed to create their own major and minor mags, somebody did it on the Composer and then pasted it up for reproduction. Better than hot lead, but not by much ...

Just in case you really want to learn more about the IBM Composer:
http://www.ibmcomposer.org/SelComposer/description.htm

 

[Div6]

I'm really enjoying reading all these posts. Bringing back alot of memories. There was a girl in CF who used to belch alot, maybe it was her that Guy got upset with.

Anyone remember the mimeograph machine, which was located in the attic at 2125, it was a dinosaur machine too. Alot of us used to go up there to yell at ashtrays and you could climb out the back window and sit on the roof which was really nice to do. What a fire hazzard that attic full of lrh pol files was!

There was a pizza place on the corner down from People Pickle that had video games. Astroids!! I spent a lot of quarters on that machine. Kramer Books and Afterwards?

Volare's was the pizza place. I went for the Galaga machine myself.