John
What a waste of national history, it should be a museum! Surely it could have been saved. What a fantastic place it would have been to visit.
Tom
Lots of these types used to be stuck behind meal compartments just on receive all day, baudot code tape spewing all over floors, guys with tons of tapes drgged along floor to other teleprinter bays. And all able to read by fingers over holes of tape..Who needs the internet.
Tom
Terry, we had mix of teleprinters, from ones you mentioned right up to the ultra modern wow....BT telex machine in pristine grey stuck outside Comms wo room right next to staff post boxes. Methinks, I hear the clatter of a fellow sigi...
Tom
Blimey old 85r's and memory going but 17's? teleprinters, banks and banks of em in comcen until computerised and vdu screens appeared in 80.
Sam B
Mark, I'm not sure per say about Russia (although in some fashion I'm sure they had something similar to this) but America did/does have places like this. However, they are strictly meant for the military. I've never been to one, but my mother (military brat) as well as my grandfather and grandmother (air force/army nurse) have been. They were never (that any given majority of people know about at least) built to such a size as this since they were strictly military, but according to her, they are still used in a fashion today.
dj churchill
many other sites as this remain.boscombe down porton camp have many under ground sites
ena witchard
I workedthere as the war ended I was 14 and delivered mail around the offices
Morgan
This is awful. I can't believe this place has been allowed to fall into such dreadful disrepair, all the rust etc. When I think of the useless waste of taxpayers' money on nonsense ephemera ... this place is so important to human history, it should be preserved for posterity. I'd quite literally give a limb for the chance to see the place first hand.
Terry
Actually those printers were used by the RAF up until around 1979 they are called 38brp's the small box to the left of the printer was used to transmitt tapes. I Know, I used them and i was stationed there.....
leslie
there is not room for all of us in there is there?
DOH!
William - In case you missed the last 30 years we didn't have a nuclear war - so THATS why they didn't use it!!!
Gonzo (Jules)
"6 bytes (not kilobytes) a second"
I expect those few bytes were very important though!
It all dates from an era where we were a lot more econimical in our use of bandwidth.
Mark
I cant beilive what am seeing. Its amazing a secret underground city in case of nuclear war. Surley america and russia should also have stuff like this. Makes you think what the government is hiding from us doesnt it?
peter chadwick
Those teleprinters are so old that a few are worth preserving for museums, but that's about all they're good for. They make the slowest computer downloads look fast, running as they do at about 6 bytes (not kilobytes) a second.
william howie
what a waste . why did they never use any of this stuff ? . now that we have the new threats would it not make sense to revive it ? .
what does other people think ? .
David
A classic example of government spending money on equipment that was never used - only I'm really glad that all this was never used.
