[BITList] How the Internet got its rules

[John Feltham]

G'day folks,

A story of interest just to hand.....folowed by an answer from me...in  
the next msg.


Hi John,

     An interesting read.
I'd forgotten much of this so am thankful for the reminder of 'where  
it all started' etc.

     Jan 1968 I started work 'on loan' at the Redfern Mail Exchange. I  
say 'on loan', as i had 'escaped' the clutches of our affeared  
Divisional god (Engineer), right under his most-annoyed nose. I was  
'on loan' supposedly for two years. However that eventually became  
twelve years, & 'signed over' to the inept clutches of the eventual  
Australia Post.

     Telecomm Techs were prominent in those days at the SME (Although  
often referred to as the RME it was in fact the "Sydney Mail  
Exchange"). Resplendent in white dust coats, name badges & sundry  
implements-of-torture, like screwdrivers & other teknikel stuff.

     It was these mottly assortment of life-kinds, that over a period  
of years turned a disaster into one of the most prestigious pieces of  
technological applications of it's time.

A miss-sort ratio of over 18%, together with a damage rate in the  
letter handling system approaching similar or higher figures, was  
reduced to very small fractions of one percentum.

     I mention the above as sort of 'background information'.

During 1968 to 1980 I worked on most of the stuff there, & for a time  
was a shift leader of the Service Centre. We were responsible for all  
fault clearance off-floor (ie equipment that needed to be repaired,  
that had been replaced by spare items drwan from stores), as well as  
quality control of repaired items going back into stores. 30% of which  
we didn't repair ourselves.

     The 'computer' that was the heart of the letter-handling system  
consisted of two large drums, with steel bands around the  
circumference. these bands held the data. The drums ran at fairly high  
speed & required special oil bath for suspension. A wall of racked  
equipment handled the data flow & was if you like the equivalent of  
the motherboard.

     I later joined another section, where we were responsible for all  
electronic/electrical control system design & implementation for Aust  
Post NSW. During the mid-1970's we were building our own computers,  
working purely in machine code language. The technique utilised in  
those days for fabrication was 'wire-wrap'. this is where connections  
are made by wrapping a wire tightly around a square post terminal.  
Literally hundreds of thousands of such terminations were made on  
various computerised control systems during my time there.

     You will easily recognise the fact that the Aust Post logo was  
dreampt (bud spolleng!) up by one of our illustrious technical folk.
As you look at the logo, you will observe a cup, & snail.
The snail denotes the 'other' life-forms found at the SME; the  
'mailees'.
The cup of course is representative of the 'smoko'. Always timed to  
coincide with the crouds of visitors on tour through the place. Not  
for them, but so we could sit/lie & laze about, watching them as they  
tried to not notice our obvious 'not-doing-anything-useful-at-all'  
state.

     I recently obtained a DVD copy from Sound & Film Archives on the  
SME. Brings back memories of a different time. It's all gone now. to  
the tip. Millions of dollars of technology the rest of the world came  
to see. Malcolm Fraser once quoted "Life wasn't meant to be easy".
I used to break that down in stages, as the SME was dispersed into  
suburbia; hurriedly disbanded into rented quickly-modified factories  
etc.

"Life wasn't meant to be"
"Life wasn't meant, too"
"Life wasn't meant..."
"Life...?.."

     What had once been a place the rest of the world came to see was  
destroyed by the stroke of a pen. They went back 30 years, to manual  
sorting. The only 'modern' technology retained was the Toshiba Mail  
Sorting equipment (This equipment found the stamp & faced up the  
letters, at a rate of up to 26,000 per hour), & some very basic  
storage conveyors.
I was responsible for the relocation & recommissioning of these  
machines, in their new suburban dwellings around Sydney.

Eventually new equipment was introduced (French I think), to do a  
postcode-recognition & sort.


Kind regards,

Noel



ooroo

Bad typists of the word, untie.




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